Hypercoagulation

Hypercoagulation, or thrombophilia, may be defined as reduced capillary blood flow or a greater tendency than normal for blood to coagulate, or clot. Of approximately 900 borreliosis patients that I tested, 90 percent had hypercoagulation. Comparatively, only five percent of the general healthy population has hypercoagulation, due to infections.

Two major aspects of hypercoagulation are infections and hereditary or genetic abnormalities. Chronic infections such as borreliosis, Epstein-Barr virus, cytomegalovirus, human herpes virus 6 and mycoplasma have all been associated with hypercoagulation. These infections appear to be the driving force behind the greater tendency to form blood clots. Infections may elevate levels of fibrinogen, fibrin, thrombin/antithrombin complexes, fragment 1+2, and Factor II (prothrombin) activity which may decrease capillary blood flow.

When you get a cut, the fibrinogen in your blood converts into fibrin, which in turn forms a mesh to create a blood clot to help stop the bleeding. Antithrombin binds to thrombin to form a complex to prevent thrombin from causing blood to clot. Antithrombin protects against too much clotting, when it binds thrombin.

When thrombin is forming a clot it produces fragment 1+2. Prothrombin (Factor II) converts into thrombin, which causes blood to clot. When these coagulation components are high, it indicates that the blood has a greater tendency to clot and may inhibit blood circulation in capillaries.

Inherited or genetic disorders may also predispose to blood clotting. Some of these hereditary defects include antithrombin activity deficiency, protein C activity deficiency, protein S activity deficiency, Factor II gene mutation, APC resistance (Activated Protein C resistance is also called Factor V Leiden deficiency), elevated lipoprotein(a) or Lp(a), elevated PAI-1 (Plasminogen Activator Inhibiter-1), and elevated homocysteine. Hereditary hypercoagulation test panels are abnormal in 66 percent of borreliosis patients, as opposed to about 30 percent of the general healthy population.

Treatment for hypercoagulation caused by infections is heparin, which is a blood thinner. Typically, heparin is given subcutaneously (under the skin) by injection twice a day in low doses for not more than nine months. It can also be compounded into a troche that dissolves in the mouth, but that is usually more expensive and is often less effective than injections.

Symptoms that improve with heparin are pain, fatigue, cognitive problems and neurological problems. About 80 percent of borreliosis patients feel better with heparin, and it has been a safe treatment so far. One patient did develop bleeding from the rectum, but then a colonoscopy revealed a colon cancer that had not yet spread to the local lymph nodes. In other words, the heparin unmasked a hidden malignancy, so in this case the side effect was a blessing.

Heparin is not only a blood thinner, it is also anti-inflammatory, antiviral, antibacterial, and may even be anti-cancer (unproven). Therapy with heparin usually lowers the level of the coagulation components fibrinogen, fibrin, thrombin/antithrombin complexes, fragment 1+2 and Factor II activity. This is desirable, because elevated levels of these coagulation components can cause decreased capillary blood flow, if they are high enough. Capillaries are microscopic blood vessels that are about eight microns wide. A normal red blood cell, which travels through the capillaries, is about seven microns wide. When elevation of coagulation components occur, they could conceivably attach to the inside surface (endothelial surface) of capillaries, thereby narrowing them. For example, fibrinogen attached to the inside surface could make it harder for a seven-micron-wide red blood cell to squeeze through the narrowed capillary. Reduced blood flow in capillaries would in turn reduce oxygen and nutrients, and reduce removal of toxins from tissues. It stands to reason that if heparin could improve blood flow, antibiotics and hormones would be more effective because they could pass through capillaries easier.

Life is in the blood. Less blood flow means less “life,” and possibly more symptoms and diseases -- perhaps even death.

Hypercoagulation is associated with other chronic diseases, not just borreliosis. It is my opinion that how hypercoagulation is treated will become a paradigm shift in medicine, once further research has been accomplished.