Do You Take A Prescription Blood Thinner? Eliquis Or Xarelto?

Discussion in 'Health & Wellness' started by Joe Smith, Apr 14, 2021.

  1. Joe Smith

    Joe Smith Very Well-Known Member
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    Does anybody here use this anti-coagulant drug? Does your Insurance/Medicaid cover the prescription cost?
     
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  2. Al Amoling

    Al Amoling Veteran Member
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    I use Eliquis completely covered by Medicare
     
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  3. Lon Tanner

    Lon Tanner Supreme Member
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    I have been taking it for three years and no my insurance doesn't cover it. I take 20mg and paid $ 312.00 for last bottle.
     
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  4. Yvonne Smith

    Yvonne Smith Senior Staff
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    I also use Eliquis, and it is covered by my Medicare Advantage. My cardiologist changed me from Xarelto to Eliquis because Xarelto is worse for the kidneys than Eliquis is, and I have moderate kidney failure and need to be as careful as I can to take care of my kidneys.
     
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  5. Trevalius Guyus

    Trevalius Guyus Veteran Member
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    I take a quarter tab of aspirin, daily. I have been doing that for over twenty years. My platelet count is low normal, which I want. I don't understand why anyone takes those anticoagulants that have so many possibly dangerous side effects, and are so expensive. I pay a couple of dollars a year for my aspirin.
     
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  6. Don Alaska

    Don Alaska Supreme Member
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    You do understand that aspirin and such don't cause the platelet count to decrease, but it decreases the "stickiness" of the platelets. Vitamin C is reputed to help too. The expensive drugs work differently but achieve similar results and may have fewer downsides.
     
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  7. Lon Tanner

    Lon Tanner Supreme Member
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    Aspirin will not do the job for certain medical conditions and we take the expensive anticoagulants under advice of a competent physician.
     
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  8. Yvonne Smith

    Yvonne Smith Senior Staff
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    This is an excellent point, @Lon Tanner . Some people take aspirin every day, but as a preventative, not because they have a-fib or heart failure, or have had an pulmonary embolism, and have been prescribed specific blood thinners.
    The newer ones work much differently than aspirin or Warfarin works, too. Warfarin actually thins the blood and has to be constantly monitored, and it can be affected by the foods that you eat, that can thin or thicken your blood.

    Xarelto, Eliquis, Pradaxa, Savaysa, and probably some others work by making the blood slick, so that it does not clot, not by actually thinning the blood; so it doesn’t have to be tested all of the time, and you just take your dose as prescribed, and no worries about anything else. You can eat however you want, because that does not affect it like it does with an actual blood thinner.
     
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    Last edited: Apr 15, 2021
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  9. Don Alaska

    Don Alaska Supreme Member
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    All true, @Yvonne Smith. Generally, the anticoagulants are given for venous problems, DVT, Pulmonary emboli, etc., while the drugs given to reduce platelet aggregation are given for arterial issues, such as coronary infarction. I am a little rusty on this, but warfarin is a vitamin K competitor reducing primarily Factor 7, while the newer drugs inhibit factor 10a (if I remember correctly) and are not as easily influenced by diet. Aspirin is a prostaglandin inhibitor while some others work in the cytochrome system. Coagulation and platelet aggregation are very complex topics not easily addressed in a forum like this, but a good bit of consumer-related info is available on sites like drugs.com.
     
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  10. Trevalius Guyus

    Trevalius Guyus Veteran Member
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    It is seen, in the above, how so many fall for Big Pharma's company lines. That's fine. Pay what you will, take what your doctor tells you to take. I know what I know because of my own hard research and the monitoring of my own body. My degree is in Biology, with some grad work in the same.

    FWIW, aspirin, in fact, lowered my platelet count. In older studies, out there, it was shown to increase platelet count. Everyone is different. I do my own blood smear staining and counts. I know how things changed, for me, over the years, when I started, and continued, taking aspirin.

    While I certainly, and freely, admit that everyone is different, I also strongly doubt that many/any of your physicians tried inexpensive, OTC drugs, before they hooked you on the rip-off (and potentially more dangerous) stuff you're now on.
     
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  11. Lon Tanner

    Lon Tanner Supreme Member
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    Your anti Big Pharma attitude can be as dangerous as bad advice from a physician.
     
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  12. Martin Alonzo

    Martin Alonzo Supreme Member
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    The Japanese cheese called Natto is a natural blood thinner that dissolves blood clots. There is a non prescription drug called nattokinase which comes from that cheese. I have seen it work against a stroke with no after effects. If you want to use food to help you or not your choice. Caution if you are taking a blood thinner do not use it because you might get an over reaction
     
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  13. Trevalius Guyus

    Trevalius Guyus Veteran Member
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    Nonsense! I have put in the time, done my research. Big Pharma has one, single motivation, and that's to increase, always, its bottom line, the patients be damned! If you believe otherwise, then that's fine, for you. Stay happy, trust your doctors, do what they tell you to do. On more than one occasion, I did not follow doctor's orders, and doing so definitely saved me much grief, and, probably, my good health/life! Most of those incidents involved prescriptions that would have been very dangerous, for me.
     
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  14. Al Amoling

    Al Amoling Veteran Member
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    Nonsense. You have had different experiences that others. However that does not mean you have superior knowledge.="Trevalius Guyus, post: 507692, member: 1536"]Nonsense! I have put in the time, done my research. Big Pharma has one, single motivation, and that's to increase, always, its bottom line, the patients be damned! If you believe otherwise, then that's fine, for you. Stay happy, trust your doctors, do what they tell you to do. On more than one occasion, I did not follow doctor's orders, and doing so definitely saved me much grief, and, probably, my good health/life! Most of those incidents involved prescriptions that would have been very dangerous, for me.[/QUOTE]
     
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  15. Lon Tanner

    Lon Tanner Supreme Member
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    Good for you and long life!
     
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