Heparin Injections v HELP Apheresis Treatments

[MarkRichardson]

Do Heparin Injections and HELP Apheresis achieve the same thing? I.e. clear blood clots? If so then why choose one over the other? Does HELP Aphereis deal with biological material that Heparin doesn’t?

Dr Teitelbaum mentions in his book (From Fatigued To Fantastic - 2007) mentions that various infections can trigger the blood-clotting system to become active thus setting up a chronic low level cascade. To treat this he has used the blood thinner Heparin which has helped some patients. That sounds similar to what HELP Apheresis achieves.

For the purpose of this post please assume I know nothing and am very simple minded : ) .

 

[BrightCandle]

Do Heparin Injections and HELP Apheresis achieve the same thing? I.e. clear blood clots? If so then why choose one over the other? Does HELP Aphereis deal with biological material that Heparin doesn’t?

They are targeting the same clots although its worth nothing that HELP Apheresis also removes lipids and other things from the blood mechanically, alongside the clots. That might be important too since we see increased lipids with ME/CFS (and lots of other differences in the blood). Heparin will break them down inside of the body but you can't do it at a very high dose or the patient would bleed out, we need clotting to function and especially if we get an injury, so warfirin and any other anti clotting is a slower process over a month or more. Apheresis on the other hand is a mechanical process and quite quick acting. IIRC Heparin is used on the extracted blood and then the blood is filtered. You can quite literally see the clots and other garbage building up in the filters.

Blood clot drugs could be sufficient in some cases, and indeed some guidance was published on that as to how you could go about doing that prior to seeking HELP Apheresis. The Germany clinic doing HELP Apheresis has said drugs often aren't enough to break down these types of clots based on what they are made of and that mechanical removal is necessary.

 

[MarkRichardson]

They are targeting the same clots although its worth nothing that HELP Apheresis also removes lipids and other things from the blood mechanically, alongside the clots. That might be important too since we see increased lipids with ME/CFS (and lots of other differences in the blood). Heparin will break them down inside of the body but you can't do it at a very high dose or the patient would bleed out, we need clotting to function and especially if we get an injury, so warfirin and any other anti clotting is a slower process over a month or more. Apheresis on the other hand is a mechanical process and quite quick acting. IIRC Heparin is used on the extracted blood and then the blood is filtered. You can quite literally see the clots and other garbage building up in the filters.

Blood clot drugs could be sufficient in some cases, and indeed some guidance was published on that as to how you could go about doing that prior to seeking HELP Apheresis. The Germany clinic doing HELP Apheresis has said drugs often aren't enough to break down these types of clots based on what they are made of and that mechanical removal is necessary.

Thanks for the reply. A month doesn’t sound bad for Heparin injections to work, unless you mean regular injections of one a month over the course of several months. Is the issue with the bio clots (ie not the blood clots) that they too can block oxygen getting into tissue or that they cause other disease processes?






Thankancod

 

[MarkRichardson]

I’m not sure how to edit posts at the moment so just so as you know, I didn’t mean to type thankacod as my sign off.

 

[BrightCandle]

Thanks for the reply. A month doesn’t sound bad for Heparin injections to work, unless you mean regular injections of one a month over the course of several months. Is the issue with the bio clots (ie not the blood clots) that they too can block oxygen getting into tissue or that they cause other disease processes?






Thankancod

There is an edit button at the bottom of your post.

A month isn't so bad and I added Lumbrokinase and Bromelain back in November when this all kicked off in a big way and its been beneficial for my energy and its got rid of the air hunger feeling, its not cured me. But I have had to keep doing at least some of it (alternating them currently) since the clots seem to come back quite quickly after I end treatment and I can't sustain taking both drugs as my blood thins too much.

As I understand it the theory is that the blood clots are blocking smaller entrances and generally making a mess of oxygen exchange. They are also carrying around virus and bacteria material as well which is causing its own set of problems and response from the body.

 

[SWAlexander]

Platelets are held hostage by fibrinogen and form a thrombosis. In my case the diagnosis is Antiphospholipid-Syndrom.
I´m now on Heparin for 25 days but my Quick test still is too high. 100. With Heparin the Quick Test should be 30 - 40. Now I have to add in addition to Heparin Marcumar, to bring down the vitamin K level.