|
|
| Author |
Message |
| 25 new of 365 responses total. |
birdy
|
|
response 240 of 365:
| 
Nov 13 22:42 UTC 2000 |
Oh, I love winter. =) It's summer that annoys me. I'm overly-sensitive to
heat but deal with cold quite well. Yooper blood, baby! ;-)
|
beeswing
|
|
response 241 of 365:
|
Nov 13 23:39 UTC 2000 |
::blink::
|
rcurl
|
|
response 242 of 365:
|
Nov 14 00:22 UTC 2000 |
Re #236: I have been talking about the flow thickness (viscosity). Vitamin
K or Protein S (and many other proteins) make no difference in that. Again,
that "thickness" that is being talked about is a medical use of the term
for clotability. I'm not disagreeing with your use of the term "thickness"
for this, since doctors use it that way, I am only disagreeing with
their ever having adopted a term like "thin" or "thick" for something that
it had never meant before, and which is very misleading (as this back and
forth indicates).
|
mdw
|
|
response 243 of 365:
|
Nov 14 01:12 UTC 2000 |
Why not use "viscosity" instead?
|
keesan
|
|
response 244 of 365:
|
Nov 14 02:35 UTC 2000 |
For cold feet, try a hot water bottle. Until your feet warm up, the blood
vessels are constricted and therefore cannot carry much heat to your feet,
so that they will not warm up fast by themselves. Once they are warmed up,
they will keep themselves warm given enough insulation. This mechanism keeps
the rest of you from freezing.
|
other
|
|
response 245 of 365:
|
Nov 14 03:23 UTC 2000 |
Wow. Again I am disabused of a long held notion about the nature of reality.
|
senna
|
|
response 246 of 365:
|
Nov 14 05:32 UTC 2000 |
As was once again evidified, I am sensitive to neither temperature extreme.
|
rcurl
|
|
response 247 of 365:
|
Nov 14 07:00 UTC 2000 |
Re #243 - because viscosity is not what they mean by "thin" and "thick"
(sigh.....)
I am also, like senna, rather insensitive to temperature changes. It takes
me a while to even begin to think it is "too hot" or "too cold". Once when
travelling through Nevada in summer I did think it was a bit hot (it was
104 F). We stopped and went swimming in the Colorado, which was at about
45 F. It was amazingly refreshing and we didn't feel the heat for hours
after that. The body is amazingly adaptable.
Incidentally, the body is adapted to having cold extremeties. The
arterial-venous system carrying blood to the hands and feet exchange heat
in what is called "counter-current exchange". That is, the warm artierial
blood flowing to the extremeties gives up heat to the returning cool
venous blood, warming it. The result is that the body core is isolated
thermally to some extent from the temperature of the extremeties. If this
system were not in place, cold extremities would cool the body core much
more quickly and thoroughly than they do.
|
mary
|
|
response 248 of 365:
|
Nov 14 13:35 UTC 2000 |
I have never heard anyone in the medical field refer to blood that was
either clotting too quickly or too slowly as being "thick or thin". Maybe
you heard this on ER? ;-)
What is said is that someone has a coagulopathy. The details of which
will be described as a specific syndrome or status, such as a clotting
factor (insert number) deficiency, or DIC, or Sickle Cell, etc. The list
is long.
|
senna
|
|
response 249 of 365:
|
Nov 14 15:52 UTC 2000 |
Part of resisting temperature changes, I suspect, is psychological. If you
don't let cold extremities bother you, they won't. Then again, I just don't
get that hot or cold. If people as me how hot or cold it is, I suggest that
I'm not the one to ask. I can't really tell.
|
janc
|
|
response 250 of 365:
|
Nov 14 16:05 UTC 2000 |
I heard it in the context of doctors perscribing what they called "blood
thinning medications" for people at risk of stroke, and doing tests of "blood
thickness" to monitor that the blood was "thin" enough to (hopefully) avoid
a stroke but "thick enough" to not risk hemorages. Maybe this isn't real
medical terminology, but it sure is the way doctors and nurses talked to our
family.
|
ashke
|
|
response 251 of 365:
|
Nov 14 16:56 UTC 2000 |
I have heard that, and when working with a Protien S deficiency roommate, his
doctors, and the Anti-coagulin Clinic that he works with. They do refer to
it, and also dictate that words into the medical charts. When they talk about
it, they are referring to the fact that the consistancy of blood is thicker
than normal, with the INR rating, therefore making it clot within itself. Most
normal situations cause blood to clot when expeosed to air or infection.
