How Does Blood Clot?
Blood travels throughout your body in blood vessels called arteries, veins and capillaries. You can see veins if you look at the back of your hand. They appear bluish in color. Your heart pumps blood through these blood vessels to all the cells of your body. Blood brings food and oxygen to your cells, and removes wastes. When blood vessels are cut or torn, you bleed. You can bleed externally (outside your skin) or intemally (inside your body). When you break a blood vessel in your skin, a bruise may be created as escaped blood leaks toward the surface of your skin. If you looked under a microscope, you would see that blood is actually made up of several parts: plasma, a watery, yellowish fluid; red blood cells, the cells that carry food and oxygen to nourish all cells of the body; white blood cells, the cells that attack viruses and germs in the bloodstream; and platelets, round, sticky cells that help in blood clotting. When a blood vessel is torn…
When you cut yourself, blood flows out of the wound. That blood contains, in addition to red blood cells and white blood cells, tiny structures called platelets. These platelets pile up around the wound, then combine with other substances in the blood plasma (liquid) and chemicals in the damaged tissue to form long sticky thread
There are two major facets of the clotting mechanism – the platelets, and the thrombin system. The platelets are tiny cellular elements, made in the bone marrow, that travel in the bloodstream waiting for a bleeding problem to develop. When bleeding occurs, chemical reactions change the surface of the platelet to make it “sticky.” Sticky platelets are said to have become “activated.” These activated platelets begin adhering to the wall of the blood vessel at the site of bleeding, and within a few minutes they form what is called a “white clot.” (A clump of platelets appears white to the naked eye.) The thrombin system consists of several blood proteins that, when bleeding occurs, become activated. The activated clotting proteins engage in a cascade of chemical reactions that finally produce a substance called fibrin. Fibrin can be thought of as a long, sticky string. Fibrin strands stick to the exposed vessel wall, clumping together and forming a web-like complex of strands. Red blood
” + ” Usually, every time you have a cut or bruise, your blood clots to stop the bleeding. Otherwise, you could bleed to death, even with a small cut. Clotting is a complex process, and there are four main things that make it possible: * Platelets * Clotting factors, which are mostly special proteins * Fibrin, which is a protein mesh, and finally * Other cells, like red and white blood cells. Because clot formation is SO important, platelets and clotting factors are always available, floating around in your blood. Many clotting factors are made in your liver with the help of vitamin K. Vitamin K is naturally found in foods such as leafy green vegetables and certain vegetable oils. This is important to remember later, when we talk about how Coumadin works, and why you have to be careful about your diet after you start taking it. Now, let’s talk about the four steps involved with forming a blood clot: When there is a tear in a blood vessel, the first thing that happens is that the nearby
