Blood thinners, also called anticoagulants, are medications that help keep clots from forming in your heart or blood vessels. By slowing down the body’s ability to clot blood, they can help prevent a heart attack or stroke. Blood thinners don’t dissolve clots completely, but they do keep them from getting larger. It’s not exactly blood clots themselves that are dangerous but what happens when a clot breaks up.
Clots are a natural part of healing and help prevent too much blood loss after an injury. Platelets in the blood stick together and form a plug in damaged blood vessels, and as the body heals, the clot breaks down and the platelets are returned to the blood supply. Blood clots can also occur because of cholesterol buildup in arteries or other conditions that cause blood to flow too slowly. If a blood clot obstructs certain pathways or breaks loose suddenly and travels to other parts of the body, the effects can be life-threatening. For example, a type of stroke called ischemic stroke occurs when a blood vessel that supplies blood to the brain is blocked. When the brain can’t get needed blood and oxygen, brain cells start to die.
Obviously, blood thinners can be lifesaving, but they can also interact badly with other medications and alcohol. Uncontrolled bleeding is a danger of taking the blood thinners alone, because if you cut yourself your body isn’t going to form clots like usual to stop the blood loss. People taking these medications have to be careful about activities that could lead to bleeding injuries, and they sometimes must stop taking them before surgery. Combining them with other substances that thin the blood can prove deadly.
Alcohol is a blood thinner itself, and it can increase the effects of medications you’re taking. Both alcohol and certain medications are processed in the liver, and it’s possible for the liver to become sidetracked by breaking down alcohol, allowing the amount of blood thinner in the blood to increase and causing greater bleeding risk. Even occasional moderate drinking can cause internal bleeding.
The prescribing information for most blood thinners warns that people with liver or kidney problems should not take the medication. People with both kidney disease and liver disease are at a greater risk for internal bleeding, even without outside substances thinning the blood. Since chronic drinking is proven to cause liver disease and damage the kidneys, the risks are multiplied when adding alcohol to the mix.
Another concern has less to do with the blood than the brain – alcohol and other drugs can make you lose coordination and balance, which increases the chances of you falling or otherwise injuring yourself. Actively bleeding while both alcohol and blood thinner medications are in your body could lead to rapid blood loss.
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