There’s no reason to panic about clots, but it’s important to understand the risk.
A normal/negative COVID test result does not completely exclude the potential of clots. Regardless of whether the diagnosis is confirmed or not, if there is a symptom, the most important step is to prevent it.
Move around as much as you can. If you’re resting in bed, try to stretch your legs to keep blood circulating. Don’t start any blood-thinning medications without consulting your doctor first.
Avoid taking any COVID-19 vaccine as much as possible. Once vaccinated, the spike protein is highly thrombogenic, directly activating the clotting cascade. So, the first strategy of preventing the formation of clots is to detox spike protein.
What to Test For
Activation of the clotting cascade leads to both large clots (causing strokes and pulmonary emboli) as well as microclots (causing microinfarcts in many organs, but most notably the brain).All long-COVD symptoms may indicate the potential existence of microclots in the body, including but not limited to brain fog, memory loss, sleep disorders, anxiety or depression, chest pain, breathlessness, tachycardia, fatigue, post-exertional malaise, etc.
In the legs, swelling is the most common sign of a blood clot. If you have significant swelling in one leg, call your doctor right away.
Some patients have symptoms called “COVID toes”—red, swollen toes that might be due to small clots in the blood vessels of the feet.
- Complete blood count with differential and platelet count
- D-Dimer—as a marker of clotting activation. A markedly elevated D-dimer indicates the abnormal clots and the fibrosis is activated.
- CRP: a simple, cheap, and sensitive marker of ongoing inflammation
- Fibrinogen
- Factor VIII
- von Willebrand factor (vWF)
Critical Considerations for Antithrombotic Therapy
In general, there are two classes of antithrombotic drugs: anticoagulants and antiplatelet drugs. Anticoagulants act on the clotting cascade and keep it from completion while antiplatelet medicines inhibit the platelets from activating and attaching to each other and the endothelium.Dr. Jordan Vaughn, internal medicine specialist, says it’s key to start antithrombotic treatment in affected patients as early as possible.
“In the acutely ill from COVID-19, it was the sickest that I put on anticoagulation to prevent them from hospitalization. Starting them on DOAC and antiplatelet therapy was the foundation of keeping the hypoxic COVID-19 patient requiring hospitalization,” Dr. Vaughn said.
“After reading and understanding the COVID-19 associated coagulopathy, it was critical to understand this pathophysiology and manage this unique disease state because all of them are hypercoagulable. In acute severe COVID, I would treat patients with antithrombotic therapy and have them come back every few days to see if their symptoms improve.”
“In those that I would start anticoagulation, I started to notice that not only did they get better, but very few of them came back with long-term complications. So it seemed to me that, theoretically, it was like whatever we’re doing differently and treating these patients that are typically sicker was actually improving their symptoms in acute phase and also for the most part prevented the post-acute sequela that often came later in patients that were never acutely severe.”
Dr. Vaughn said he selects some coagulation lab tests to see if his patients were elevated in those factors at all.
“It was after the success of antiplatelet and anticoagulation in the acute treatment of COVID that I started to wonder about utilizing it in post acute sequelae COVID (PASC), and was led by diligent research to the work of Jaco Laubscher, Resia Pretorious, and Doug Kell.”
“It was as if a light bulb went off when I read their work. It profoundly changed how I look at both acute covid, but most importantly long COVID/PASC and their work was instrumental to truly helping suffering patients.”
Whether the cause of blood clots is the virus or vaccine, the symptoms do not differ much because the foundational cause is the spike protein.
Thus, when treating syndromes involving microclotting and local tissue hypoxia, regardless of the source of spike protein, the mess to clean up is the same.
It is a dual antiplatelet therapy (DAPT) (Ciopidogrel 75 mg and Aspirin 75 mg) once a day and direct oral anticoagulant (DOAC) (Apixiban 5 mg twice a day). In addition, it is important to include stomach protection with a medicine like a h2 blocker or a proton pump inhibitor.
At this point, the length of treatment is unknown and usually relies on a careful history of the patient’s interactions with the spike protein, time since last exposure, history of underlying autoimmune dysfunction, and overall functional symptomatology.
