OTC Blood thinners?

[Genecks]

Anyone know of some OTC blood thinners?

Perhaps a type of aspirin with the side effect of thinning blood?

 

Aspirin is a generic term. Anyone know of some brands or chemical names?

[insane_alien]

aspirin isn't a generic term. it reffers to acetylsalycylic acid. i have never seen it reffer to anything else, especily on boxes of medication.

[John Cuthber]

Just for a start you would need to define "thinning" blood.

[Mokele]

Aspirin *is* a blood thinner. That's why folks take it to prevent heart attacks - it makes the blood less viscous and allows flow through nearly-clogged arteries.

[Genecks]

Yes, it is. I haven't looked up the term in a long time.

[John Cuthber]

Aspirin *is* a blood thinner. That's why folks take it to prevent heart attacks - it makes the blood less viscous and allows flow through nearly-clogged arteries.

 

I doubt there's any direct effect on blood viscosity.

Aspirin inhibits platelet binding which is why they give it to prevent heart attacks.

 

I wonder if anyone should be following advice obtained here, rather than from their doctor.

[Genecks]

I'll accept aspirin in all its molecularityness to fit a definition of a blood thinning agent.

 

No one has asked for medical advice in this thread.

[Karnage]

The word "blood thinner' is a pretty generic term, but in the medical field we usually designate it as an "anti-coagulant" such as heparin and coumadin, which exert their mechanism of action on the coagulation cascade. These are used for in general preventing clots induced from coagulation factors, and people who take these meds are monitored weekly for their PT/INR (coumadin) and PTT (heparin) so that their blood doesn't get too thin. These patients also have a risk of having long bleeding times because of the meds and thus if let's say they have a history of GI bleed, we would not give them these because they could bleed to death.

 

Aspirin on the other hand works on inhibiting platelet aggregation and is used for preventing thrombus-induced heart attacks (most heart attacks are caused by platelets coming together to form a clot after a plaque ruptures). I guess you could consider that a blood thinner but so I like to regard it as an "anti-platelet". You may be familiar with Plavix (clopidogrel) which does the same thing but has a different mechanism of action.

 

Anyway, to answer your question to the best of my ability, there are no anti coagulants that are OTC, since they are potentially dangerous drugs. In regard to anti platelets, the only one I know is OTC is aspirin.

[John Cuthber]

I'll accept aspirin in all its molecularityness to fit a definition of a blood thinning agent.

 

No one has asked for medical advice in this thread.

 

Technincally, if I ask an undercover police officer where I can buy cannabis I may not be trying to buy it; but I don't think the jury would see it that way.

 

Incidentally, I'm afraid that Karnage is mistaken- though their input is generally very helpful.

You can buy anticoagulants over the counter.

They are commonly found labeled as rat poison.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Warfarin