There are a lot of blood thinners in the herbal medicine list, like garlic, nattokinase, ginger, cinnamon, cassia, vitamin e, Ginko biloba, grape seed extract, cayenne, aspirin, apple cider vinegar, and cod liver oil. But most of these are antiplatelets, not anticoagulants. Anticoagulants have been shown to be more effective in terms of prevention of strokes.
Safety is also an issue. The strokes we're preventing are infarction, embolic, or ischemic strokes. So, we decrease the formation of blood clots. Unfortunately, that also increases the risk for serious bleeding or hemorrhage, such as hemorrhagic strokes.
The research has been clear for over 20 years that anticoagulants seem better than antiplatelets for stroke prevention. And most docs will go with the researched recommendations. These days the researched recommendations are leaning more and more toward the NOACs (new oral anticoagulants).
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