Blood viscosity is the abbreviation of blood viscosity, and it is one of the indexes reflecting blood viscosity. The main factors affecting blood viscosity are: aggregation and deformability of red blood cells, red blood cell volume, size and shape, contents of cholesterol, triglyceride and fibrinogen in blood, etc.

Hyperviscosity (or hyperviscosity) is a clinicopathological syndrome characterized by abnormal hemorheological parameters, which is caused by the increase of one or more blood viscosity factors, making blood excessively viscous and slow. Generally speaking, the blood is excessively viscous, because the red blood cells in the blood gather in a string, losing the proper gap and distance, or the red blood cells in the blood lose their ability to bend and deform when passing through tiny capillaries, so that the blood viscosity increases and the circulation resistance increases, resulting in poor microcirculation blood flow.

2. Causes of hyperviscosity

① Cell concentration is too high: the number of cells in the blood is relatively increased. For example, when the water content in the elderly is relatively reduced and the water content in the blood is also reduced, the proportion of blood cells will increase relatively. Because the liquid component in blood decreases and the solid component increases, the viscosity in blood will naturally increase.

② Increased blood viscosity: In addition to red blood cells, there are many plasma proteins, such as globulin and fibrinogen. When the protein of these macromolecules increases, they often combine with red blood cells to form a grid, which increases the resistance of blood flow and leads to the increase of blood viscosity.

③ Increased aggregation of blood cells: The cells in the blood should function independently, not together. When the structure of red blood cells or platelets is abnormal, red blood cells and platelets will pile up together, blocking blood vessels and forming thrombus.

④ The deformability of blood cells is weakened: the capillaries in the human body are very thin, and the smallest blood vessel can only let one blood cell pass through, so blood cells have to change their shapes when passing through small blood vessels to facilitate their passage. When the deformability of blood cells is weakened, it is difficult to pass through small blood vessels, which affects the blood flow speed and increases the blood viscosity.

⑤ dyslipidemia: Because blood circulates all over the body, when the lipid content in blood is too high, the viscosity of blood can be changed. In addition, the increase of blood lipid can inhibit fibrinolysis and make blood viscosity and consistency higher. The increase of blood viscosity is beneficial to the occurrence of coronary heart disease and even induces acute myocardial infarction.

3. Early signs of hyperviscosity

The blood is thick and the flow rate slows down, which makes the lipids in the blood deposit on the inner wall of blood vessels, leading to lumen stenosis and insufficient blood supply, leading to myocardial ischemia, cerebral thrombosis, limb vascular thrombosis and other diseases. Some middle-aged and elderly people often feel dizzy, sleepy, and memory loss. And has always believed that the decay of life is an inevitable phenomenon. In fact, this is the result of hyperviscosity.

Early manifestations: ① dizziness in the morning and waking up at night; 2 sleepy after lunch; 3 squatting and short of breath; ④ Paroxysmal blurred vision; ⑤ When checking blood, the needle tip is often blocked, and the blood condenses rapidly in the needle tube; When measuring hemorheology, the blood viscosity is above "++",and other indexes are also obviously increased.

In daily life, if middle-aged and elderly people find themselves with the above symptoms, they should go to the hospital for hemorheology examination in time.

4. Why do the elderly have hyperviscosity?

Because the elasticity of the blood vessel wall in the elderly is gradually weakened, the lumen is gradually narrowed, and cells are easy to adhere to each other, which leads to an increase in blood viscosity, slowing down blood flow and leading to cardiovascular diseases. At the same time, the increase of blood viscosity in the elderly is related to the increase of protein (globulin, fibrin) and lipid (triglyceride, cholesterol) in plasma. Previous studies have proved that abnormal blood lipids can easily lead to increased blood viscosity; In addition, when there are many foreign bodies in the blood (such as epithelial cells falling off the inner wall of blood vessels, lipid-like substances attached to the inner wall of blood vessels and falling off), fibrin and platelets gather around the foreign bodies and wrap them, which is easy to form thrombus, affecting the normal running speed of blood and increasing blood viscosity. When emboli increase or suddenly flow into arterioles, these thrombi will block blood vessels, cause tissue ischemia, hypoxia and necrosis, and lead to cerebral infarction, myocardial infarction and infarct vasculitis.

5. How to prevent and treat hyperviscosity?

① Drink plenty of water: Pay attention to the timing of drinking water, such as before getting up in the morning, before eating every meal (1 hour) and before going to bed. It is best not to be less than 2000 ml per day.

② Choose foods that can dilute blood: These foods include hawthorn, auricularia auricula, garlic, onion, shallot, bell pepper, mushroom, strawberry, pineapple and lemon. Can inhibit platelet aggregation and prevent thrombosis; Anticoagulant foods similar to aspirin are hawthorn, tomato, red grape, orange and ginger. There are hawthorn, spirulina, celery, carrot, konjac, seaweed, kelp, purslane, walnut, corn, sesame, apple, kiwi and so on.

③ Reasonable diet: eat less animal viscera and fat, eat less fried food, and eat less meat, thick food and sweets for dinner. Usually a light diet is appropriate, mainly vegetarian, coarse grains flour and rice.

④ Eat more foods rich in lecithin: eat more soybeans and bean products, eggs and fish. It is beneficial to improve blood viscosity, but it is not easy to form thrombus.

⑤ Eat more fruits and vegetables containing vitamin C: Vitamin C can regulate blood lipids; Fiber in vegetables can prevent the intestinal tract from absorbing cholesterol and reduce blood viscosity.

⑥ Keep exercising: such as walking, jogging, playing Tai Ji Chuan, playing badminton, climbing mountains, swimming, etc. , can promote blood circulation.

⑦ Drug treatment: Under the guidance of a doctor, choose some anticoagulants and drugs that reduce blood viscosity, such as commonly used Yixinone, sodium alginate, enteric-coated aspirin, tea pigment, streptokinase, Agkistrodon halys antithrombotic enzyme, etc. You can also choose some drugs for promoting blood circulation and removing blood stasis, such as compound Danshen tablets, Angelica tablets, Gynostemma pentaphyllum, Chuanxiong, dipyridamole, etc.

(8) No smoking: it will affect blood circulation, reduce blood flow and blood flow speed, and may lead to bad results.

⑨ Regular physical examination: People over 50 years old should do hemorheological examination and platelet aggregation test. According to the examination results, take effective protective measures to reduce the occurrence of embolic diseases. At the same time, the blood viscosity index can be dynamically observed, so as to know fairly well.