People who's blood is "thick" and are prone to clots actually have blood that
is of a thicker composition than those without. You should see them draw
blood.
|
rcurl
|
|
response 252 of 365:
|
Nov 14 18:19 UTC 2000 |
This is an interesting exchange. No one here is medically trained except
Mary, and she says the thick/thin terminology is not used medically. What
is one to think?
So I looked up the sections on coagulation in the Merck Manual (written by
doctors for doctors - not the "Home" edition). The discussion is pretty
dense, and there are numerous factors and etiologies involved, but nary a
mention of "thin" or "thick". DIC is "disseminated intravascular
coagulation" which sure sounds like it could increase blood viscosity, but
the word "viscosity" is also not mentioned. I conclude that the terms
"thin" and "thick" are essentially useless for dealing with the complex of
pathologies involved that they are not used, and viscosity as a physical
factor is essentially irrelevant also, given all the serious consequences
of DIC. Anticoagulants (heparin, coumarin, etc) are also nowhere referred
to or associated with the terms "thin" or "thick".
Turning then to lay sources, Long's _The Essential Guide to Prescription
Drugs_ finally yields the term "Blood thinner". It is given for the
category "Common Synonyms ('Street Names')" for coumarin anticoagulants.
The therapeutic effect given is reduction of ability of blood to clot. No
mention is made to "thinning".
It appears that it is not a medical term and does not describe the
effect that occurs.
|
mary
|
|
response 253 of 365:
|
Nov 14 19:25 UTC 2000 |
Thick and thin are lay terms. Doctors and nurses may use
the term when speaking with folks who have no medical background
but they sure as heck don't use it among themselves.
Most doctors don't trust patients with explanations like how
an aspirin a day will make your platelets slippery. It's
simply easier to pass along an image of watery blood as
opposed to syrupy blood. I think doctors speak down to
patients far too often.
|
xcalibur
|
|
response 254 of 365:
|
Nov 14 19:36 UTC 2000 |
Isn't the proper term for "thick blood" hypo-thrombosis or something like
that? I dunno for sure but I think I read something to that effect.
|
ashke
|
|
response 255 of 365:
|
Nov 14 19:44 UTC 2000 |
just a point, I work at the medical center, and they do talk to each other
in lay terms quite often. It all depends on the individual doctor. They also
make up terms to describe what's going on.
|
mdw
|
|
response 256 of 365:
|
Nov 15 02:08 UTC 2000 |
Maybe it's a regional thing?
|
birdy
|
|
response 257 of 365:
|
Nov 15 03:29 UTC 2000 |
And working in a medical office as a secretary and living with a sick roommate
does NOT make you a damn doctor or an expert. I think that's what Rane is
trying to say, and I agree. I would go with Mary on what terms to use.
|
beeswing
|
|
response 258 of 365:
|
Nov 15 05:36 UTC 2000 |
Uhm. My feet seem to be warming up. :)
But I'm still tired and achy, throat pain too.
|
bdh3
|
|
response 259 of 365:
|
Nov 15 06:36 UTC 2000 |
Try 'Tiger Balm'. A little on the soles of your feet and on your throat
and where ever those 'achy' are. And on your upper lip and behind both
ears. You can procure 'Tiger Balm' at any good chinese grocery. Also,
for your specific complaints I would suggest '999' in the green box
which is unfortunately only availible at a good chinese pharmacy. (Its
an herbal tea).
|
senna
|
|
response 260 of 365:
|
Nov 15 07:26 UTC 2000 |
Thick, thin. Viscous, slippery platelettes, doesn't matter to me. I work
at Meijer. :) I'm not sure what the fuss is about.
|
mary
|
|
response 261 of 365:
|
Nov 15 10:42 UTC 2000 |
I'm no expert here, just someone sharing her experience with
the terminology. Someone else might have had a different
experience. We aren't competing.
|
senna
|
|
response 262 of 365:
|
Nov 15 12:20 UTC 2000 |
Sure we are. Life is a competition to see who can prove that they're the most
"with it." He or she who dies with either the most toys or the most
can-you-top-this stories wins. I thought you knew this, Mary :)
|
birdy
|
|
response 263 of 365:
|
Nov 15 21:14 UTC 2000 |
Heh.
|
keesan
|
|
response 264 of 365:
|
Nov 16 00:56 UTC 2000 |
Someone thinks there is a long distance phone company, charging 7 cents a
minute (Qwest is down to 5 cents) that will provide free internet service to
long distance customers, and that it is called Primus. I went to a Primus
website and it was blank. Does anyone know more?
|