Fruits and Vegetables
Fruits and vegetables high in vitamin C and fibre help prevent blood clots. Those who eat fruits and vegetables in liberal quantities have the most effective clot-dissolving systems, according to a recent Swedish study of 260 middle-aged adults. Those who ate the least fruits and vegetables had the most sluggish clot-dissolving activity.
Other research studies indicate that vitamin C and fibre concentrated in fruits and vegetables also improve substantially clot-dissolving mechanisms and help prevent platelet clumping that leads to clots. Further, the lowest levels of clot-promoting fibrinogen are found in vegetarians. This is especially true in case of vegans who eat no animal products at all, not even eggs and milk. This is presumably due to the fact that compounds in fruits and vegetables lower fibrinogen, while animal fat and cholesterol increase it.
Garlic
Garlic is a powerful anti-coagulant food. It effectively prevents dangerous blood clotting. Even in moderate dietary amounts, it will help thin the blood, thereby reducing its tendency to form blood clots within the arteries. This was discovered by research scientist in the mid-1970s. Studies were conducted in India on Jain religious sect. While some Jains abstain completely from onions and garlic, on religious grounds, others eat them in large amounts. A third group eats a moderate amount.
The three population groups are very similar in most other respect, making it easier for a controlled study of garlic and onion. Those Jains who eat garlic and onions liberally, consumed nearly 500 grams of onions and at least 17 garlic cloves in a week. It was found that the blood of these people had less tendency to clot than the blood of the other groups, and the group that did not eat garlic and onion at all had the highest tendency to clot.
Drugs that thin blood are often prescribed after strokes, heart attacks, or blood clots in the legs or lungs. The use of Garlic can interfere and render this drug more potent and as well reduce the side effects from improper doses.
Garlic does not appear to make much difference whether it is taken raw or in cooked form for its blood-thinning effects. A group of researchers studied twenty patients who already had heart disease. The patients took garlic in either raw or fried form for four weeks. Researchers measured their blood fibrinolytic activity, which is a measure of the tendency of the blood to form clots. Within six hours after administration, fibrinolytic activity increased by 72 per cent with raw garlic and by 63 per cent with cooked. These levels remained constant up to twelve hours after administration of a single dose of garlic. The levels rose steadily throughout the next four weeks of the trial, until after twentyeight days the activity with raw garlic was 85 per cent above normal and 72 per cent above normal with cooked garlic.
Ginger
Ginger possesses a strong anti-coagulant property. Ginger possesses a strong anti-coagulant property. Blood can be kept free of dangerous clots by eating liberal quantities of this spicy food. It reduces the production of thromboxane. According to Dr. Krishna. C. Srivastava, ginger compounds are strong inhibitors of prostaglandin synthesis than the drug indomethacin, known for its potency.
Ginger is proven anti-coagulant in humans. This was discovered by Dr. Charles R. Dorso, M.D. of the Cornell University Medical College. He ate large quantity of Crabtree & Evelyn Ginger with Grapefruit Marmalade which was 15 per cent ginger. When his blood did not coagulate as usual, he did a test by mixing some ground ginger with his own blood platelets, and found them less sticky. According to Dr. Dorso the active agent in ginger is gingerol, which chemically resembles aspirin.