Aloha.

Molasses has a high viscosity, water lower. Thicker and thinner, is how we think of viscosity, at least the only way I had learned to see it.

My physician has just taught me differently. She is Doctor Mary Jane Castro, and she not only knows everything but also has the unusual talent of being able to explain technical concepts in ordinary language.

I take several pills daily. One is a blood thinner. A couple of others are intended to reduce blood pressure.

My question was, wouldn't a blood thinner automatically lower blood pressure by making the blood easier to pump and distribute? Her surprising answer was that a blood thinner does not thin your blood. It just makes it easier to flow.

Wait a minute. Thinner means easier to flow.

Well, thinner does mean that, and there are other ways to help blood flow that work better. Drugs that relax the muscles controlling our circulation apparatus are usual for overall pressure management. What BloodThinners do is sharply reduce the tendency of blood platelets to aggregate. It is the biggest cells and the aggregations of smaller cells that block things and cause trouble. Keeping grouping under control improves circulation enough to maybe seem like a drop in viscosity, but it is not, affecting mainly passage through tight spots, like in small or partially blocked blood vessels.

Wow. Thank, you Dr. Castro, for explaining how blood thinners work.

Isn't that nice, to be an insider now, to know of a weird but factual fact sitting right in the middle of our vast medical knowledge? That thinned blood has about the same viscosity as unthinned?

Aloha, Paul         

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