What Students Need To Know About Anticoagulants.

Anticoagulants are medications that help stop your blood from thickening or “clotting.” Your body does need to be able to clot to help seal wounds inside and outside your body. But unnecessary clots can cause problems that can be life-threatening. Those that travel to the brain can cause a stroke; to the heart, cardiac arrest; and to the lungs, a pulmonary embolism. Anticoagulants are used to treat and prevent blood clots that may occur in your blood vessels. Blood clots can block blood vessels (an artery or a vein). A blocked artery stops blood and oxygen from getting to a part of your body (for example, to a part of the heart, brain or lungs). The tissue supplied by a blocked artery becomes damaged or dies, and this results in serious problems such as a stroke or heart attack. A blood clot in a large vein, such as a clot in a leg vein - a deep vein thrombosis (DVT), can lead to serious problems. For example, it can lead to a clot that travels from a leg vein to the lungs (a pulmonary embolism). Anticoagu