Deep Vein Thrombosis (DVT): 5 Risk Factors Your Doctor May Not Have Mentioned

A blood clot that forms in the deep veins of your body, most often in the legs, is known medically as a deep vein thrombosis, or DVT. While DVT can cause tenderness, warmth, or pain around the site of the clot, it can also develop without noticeable symptoms. 

Should a DVT break free and travel through the bloodstream, there’s a risk it could lodge in a lung, causing a pulmonary embolism, a potentially deadly medical emergency. 

Surgery, prolonged bed rest, and a history of clots are signs that you have an increased risk of developing DVT. At Advanced Vascular Cardiac & Veins in Miami, Florida, we want you to know that the list of risk factors is longer. 

Understanding these factors helps you know when to seek specialist care with our interventional cardiologist and vascular medicine expert, Dr. Enrique Hernandez. Let’s look at five risk factors your primary care physician may not have mentioned. 

Genetic clotting disorders

Clotting factors can be an inherited trait. If your family has a history of abnormal clotting, DVT, or pulmonary embolisms, then your risk of DVT climbs. There’s nothing you can do to actively reduce the risk. Speak with Dr. Hernandez about the right monitoring schedule for you. 

Long-duration sitting

Whether you have an office job, a sedentary hobby, or you frequently binge-watch your favorite series, that time you spend seated could be contributing to blood clots. Your body is made to move, and despite how good it can feel to sit still comfortably, you could be raising your risk of DVT. 

Long flights or car trips are other culprits. Any time you’re sitting for longer than about 30 to 45 minutes, blood flow can stagnate, particularly in the legs, which depend on leg muscle contractions to assist the movement of blood back to the heart. 

Dehydration

Since your blood is about 80% water, hydration can be a DVT risk factor. If you’re dehydrated, the proportion of solids in your blood climbs. Some of these carry the chemical messengers that deliberately cause blood to thicken and clot when you have an injury. 

While dehydration alone won’t cause DVT, it can aggravate other risk factors in unpredictable ways. It’s a good reason to boost your water intake when you’re inactive, ill, or traveling. 

Hormone medications

Any hormonal treatment, such as birth control pills or hormone replacement therapy, can increase DVT risk for some patients. This risk skyrockets if you are obese, a smoker, or older. Talk to Dr. Hernandez before you start or alter the hormone medications you’re taking. 

Chronic health conditions

Some chronic conditions are, in themselves, risk factors for DVT. These include: 

• Varicose veins
• Kidney disease
• Heart failure
• Cancer: from the tumors themselves and from treatments like chemotherapy
• Lung disease
• Inflammatory bowel disease: Crohn’s disease, ulcerative colitis
• Autoimmune disorders

Contact Advanced Vascular Cardiac & Veins to learn more about your personal risk factors for DVT. Call or click to request an appointment with the nearest of our Miami, Florida, locations. Plan your visit now.