Shining a light on the circulatory blindspot — venous disease, microclots, lymph & vascular damage — so you can fight for a better new "normal," one they said you couldn’t have.
How overlooked clotting disorders – particularly microclots – may be fueling your fatigue, impacting your circulatory systems, creating brain fog, and much more – and why the system keeps ignoring them.
What If the Clots Are Real?
What if everything you’ve been told about your mysterious symptoms – the fatigue, the racing heart, the visual disturbances, the memory glitches, or periodic hand numbness – missed the one root cause tying it all together? What if the problem isn’t in your head… but in your bloodstream?
These symptoms aren’t just frustrating. For many, they’re life-altering. And more and more researchers are pointing to an often-ignored culprit: Microclots.
You’ve been told it’s aging. Anxiety. Hormones. That your labs look “fine.” You start to wonder if you’re just imagining it — until your limbs go numb, your vision flickers, or your heart races at rest. You’re not crazy. And you’re not alone.
– Virginia Hall
What Are Microclots?
Microclots are microscopic clumps of protein and platelets that can form in the blood, particularly after certain viral infections, immune triggers, hormone shifts, or vascular insults. Unlike large clots that cause strokes or pulmonary embolisms, microclots sneak beneath clinical radar – but they still impede blood flow, oxygen delivery, and cellular waste removal.
Think of them as traffic jams in the back roads of your body’s circulatory system. They don’t block the main freeway, but they quietly choke off delivery routes that every organ depends on.
They are especially dangerous because they are:
Hard to detect using standard labs like D-dimer or CBC
Persistent, often resisting natural fibrinolysis [which breaks down the fibrin]
Inflammatory, trapping cytokines and damaging the endothelial lining
Systemic, meaning they can affect everything from cognition to kidney function
The Evidence We Can’t Keep Ignoring
In a 2023 study published in Cardiovascular Diabetology, researchers found persistent fibrin amyloid microclots in the blood of over 80% of patients with long COVID symptoms. These weren’t just random findings — they correlated strongly with fatigue, brain fog, and autonomic dysfunction, such as temperature dysregulation, heart rate instability, and dizziness upon standing.
The presence of microclots may explain why so many patients with post-viral illness experience multi-system symptoms, despite normal conventional test results.
– Pretorius et al, 2023
Other studies, including pioneering work from South African hematologist Dr. Resia Pretorius, suggest that microclots resist natural breakdown and may trap inflammatory molecules that further damage the endothelium — the delicate lining of blood vessels.
The significance of this cannot be overstated:
The endothelium is the command center of your circulatory system. From arteries to veins to the tiniest capillaries, this fragile lining regulates blood flow, nutrient delivery, immune signals, and inflammation.
When it gets damaged — and it does, quietly and often — the consequences ripple across multiple body systems:
Vision problems
Cognitive fog or “brain fatigue”
Reduced cardiac efficiency
Kidney strain
Skin changes or cold extremities
Mast cell and autonomic disruptions
Lymphatic and glymphatic stagnation, impairing waste removal and brain detox during sleep
Microclots are now being investigated in relation to everything from POTS to retinal disease to neurodegeneration. And still, mainstream medicine rarely tests or treats for them.
You don’t need a massive clot to suffer a massive impact.
– The Vein Signal editorial team
Why It’s Overlooked
Standard blood tests don’t detect microclots. D-dimer may be normal. Coagulation panels may look pristine. And if the patient is still breathing, many doctors assume the issue is resolved — or that there is no physiological issue at all.
Combine that with decades of systemic gaslighting — particularly of women, long-haul patients, and people with invisible chronic conditions — and you get a massive diagnostic blindspot.
Microclots don’t show up in systems that aren’t looking.
There’s a chasm in modern care: Specialties stay in their lanes. A venous specialist may not assess the broader hemodynamic impact before ablating multiple varicose veins. An internist may dismiss spider veins as cosmetic. Pelvic venous insufficiency — a less common but impactful condition — may go entirely undiagnosed. If it isn’t endorsed in major association guidelines or easily reimbursed, it’s often ignored.
Who’s Most at Risk?
People with chronic venous insufficiency (CVI)
Post-COVID or post-vaccine syndrome patients
People with family history of vascular or clotting disorders
Individuals with autoimmune or inflammatory conditions
Those on hormone therapy (especially estrogen/testosterone)
Individuals with sedentary jobs or poor circulation
People with a history of poor wound healing or tissue perfusion
Even chronic stress, poor nutrition, and long-standing inflammation can raise your risk.
What You Can Do
Support nitric oxide production: beetroot, l-citrulline, cocoa flavanols
Enzyme therapy*: nattokinase, lumbrokinase, serrapeptase* — consult your provider, health care advisor, or nutritional counselor
Track symptoms: keep a journal to identify patterns or flares
*IF you are on blood thinners, do not take any of these enzymes without consulting with your medical provider!!
This is not medical advice — it’s a starting point. Ask deeper questions. Consider what your body is telling you, even if your labs say “everything looks normal.”
This Is What The Vein Signal Is About
Microclots are tiny. But their impact? Massive.
And still, most of the system won’t acknowledge them. But here, we do. We investigate the circulatory blindspots — and share tools, truths, and hope to help you fight for a better new normal.
Because this doesn’t have to be your forever.
References
Pretorius, E., et al. (2023). Persistent clotting protein pathology in Long COVID/Post-Acute Sequelae of COVID-19 (PASC) is accompanied by increased levels of antiplasmin. Cardiovascular Diabetology.https://doi.org/10.1186/s12933-021-01359-7
Kell, D. B., & Pretorius, E. (2022). Proteins behaving badly. Substoichiometric molecular control and amplification of the initiation and nature of amyloid fibril formation: lessons from blood clotting. Philosophical Transactions of the Royal Society A.https://doi.org/10.1098/rsta.2015.0184
Grobbelaar, L. M., et al. (2021). SARS-CoV-2 spike protein S1 induces fibrin(ogen) resistant to fibrinolysis. International Journal of Molecular Sciences.https://doi.org/10.3390/ijms22083831
Zamboni, P., et al. (2020). The role of venous and lymphatic return from the brain in cognitive function and neurodegeneration. Neurochemical Research.https://doi.org/10.1007/s11064-020-03020-1
