I have had a couple of friends attempt to donate blood recently who were turned away because the machines weren’t able to draw from them.
Tubing issues were blamed first.
Eventually, the staff told them they couldn’t donate because the flow was being blocked by clots.
In both arms.
These people are all under the age of 35, by the way. And were under the impression they had no health issues.
Is there an age over 35 where clotting is normal? Seems like blood slowing down in older and larger folks is due to buildup in the arteries not the coagulation of blood. Not a doctor. Just curious.
Depends on how much. Blood is in a constant balance of signals to clot and anti-clotting proteins that break those little clots down if they're not necessary. You repair micro tears in the blood vessels and clean the cholesterol out of the vessels with this kind of thing. But the point is there's a balance of clotting and anti-clotting signals.
In a normal, healthy person, there might be a few micro clots that hit a filter but it should mostly be clear and clot free. But, we're not all healthy and sometimes that balance is off. We may not notice it until we get a major clot, especially if we're young. Young women on birth control pills are susceptible to getting clots in their leg veins like that. Being dehydrated can also increase the risk, and I think plenty of us have either had a heavy night of drinking or maybe been out exercising in the sun too much and get behind on our water.
I don't know the individual status of these people, so I can't say whether it's "unusual" for them or not. Maybe these people have some risk factors that the OP isn't aware of or acknowledging? That's why I'm always skeptical of this kind of thing on the internet. We don't have the full picture.
Well, I'm not sure about that but if it did run slower in older people wouldn't there be more blood clots in older people? I mean over and above the "normal"?
Older folks with precovid heart conditions may already be on blood thinners which ironically could be what’s saving them and allowing them to fly under the radar somewhat. It’s the healthy under 40 and under 30 crowd having life threatening heart illnesses that are sounding alarms as it should be. Pro athletes should be the healthiest specimens around and can’t even run up and down the court without risk. Some in their teens still.
Bromelain is a natural blood thinner.