After some research all the sources I’ve found either gave a very vague “they slow down clot formation” or went into explicit detail that I’d need a PhD to understand. What’s the actual difference in how they work.
Bonus ELI5- How does alcohol thin blood? This was actually the original question I wanted answered but my curiosity went a step further.
In: Biology
I think anticoagulants prevent fibrin from forming with the blood clot. When you get a tear in a blood vessel, the first thing that happens is that some platelets in your blood stick to the site of the tear, then they will slowly start attracting more platelets to stick together and soon there will be a temporary patch over the hole in the blood vessel. This is not a very strong patch and the patch will need some help from fibrin if it is going to completely stop the bleeding and hold together for any meaningful amount of time. That’s where the anticoagulants come in and hinder the process. Fibrin is a protein produced but the platelets in the clot that makes the clot stronger and more permanent and without it the clot will essentially fall apart.
Antiplatelets, on the other hand, prevent the blood clots from sticking together to allow the clots to grow in size.
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