I am four years out from my second pulmonary embolism recovery, and that shapes how I talk about blood clots and why I stress the importance of health literacy and lifestyle habits. It’s a mindset you may not share — yet.
I believe survivorship is something we move through, not stay in. You may not be ready to dive into the science or improve a habit. You are still welcome here and can jump in anytime you like. But if you need more support as a woman newly diagnosed with a blood clot, I can help direct you to the resources that helped me in the beginning — just ask.
I’m about to share something that will change how you view blood clots.
During the final visit with my vascular team, I shared two post-clot goals: improve cardiovascular health and address the damage multiple clots had done. And figure out how to navigate menopause and aging well with a complicated medical history and an anticoagulant. That conversation was met with “focus on the cardiovascular guidelines.”
I thought I misheard my vascular surgeon. Heart health? What did that have to do with VTE?
According to the American Heart Association, VTE is the third most common cardiovascular event, following only heart attack and stroke. Not a separate category. Not a footnote. A cardiovascular event.
I had been looking at cardiovascular health and blood clots through a narrow lens. Emphasis on heart, not so much vascular. It’s a shared system. Shared risks. Shared lifestyle habits for prevention.
According to the American Heart Association and decades of cardiovascular research, roughly 80% to 90% of cardiovascular disease is directly linked to modifiable lifestyle habits. Whole-food eating patterns, purposeful movement, and restorative sleep are not soft suggestions. They are the lifestyle foundations documented across decades of cardiovascular research, replicated, guideline-supported, and directly applicable to blood clot prevention and post-clot living.
This wider lens changed how I looked at blood clots. I hope it changes how you look at them, too.
The lifestyle habits that support VTE recovery are the same ones that support everything else happening in your body.
Recovery from blood clots, combined with midlife, has a way of making you more intentional about time. How much you have and how you spend it. Lifestyle intersects clot recurrence, managing post-clot vascular health, and the menopause transition. When you build from the common denominator, lifestyle, it sets the infrastructure for the next several decades of your health.
The International Menopause Society, the founders of “World Menopause Day,” recognize lifestyle habits as foundational. These habits can be used alongside other interventions for menopause care, including hormone therapy. Leaning into lifestyle becomes more of a focus if you and your care team decide your individual risks outweigh the benefits of MHT.
The research exists. It just hasn’t made it into the appointment.
A peer-reviewed study found that even among people with high genetic risk for VTE, improving certain health habits was associated with up to a 35% lower risk of a first clotting event. Your genes aren’t the whole story. Your daily habits are part of it too.
Lifestyle and obesity were listed eight separate times in my hospital summary when I survived my second pulmonary embolism. The number of times lifestyle was discussed in those hematology follow-up appointments? Zero.
Val Conley, VTE Lifestyle Educator & Blood Clot Survivor
A 2020 meta-analysis published in the European Journal of Epidemiology, covering more than 1.28 million participants, found that the most physically active individuals had a 13% lower relative risk of VTE compared to the least active group. Critically, that association held independent of body weight, meaning movement has a protective effect on vascular health that goes beyond what the scale shows.
Research also suggests that lifestyle factors, including obesity, physical inactivity, and diet, may account for a meaningful proportion of unprovoked VTEs. Not as shame, judgment, or individual failure. As a position that lifestyle matters and should be assessed during those initial hematological follow-ups — and that research-based behavior change belongs in post-clot health management.
Unhealthy lifestyle risk factors may cause a considerable proportion of unprovoked VTE.
Folsom & Cushman, J Am Heart Assoc, 2020If you’ve read my blood clot back story, you know that prior to blood clots, I thought I had an endless supply of “I’ll start on Monday.”
Now I’m aware of the limited amount of time I have, so I want to use it with intention. Focusing on the basic habits — exercise, nutrition, sleep — that research consistently shows drive the majority of long-term health outcomes. With or without other medical interventions, these habits have decades of data behind them.
We know that resistance training preserves bone density and metabolic health in midlife. We know that a fiber-rich diet manages cholesterol. We know lifestyle habits are linked to cognitive health. Less focus on quick hacks and doomsday language. More confident conversations with our care teams — conversations that include our blood clot history and build from it.
Deal?
It’s one of the most underused tools in the post-clot conversation.
It’s not that clinicians don’t care about lifestyle. It’s that the appointment is short, the acute risk is the priority, and there’s simply no dedicated space for the longer conversation about what daily life after VTE should actually look like.
This platform exists to help you build the lifestyle habits and confident voice to lead your health and show up as an active participant in your care after a blood clot.
Now you have the science, the framework, and the confidence to start with one habit.
