Anticoagulants or blood thinners as they are commonly known are effective in preventing blood clots in the human body. Blood clots are dangerous and can stop the flow of blood to important organs in the body such as the heart, brain or the lungs. Taken either orally or injected into the bloodstream, by people who have heart ailments, blood thinner drug treatments are helpful in averting major illnesses such as heart attacks or strokes in people.

Having said that, it is important to also remember that blood thinners are highly risky and life-threatening as medication. They cause dangerous side effects like hemorrhaging or bleeding in the brain, and could also result in death sometimes.

Besides this, the dosage of blood thinner drugs that are taken by patients must be periodically regulated. This is important because clinical trials for a variety of blood thinning drug treatments have proven that low doses of the medicine will not have the expected impact in treating blood clots, while high doses could culminate in unnecessary bleeding in the head. Newer FDA approved medicines that are blood thinners have reduced the risk of stroke and even death, but on the contrary, has increased the chances of gastrointestinal bleeding. Moreover, we must keep in mind that the effects of some blood thinner drugs are irreversible too.

It is of importance that doctors and patients take the time to discuss clearly the effectiveness and adverse reactions of the blood thinner drug treatments, and the patient’s existing health status, the surgeries they have had in the past and the medications they are on already. Which blood thinning drug treatment should be used for a patient depends on factors like their age, their weight and how good their kidney function is, in order to remove the anticoagulants from the body.