7 Signs You Could Have A Blood Clot

For something so small and so natural, blood clots can cause a lot of problems. Our bodies create blood clots all the time, closing wounds and helping to repair damage. It's when the natural process starts going haywire it causes problems.

 

What Blood Clots Do In Your Body

The primary reason your blood clots is to stop bleeding. The body has several natural mechanisms that cause blood clotting, supported by many vitamins and minerals.

Repeated damage in a particular area, high cholesterol, and several other factors can cause blood clots. Most recently, the vaccines seem to be increasing the risk of some rare blood clotting disorders.

Why This Is Life-Threatening

The blood clots themselves are not the problem, the body does have natural mechanisms to break down the clots. The problem comes when the blood clots managed to get stuck in some blood vessels. Then, they can cause a serious problem.

The best way to keep your risk of blood clots lower is to eat many fruits and vegetables, exercise regularly, and get proper amounts of sleep. This helps give you the antioxidants and nutrients that keep your body healthy. Exercise helps keep your blood flowing and healthy. And sleep is healing and rejuvenating overall.

Any One Sign Is Something To Pay Attention To

Generally, sudden severe pain is one of the first signs of a blood clot. Where it occurs can help determine what kind of blood clot is. Anytime there's sudden severe pain, you should consult a doctor or get to the emergency room.

The 7 Signs of A Blood Clot

1. Severe Headache

Everyone gets headaches, but they generally come on slowly. In the case of a blood clot causing a stroke, the headache may strike you very quickly, setting in a matter of minutes rather than hours. The severity can range from cluster headaches to piercing pain to even headaches that resemble tension headaches at a stronger level.

2. Changes In Mood, Vision, or Hearing

In other areas of your brain, a blood clot may cause problems with your vision, sense of smell, hearing, coordination, or balance. In some cases, it can disrupt your ability to speak, think clearly, or recall information. Generally, these symptoms come on quickly, resembling a stroke.

3. Deep, Abdominal Pain

Most of our blood vessels are in our chest and abdomen. Therefore, if you start experiencing sudden, deep pain in your abdomen, that should be checked out. Deep pain in your gut can signal several health conditions, but a blood clot can cause severe damage quickly if not resolved.

And unlike in the brain, a blood clot may exist in your abdomen without severe pain. Lingering aches or unresolved discomfort should be checked out if it lasts more than five days.

4. Leg Swelling

If your legs swell up, that means the fluid in your legs cannot get back to your central core to be eliminated. This fluid could be water or blood. Normally, water build-up, or edema, will come and go with rest and relaxation. But, a blood clot causing a build-up of blood in your legs could cause swelling without pain, and this pain does not go away. So, if you feel sharp pains in your legs and you experience swelling, that's something that should be checked out. That clot in your legs could break off and travel to your lungs or heart.

5. Difficulty Breathing

This one's hard to recognize because many things trigger difficulty breathing. People who experience blood clots in their lungs describe a whole other level of breathlessness. Some have said that it feels like there's a weight in their lungs and others like something has stabbed them. Most agree that there is pain accompanying the blood clot. If you are experiencing shortness of breath without relief, visiting a doctor should happen quickly.

6. Red Pinpoints Across Your Skin

Petechiae are small red, brown, or purple marks that appear on your skin and may look like a rash. Generally, they don't hurt, but don't lose color when touched, either. They're often caused by bleeding, and a blood clot can block tiny capillaries that eventually burst and causes these dots. If you start seeing them on your skin, it's a good sign they are happening throughout the rest of your body and it is a medical condition that needs to be addressed.

7. New Unexplained Bruising

We all bruise, especially when we knock against a hard object. But, we know what happened. However, if you start seeing bruising in unusual places or the bruise seems unnaturally deep, that could be a sign of small, localized blood clots. This may not be yet a medical emergency, but it should be checked out, as it could lead to larger blood clots that cause more severe problems.