If you have a gene that increases your risk of blood clots, you can make lifestyle changes that will prevent blood clots. You can find out about your genes by taking a simple, at-home genetic test.

• About 1 out of every 1000 people in the United States will have a blood clot in the veins, called a venous thrombosis.
  
• Venous blood clots are more common in men than women.
  
• It is estimated that 200,000 people die each year from these blood clots. This is more than breast cancer, AIDS and car accidents combined.
  
• Blood clotting disorders, or thrombophilia, can be inherited or acquired. About 25 percent of people with a venous blood clot have an inherited disorder.
  
• Of the 200,000 or so new cases of venous blood clots each year, most people who have an inherited blood clotting disorder do not know they have it.
  
• The two most common inherited blood clotting disorders are factor V Leiden and the prothrombin mutation (factor II).
  
• About 5 to 7 percent of Caucasians (white people of European descent) have factor V Leiden and 2 to 3 percent have the prothrombin mutation. These genetic changes are less common in other ethnicities.
  
• The risk of having a blood clot increases with age in everyone, but the risk further increases for people who have an inherited blood clotting disorder.