17 Home Remedies for Deep Vein Thrombosis

Deep vein thrombosis can be a life-threatening condition. Deep vein thrombosis is when a clot forms in a vein, often in your leg, and if left untreated could break free and block major arteries in your lung or heart; potentially leading to death. Often once on is discovered anti-clotting medications known as anticoagulants are prescribed to keep them from growing larger with the hopes of eliminating not only existing clots but to help protect from new ones occurring.

If your doctor prescribes a medication, take it. No excuses will do; set a reminder alarm on your phone to keep you on schedule with your medication. Anticoagulants can cause additional bleeding if you miss a dose call your doctor. Often you will be on a testing schedule to test the clotting factors in your blood.

 

Home Remedies for Deep Vein Thrombosis

There are some things you can do as a preventative and as treatment measures to help you against these potentially fatal clots.

 

1. Stay Safe

While taking your medication to avoid injuries. Do not participate in contact sports, use a cane if necessary, and avoid slippery surfaces such as ice or a wet floor; falls could lead to internal bleeding and at minimum severe bruising.

2. Elevate your Legs

To ease the pain in your legs, (if that is where the clot is), sit with your feet elevated. This will ease the pain slightly. Whenever you can sit with your legs elevated.

 

3. Compression Stockings

Wear compression stockings. Specifically, graduated compression stockings that are tight at the feet and ankles and become looser as they go up your calf to your knee. These will create pressure, (not too much), but enough to keep blood from sitting still and clotting.

 

4. Take Walks

Walk frequently. This can mean up to six times a day. This will increase your circulation as a preventative to blood pooling and clotting. Don’t overdo it, a ten to fifteen-minute walk six times a day works better than one-hour long walk. Also, long walks may lead to fatigue and may lower your ability and desire to continue to walk; walking is important!

5. Quit Smoking

If you smoke stop immediately with the aid of your physician or other methods. Quitting smoking not only helps with easing the symptoms of deep vein thrombosis; it also helps in the treatment of various other ailments.

 

6. Increase Activity

Increase you “in house” activity. Many of us are guilty of asking another person in the house to grab something from the refrigerator or to have the hand you the remote. Get up and do it yourself. Activity even in small doses helps keep the blood moving.

7. Don’t Sit for Too Long

When traveling by bus or plane do your best to get up and move. A couple of trips to the bathroom whether you’re using it or not will help eliminate long periods of sitting that tend to occur on long tourist drive bus trips or on longer flights. If you have a layover in an airport walk to the various shops to keep moving.

 

8. Lower Blood Pressure

Work on lowering your blood pressure. Avoid salty meals and high sugar content products. Saying no to those will help with number For more tips on how to lower high blood pressure, read the article 40 Home Remedies for High Blood Pressure.

9. Lose Weight

There’s a large percentage of people in this world that could afford to lose some weight. If you’re following a low salt-low sugar diet and walking the recommended six times a day weight should start to come off. A sedentary lifestyle could be the death of you.

 

10. Stay Hydrated

Drink lots of fluids. Water is the preferred fluid to drink to keep you hydrated. You’ll want to drink more as your walking routine increases. Drinking water is the most important thing to do. Avoid caffeinated and sugary drinks, as they are likely to do more harm than good. Green tea is another great drink to try to stay hydrated.

 

11. Vitamin E

Foods rich in vitamin E, a natural blood thinner, may help, (along with exercise) prevent clots from forming. Some foods that are naturally rich in vitamin E include almonds, sunflower seeds, wheat, peanuts, and avocado. Add more of these foods to your diet to see results.

12. Cayenne Pepper

This may help in a roundabout way by helping keep your blood pressure lower. This pepper can be used in many dishes in small doses or to spice up your eggs for breakfast.

 

13. Birth Control Tips

We’ve mentioned that if you smoke you should quit. This is much more necessary if you are a woman and on birth control. The combination of smoking and birth control is a combination that could lead to deep vein thrombosis. Quit now, use none chemical birth control such as condoms if you aren’t willing or able to quit smoking.

14. Wear Loose Clothing

Avoid tight-fitting pants. Skip the skinny jeans, they don’t have enough flexibility and can constrict well beyond a safe period. Avoid wearing any other clothes that make your legs feel uncomfortable. The looser and lighter material the clothes are made out of, the better.

 

15. Desk Exercisers

If desk bound during the day consider an under-desk exerciser, often a simple pedaling device or get up and walk around at least once per hour.

 

16. Swimming

If walking isn’t your thing daily swimming can produce similar results. Keeping your blood moving is the key. This is a great way to get moving that should not put too much pressure on your joints or legs.

 

17. Don’t Be Sedentary

Lastly, just move. Don’t sit too long regardless of the situation. Find a partner to walk with or create a playlist, a sedentary lifestyle is not an option to avoid or keep your deep vein thrombosis at bay.

Which of these home remedies will you try? Comment below!

 

References

http://www.unlockfood.ca/en/Articles/Vitamins-and-Minerals/What-you-need-to-know-about-Vitamin-E.aspx

https://www.webmd.com/dvt/default.htm

Cover picture by James Heilman, MD – Own work, CC BY-SA 3.0, https://commons.wikimedia.org/w/index.php?curid=9444797