# Could a blood thinner cause you to feel cold? **URL:** \ **Category:** Factual Questions\ **Created:** [January 8, 2009, 12:04am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/could-a-blood-thinner-cause-you-to-feel-cold/480306 "2009-01-08T00:04:41Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 6\ **Page:** 1
**Author:** ![garygnu](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/garygnu/32/2924_2.png) [@garygnu](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/garygnu)\ **Post date:** [January 8, 2009, 12:04am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/could-a-blood-thinner-cause-you-to-feel-cold/480306/1 "2009-01-08T00:04:41Z")
Is feeling cold a side effect of taking a blood thinner? Posing the question differently, would a blood thinner affect a person’s thermoregulation? ---
**Author:** ![yoyodyne](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/y/a9a28c/32.png) [@yoyodyne](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/yoyodyne)\ **Post date:** [January 8, 2009, 1:16am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/could-a-blood-thinner-cause-you-to-feel-cold/480306/2 "2009-01-08T01:16:27Z")
Blood thinners don’t really thin the blood, they just increase clotting time by interrupting steps in the clotting process. I don’t see why that would have an effect on thermoregulation. ---
**Author:** ![Qadgop\_the\_Mercotan](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/qadgop_the_mercotan/32/83_2.png) [@Qadgop\_the\_Mercotan](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Qadgop_the_Mercotan)\ **Post date:** [January 8, 2009, 1:22am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/could-a-blood-thinner-cause-you-to-feel-cold/480306/3 "2009-01-08T01:22:57Z")
Which particular ‘blood thinner’ do you refer to? I am unaware of any so called ‘blood thinners’ ( **yoyodyne** is quite correct about anticoagulants like warfarin and heparin and their kin) which have such a symptom as a common side-effect. ---
**Author:** ![garygnu](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/garygnu/32/2924_2.png) [@garygnu](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/garygnu)\ **Post date:** [January 8, 2009, 4:28pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/could-a-blood-thinner-cause-you-to-feel-cold/480306/4 "2009-01-08T16:28:56Z")
> [@Qadgop\_the\_Mercotan](#): > > Which particular ‘blood thinner’ do you refer to? No clue, really. My wife asked me. (There’s an ongoing battle over the thermostat in her office, with many of the older women there constantly complaining about it being too cold. I’m guessing one of them mentioned a medication.) ---
**Author:** ![KlondikeGeoff](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/k/3e96dc/32.png) [@KlondikeGeoff](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/KlondikeGeoff)\ **Post date:** [January 8, 2009, 4:35pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/could-a-blood-thinner-cause-you-to-feel-cold/480306/5 "2009-01-08T16:35:48Z")
> [@garygnu](#): > > No clue, really. My wife asked me. (There’s an ongoing battle over the thermostat in her office, with many of the older women there constantly complaining about it being too cold. I’m guessing one of them mentioned a medication.) Heh, that was the case in every office I ever worked in. Same fight with my wife at home. 😃 In many offices they put a locked case over the thing so nobody can change it. If I had to make an inane generality, I’d hazzard a guess that most women feel colder than men do. I’ve been on warfarin for about three years, and it does not seem to have any effect on my internal thermostat. ---
**Author:** ![Voyager](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/voyager/32/133_2.png) [@Voyager](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Voyager)\ **Post date:** [January 8, 2009, 7:39pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/could-a-blood-thinner-cause-you-to-feel-cold/480306/6 "2009-01-08T19:39:06Z")
Doesn’t do it for me. I’m on a hefty dose of warfarin, and I’m the one always trying to turn the thermostat down.