RA & Blood Thinning & Cramps | Arthritis Information

I'm not a bleeder or a cramper. However I cut my finger two days ago and it wouldnt stop bleeding. I ran it under the cold tap, put a plaster on it then another and another. After about 40 mins it stopped. I knocked it a little later and it started again.

I have NEVER in my life had a cramp (as in muslce spasm). I've had two this week. One really nasty one in my foot and the second, just this morning whilst in bed! Both occurred after having had a good stretch.

I drink plenty, dont use salt but raised a slight sheen on my face this afternoon whilst doing the house cleaning and it tasted salty... so I dont think I'm lacking in salt.

Do the drugs have anything to do with either of the above?

What meds are you on?

Most of us have hyper-coagulation problems, which is the opposite, so I don't know if I can help. :-(

Pip

Hi Sarah. Do you take aspirin every day, at the suggestion of your doctor? Also, anti-inflammatories can have a bloodthinning effect, as can vitamin E. Do you get the little (or big) reddish bruises on your arms (I call them "little old lady bruises"

I have also been troubled by muscle cramps for a very long time. Sometimes, my potassium is down a bit, but not always. My doc just called in a quinine type of med to help the cramping.

Hope you feel better! Hugs, Nini

I'm getting more and more calf cramps. Very painful and wake you out of a sound sleepHi, I believe the asprin does make us bleed more. I have been told to take 1/2 daily. Lynda

I was having bad cramps in my legs, esp. calves, for a long time, till I was diagnosed with Antiphospholipid Syndrome (causes blood clots). Once I started taking Coumadin, the leg cramps stopped. Since this Antiphospholipd Syndrome is related to RA, you might want to ask your doctor about it, there is a special blood test for it.

I do still get foot cramps constantly though, but I think they are either from peripheral neuropathy (from spine injury/surgery) and/or somehow are related to my RA.

Fish oil is a blood thinner. I take massive daily amounts and I always bleed
more now when I get my blood tests.

Cat E. Hi and welcome. I just got tested for Antiphoshospholipid Syndrome
yesterday, but I haven't gotten the results yet. I don't have any symptoms
but I found out a false positive syphilis test is possibly caused by that, and I
have been getting those since forever.HI, I take Enbrel, this helps to cause cramps as does the RA due to lack of potassium, my GP says eat more bananas, I have done and the cramps have gone, one banana every second day, as for blood thinning, my Dmards used to cause that however I cannot take them anymore so don't have that problem now. Get it checked, RA causes many complicated issues!!!! Janie.

Pip

where did you get the fact that mmost of us are hypercoagulant? Between prednisone and NSAIDS its generally the opposite

Hi guys, thanks for the replies:

Pip, I'm on thyroxine, zirtek and sulpha and the odd jab of pred. I take co-codomol (prescriptions strength) for pain relief (but to be honest I have to be dying before I take them).

Nini, I dont take asprin or vitamin E and I've not been told to take anything extra either. I'm not normally a bruiser but funnily enough I do have some 'old lady' bruises on my knees (I wont tell you what I've been up to

Gimpy, I eat lots of fresh fish (especially salmon, living in scotland and shopping at Costco makes it very cheap)

Janiefx, I have bought a bunch of bananas this morning so I'll give them a try. One every other day sounds fine to me. I love bananas but cant eat them too often because they give me terrible acid reflux.

I'll write down the questions and mention it at my next appt.

Thanks as usual for all the helpful info.

Hey Buckeye -

It's something I've read over and over in my research. Apparently, not only do we not absorb vitamins and minerals right, and we're resistant to glucose, adrenal, and estrogen, almost all of us in some way have 'thick' blood. I didn't think much about it until I missed most of that AP Dr. Chat I posted about. Apparently he thinks we need to be on blood thinners to get the antibiotics a better chance of penetrating muscle tissue. I'm now looking into it because I have some sort of clotting disorder which caused me to miscarry multiple times. At the time they did 17 genetic tests and I didn't have any known 'clotting disorder' so...did it come on with the RA? Is it a pre-curser to these diseases? How is this linked to what we are experiencing?

If we have 'thin' blood because of the NSAID's and pred; that still doesn't change the fact that we had 'thick blood' to start out with. Does that make sense?

Sarah -

Sulpha the antibiotic or sulfa the DMARD?

Hugs,

Pip

can you please post links...

Thanks

[QUOTE=Gimpy-a-gogo]Fish oil is a blood thinner. I take massive daily amounts and I always bleed
more now when I get my blood tests.
[/QUOTE]

I also notice that when I've been diligent with my fish oil intake (goal is 10g/day) I bleed more profusely from the inevitable injuries of everyday life (paper cuts, dinner-preparation knife wounds, cat scratches, #%^* moments, etc).

I never had any clotting issues before using fish oil, though.

One of the theoretical risks of fish oil intake is increased risk of hemorrhagic stroke, though I don't know if there have been any studies to support or refute the theory.
JasmineRain39389.489212963

OH, God! I don't have access to my own files as AOL is STILL puking on the new computer.

Here's stuff on coagulation and RA off Google.

http://www.blackwell-synergy.com/doi/pdf/10.1111/j.1538-7836 .2003.00462.x

For the pulmanary fibrosis people:

http://www.erj.ersjournals.com/cgi/reprint/12/6/1446.pdf

Back to the connection to RA

http://ndt.oxfordjournals.org/cgi/content/extract/22/5/1465

http://www.priory.com/med/ra.htm

http://bmc.ub.uni-potsdam.de/ar132/

The estrogen link:

http://www.greenjournal.org/cgi/content/abstract/89/3/326?ck =nck

Pip