EVENING PRIMROSE OIL AND PLATELETS
A risk factor for cardiovascular disorders occurs when the platelets in the blood aggregate abnormally – they bunch up and stick together. Evening primrose oil is very effective in stopping this process.
The clotting agents in the blood are called platelets. They are called platelets simply because these tiny particles look a bit like plates. When you cut yourself the blood runs out of the open wound for a short while, but then a clot forms to stem the flow. This clot is formed because the platelets stick together, which is an entirely desirable thing for them to do when you suffer a skin wound.
But the problem starts when the platelets start to bunch up and stick together when you haven’t suffered any skin wound. In healthy people, the blood only feels sticky when it begins to clot after a skin wound. While it is coursing round inside you the blood would feel slippery if you could touch it. But the blood inside you should not be sticky. In recent heart attack victims their blood is about 4 1/2 times stickier than in normal people. If you looked at their blood under a microscope you would see platelets sticking to each other and to artery walls.
When platelets stick to cholesterol deposits this quickly leads to a clot, which can block the flow of blood. When a blood clot forms in an artery or a vein, it’s called a thrombosis. This blocks the circulation in the area. A clot in a coronary artery is a coronary thrombosis. In the brain ifs a stroke.
Normally, artery walls make prostacyclin which prevents platelets from sticking to each other or to artery walls. But arteries which are damaged by fat and cholesterol deposits, high blood pressure or injury, don’t make enough prostacyclin.
Evening primrose oil helps because the GLA in evening primrose oil easily converts to DGLA, which is known to be able to reduce platelet aggregation. If the platelets can stop clumping together, the risk of thrombosis is reduced. Also, evening primrose oil converts to prostaglandin El, and PGE1 is one of the most potent known inhibitors of platelet aggregation.
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