Lifestyle

The present holds an optimistic and manageable lifestyle for hemophiliacs. By having portable factor concentrates at the ready, patients can have a normal clotting percentage and stop small bleeds. In addition to having a prepared dose of factor concentrate, there are other precautions and activities hemophiliacs can take in order to stay healthy.

 

Strengthening Your Body

Exercise is a good way to keep healthy and prevent excessive bleeding.

>Dental Care: Hemophiliacs should try to keep good dental hygiene. By cleaning your gums and teeth, hemophiliacs can prevent gum disease and cavities. Preventing these problems would also mean fewer visits to the dentist's office, which could result in dental surgery (a risk for more severe bleeding).

>Sports: It is important for hemophiliacs to keep their body in shape. By having stronger muscles and joints, hemophilia patients could actually decrease their amount of bleeding episodes. Before playing a sport, one should know their case's severity as well as how physically demanding the sport is. A mild hemophiliac could often play all kinds of sports, including more dangerous ones such as rugby and football. However, a severe hemophiliac should be more careful in choosing the sport they would like to play, picking low stress sports such as swimming.

Here is a chart taken from the Canadian Hemophilia Society, http://www.hemophilia.ca/, rating the amount of stress each sport has on your muscles and joints. These are just a couple examples of possible sports. For more examples, click on the link to the Canadian Hemophilia Society:

+	Low degree of stress
++	Moderate degree of stress
+++	High degree of stress

Sport	Risk of sport	Joints Involved	Degree of stress to joints (corresponding to joints)	Recommended Equipment
Swimming	Very low	Shoulders	+	None
Water Skiing	Medium	Spine, Shoulders, Elbows	++ ++ +	Lifejacket
Golf	Low	Shoulders Elbows Knees	+ + +	Appropriate Foot Wear
Tennis	Low	Knees Ankles Elbows	++ ++ +	Tennis Shoes

 

Precautions

>Drugs you should be aware of: There are some drugs that should be avoided by hemophiliacs. The following drugs effect how your platelets cover your blood vessels, and would worsen bleeding.

• Aspirin containing drugs
• Anti-inflammatory drugs
• Non-steroidal drugs
• Blood thinners

>Vaccines: Hemophiliacs should be treated with vaccines against hepatitis A and B. This is because many of the blood products taken by hemophiliacs could carry these diseases.

 

In Case of Emergency

In case of an emergency, a hemophiliac is advised to have a stock of factor concentrate and/or wear a medic bracelet. If the bleeding is very severe, go to the emergency room. Once again, one should judge whether or not they need to take these actions based on the case's severity.

For more specifics in emergency care go to the following link: http://www.hemophiliaemergencycare.com/

One could also enter a treatment facility if desired. The following link is from the Center for Disease Control. It is a directory of the Hemophilia Treatment Centers in the United States : http://www.cdc.gov/ncbddd/hbd/htc_list.htm

 

Sources:

• "Bleeding Disorders, Factor Deficencies." Canadian Hemophilia Society. 2006. Canadian Hemophilia Society. 21 Nov 2006 < http://www.hemophilia.ca. >