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Can walking dissolve a blood clot?

A recent study of patients with hardening of the arteries suggests exercise can help dissolve blood clots. This benefit helps prevent heart attack or stroke.

oklahoman.com - Exercise helps make blood thinner - The Oklahoman

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Dr. Randy Eichner

A recent study of patients with hardening of the arteries suggests exercise can help dissolve blood clots.

This benefit helps prevent heart attack or stroke.

The study involved nine patients with leg arteries clogged by cholesterol buildup. This cut blood flow to their legs. Result: Painful leg cramps on walking just a few blocks. Researchers had the nine walk 30 minutes, not counting any rest breaks. Blood was sampled for the body's natural clot-dissolving enzyme, called TPA for short. Before they walked, TPA levels were subpar. But TPA levels nearly doubled during the walk, and stayed up for an hour, thus boosting ability to dissolve clots and keep arteries open. This is only one of four ways that exercise tones the blood. Put another way, blood of inactive people is too thick and prone to clot - "sofa spud's blood." Four problems exist. Regular exercise fixes all four. Problem one: Inactive folks have thick blood, hard for the heart to pump, prone to clot. Why? Because their pool of plasma - the thin, yellow, watery part of blood - is too low. Exercise builds plasma. Just one vigorous workout expands plasma 10 percent by the next day. This thins blood in a healthy way. Exercise daily and the plasma pool stays high, giving you the fluid blood of an athlete. Problem two: Sofa spud's blood is too rich in clotting proteins like fibrinogen. This boosts the risk of blood clots. Fortunately, the high plasma pool of an exerciser dilutes fibrinogen. This lowers the risk of clots, and so heart attack or stroke. Problem three: Inactive folks have "sticky" platelets. Platelets are tiny cells in blood that initiate clots. When platelets are sticky, blood clots too readily. One thing that makes platelets sticky is a high level of triglyceride, a fat carried in blood. Exercise lowers triglyceride because muscles use it for fuel. So regular workouts keep your platelets from getting sticky. Problem four: Sofa spuds have weak clot-dissolving power because of low TPA. The solution is exercise. This was covered above, in the study of the nine patients with narrow leg arteries. Moral: Keep moving to keep your blood healthy and fluid and flowing. A rolling stone gathers no clots. Dr. Eichner is a professor of medicine at the University of Oklahoma Health Sciences Center.

Archive ID: 857051

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