SEATTLE \u2014 Blood clots in the veins are common and can often be treated, a UW Medicine doctor said, urging people to know the warning signs and talk with a health care provider if they have concerns.<\/p>\n
Dr. Kathleen Gibson, a vascular surgeon with UW Medical Center, said \u201cvenous blood clots are very common.\u201d She said doctors find blood clots in patients regularly and that \u201cabout 8% of the population will have them sometime during their life.\u201d<\/p>\n
Gibson said the risk increases with age. \u201cEvery decade that we age, blood clots become more common,\u201d she said. \u201cThey can happen with long plane flights. They can really happen after injury or after someone gets sick or immobilized.\u201d<\/p>\n
Blood clots often occur in the legs, and Gibson said a \u201cpainful, swollen leg is not normal.\u201d<\/p>\n
Gibson emphasized that treatment is available for many patients. \u201cThis is treatable. With most patients they don\u2019t need surgery or anything to correct this. They can go on a medication like blood thinner for a period of time,\u201d she said.<\/p>\n
She also referenced Philadelphia Eagles quarterback Jalen Hurts, saying, \u201cIn the case of Jalen Hurts, his doctors say they expect a full recovery. And that’s what we see with most patients. Most patients do very well if it’s caught early. So that’s the good news.\u201d She added, \u201cGo Hawks.\u201d<\/p>\n
While blood clots can be life-threatening, Gibson said outcomes are often good when the condition is caught early. She encouraged people to talk to their health care provider if they have a family history of blood clots or if they develop pain and swelling in their legs.<\/p>\n
To reduce the risk of a blood clot, doctors suggest doing calf raises after sitting for a while, getting regular exercise and maintaining a healthy weight.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"SEATTLE \u2014 Blood clots in the veins are common and can often be treated, a UW Medicine doctor…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":888701,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[59],"tags":[97,252,253],"class_list":["post-888700","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-health-care","tag-health","tag-health-care","tag-healthcare"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/888700","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=888700"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/888700\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/888701"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=888700"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=888700"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=888700"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}