- Blood Clots in the Legs - Smoking Facts on Arterial and Venous Thrombosis
Blood clots in your legs can occur in either the arteries or the veins.
The smoking facts reveal that arterial thrombosis is one of the real dangers of smoking because it
interferes with the supply of oxygen to body tissues.
Blood clot formation in the veins of your legs is also dangerous since
a blood clot that dislodges and travels to the lungs can be fatal. This is called a pulmonary emboli.
Thrombosis is the technical term meaning blood clot formation.
Venous thrombosis refers to the spontaneous formation of a blood clot inside a vein.
It is sometimes called deep vein thrombosis as it occurs most commonly in the larger deeper veins of the legs.
Smoking Facts About the Triggers for Blood Clot Formation
As long as blood is flowing smoothly in your blood vessels under normal circumstances it will not clot.
There has to be a trigger for blood clot formation to start.
There are both chemical and mechanical triggers that promote this adaptive
response, but there are two triggers of specific interest when considering the smoking facts about the
cause of blood clots in your legs.
changes in normal blood flow - this might include unusual turbulence from changes in the lining of the blood vessel
such as might occur from injury or
atherosclerosis disease. Or it could also result from partial or complete
blockage of blood flow because of compression or kinking of the blood vessel.
increased tendency for blood clot formation
(also called hypercoaguability) - this
can be the result of genetic factors, disease processes, medication or in this case the effect of cigarette smoking. Smoking has been shown to exacerbate
any underlying conditions that might increase the tendency of the blood to coagulate or form blood clots.
Smoking Facts Arterial Blood Clots in Your Legs
One of the real dangers of smoking is that it contributes to the development of
atherosclerosis disease.
This disease process
creates turbulence in blood flow predisposing to blood clot formation. Blood clots are also released when
plaques on the artery walls rupture.
Smoking is one of the main risk factors for arterial thrombosis. When a blood clot formed in an artery gets
loose and becomes an embolus (which is just a blood clot
floating loose in the circulatory system), it will travel through blood vessels that become narrower and
narrower until it eventually lodges and completely obstructs the arterial circulation
past that point.
Any tissue beyond that will be deprived of life giving oxygen.
Blood in the veins is returning to the heart. It has to go "uphill" to get there and in order to keep the
blood moving in that direction, veins have valves. The action of the
muscles in the legs pump the blood toward the heart and the valves prevent it from going downhill again.
If something goes wrong with this system and the blood does not keep flowing smoothly the resulting
turbulent blood flow creates increased pressure in the system creating the conditions that predispose to
blood clot formation.
Blood clots often form where the large veins are branching because blood flow is always more
turbulent at these junction points.
Immobility is considered the main risk factor for venous thrombosis especially deep vein thrombosis.
Epidemiologists do not list smoking among the risk factors for deep vein thrombosis.
Smoking has been shown however, to increase the coagulability of the blood and exacerbate other
underlying conditions that causes blood to clot abnormally.
The risk of blood clots in the legs from immobility is so great that standard postoperative
procedures for many types of surgeries now call for strategies specifically designed to
reduce the blood clotting tendencies in the post operative period
when patients are immobilized and inactive.
When a blood clot in a vein gets loose and enters the circulation it travels through
larger and larger blood vessels as it returns
to the heart with the venous blood. Once in the heart it is pumped into the lungs
where it now flows through blood vessels that get smaller and smaller.
Eventually it will become stuck and cut off blood supply in the lungs.
If you smoke, your blood already has clotting tendencies. If you have any other risk factors for
deep vein thrombosis such as immobility or birth control pills, or genetic factors, then you amplify
your risk to develop blood clots in your legs.
A blood clot that originates in a vein can travel a great distance before it gets stuck.
An arterial blood clot on the other hand doesn't usually go very far before it becomes stuck.
The smoking facts reveal that the dangers of cigarette smoking include an increased tendency to form blood clots in the arteries.
Arterial thrombosis can cut off the oxygen supply to the feet resulting in tissue death, necrosis and gangrene. Amputation is the
only treatment of choice is such cases.
In the case of venous thrombosis, the blood clot formation in the legs can produce emboli that break loose and travel in the circulation
to the lungs.
Blood clots in the lungs have a fatality rate as high as 30%.
The purpose of the information provided here is to help you cooperate with your doctor and other
health practitioners. It is not intended to take the place of medical advice and you are encouraged to
discuss health concerns with your physician or a professional health care provider who is
familiar with you and your unique personal health context.