Reducing Fibrin Formation
Anticoagulants slow down clotting, thereby reducing fibrin formation and preventing clots from forming and growing. Antiplatelet agents prevent platelets from clumping, and also prevent clots from forming and growing.Apixaban is in a class of anticoagulants. It is a factor Xa inhibitor. It works by blocking the action of a certain natural substance that helps blood clots to form.
Exogenous heparin can significantly reduce coagulation caused by spike proteins, and provide fundamental support for anticoagulant therapy, especially for critically ill COVID-19 patients.
Calm Platelets Down
Platelets are hyperactivated by the S1 subunit of the Spike Protein of SARS-COV2. Platelets interact with circulating inflammatory molecules, the newly damaged endothelium, and immune cells.Platelet complexes are mediated by membrane-membrane interactions via receptor binding.
Clopidogrel is an antiplatelet medicine. It prevents platelets (a type of blood cell) from sticking together and forming a dangerous blood clot. Taking clopidogrel helps prevent blood clots if you have an increased risk of having them.
Clopidogrel (Plavix) is a blood thinner that’s used to prevent heart attacks and strokes in people who are at higher risk for those events.
Aspirin is also an antiplatelet medicine. It prevents platelets from clumping together to form a clot and acts on thromboxane A receptor within platelet.
Nutraceuticals for Thrombotic Conditions
There are a variety of dietary supplements that may have a beneficial effect for thrombotic conditions.Flavonoids
Resveratrol has antiplatelet properties. It is a naturally occurring flavonoid primarily found in grapes, red wine, and peanuts.Garlic
The compounds of adenosine, allicin, and paraffinic polysulfides appear to be responsible for the inhibitory effect of garlic on platelet aggregation.Antioxidants
Well known for its antioxidant function, vitamin E has multiple beneficial properties for clotting conditions.Drug Interactions
The impact of dietary supplements on normal hemostasis and antithrombotic therapy should be given consideration.Diet and Exercise
It is widely believed that eating fruits, vegetables, and getting physical exercise is beneficial to thrombotic status—especially in those who are at risk of thrombotic diseases.Vegetables and other processed diets were classified as “healthy” include:
Raisins, grapes, prunes, bananas, cantaloupe, watermelon, fresh apples or pears, oranges, grapefruit, strawberries, blueberries, peaches or apricots or plums, tomatoes, tomato juice, tomato sauce, broccoli, cabbage, cauliflower, Brussels sprouts, carrots, mixed vegetables, yellow or winter squash, eggplant or zucchini, yams or sweet potatoes, spinach cooked, spinach raw, kale or mustard orchard greens, iceberg or head lettuce, romaine or leaf lettuce, celery, mushrooms, beets, alfalfa sprouts, garlic, corn, nuts, peanut butter, string beans, tofu or soybeans, beans or lentils, peas or lima beans, vegetable oil used for cooking, tea, coffee, decaffeinated coffee.
Mind-Body Interventions
There are many pathological similarities between chronic syndromes like myalgic encephalomyelitis (ME) or chronic fatigue syndrome (CFS) and COVID-like symptoms.Interventions included mindfulness-based stress reduction, mindfulness-based cognitive therapy, relaxation, qigong, cognitive-behavioral stress management, acceptance and commitment therapy, and isometric yoga.
Twelve out of 382 retrieved references were included. Seven studies were randomized controlled trials (RCTs).
Perspectives for the Future
We are facing unprecedented challenges during the near post-COVID era. The virus has not disappeared from the human world, and long term sequelae and vaccine related syndromes have hit us heavily.The strategy of rushing to produce a vaccine against an emerging virus we’ve not fully come to understand, and then pushing it onto the majority of the human population is a fundamental mistake.
The spike protein has taught our human world such a big lesson.
But despite being on the cliff’s edge of disaster, there are solutions for us in nature and tradition, and plenty of these remedies that seem prepared just for humans are here to help and cure us.
It is never too late to learn, and never too late to change.
