Over the past few years, I have been captivated by a strange phenomenon that has largely gone unnoticed by the mainstream scientific community. It goes by the name Embalmer’s Clots, a term that initially raised more questions than answers. What I observed was so unusual, so out of place, that I knew it had to be investigated further. Yet, so few scientists were willing to even look, much less engage.
That is why it was a privilege to speak with Professor Douglas Kell, a systems biologist and biochemist who has done what many have not. He looked. He questioned. He experimented. And he brought forward science that may just be the key to unlocking the mystery of chronic illnesses ranging from long COVID to ME-CFS, and even ischemic stroke.
Doug’s story begins with iron. His review on how iron misbehaves in the body brought him into contact with Professor Resia Pretorius, who had been studying how iron affects clot formation. What they found was that iron could turn normal spaghetti-like blood clots into dense matted deposits. These were sticky, fibrous, and under an electron microscope looked like nothing we had seen before.
This collaboration led to more than 60 published papers and a critical discovery. These clots were not just malformed. They were amyloid in nature. That meant they were misfolded proteins, structurally stable and resistant to breakdown by the body’s usual methods. These fibrin-amyloid clots—what Doug now refers to as fibrinoloid microclots—could explain why symptoms persist long after a viral infection has passed.
We spoke about their relevance to long COVID. According to Doug, before the pandemic, healthy people had almost zero microclots. But after infection or even vaccination, the numbers rose. Those who recovered saw their clot levels drop. But in people with long COVID, they stayed high. These microclots move through the bloodstream, blocking capillaries and reducing oxygen delivery to tissues. In doing so, they offer a unifying explanation for symptoms like fatigue, brain fog, postural orthostatic tachycardia, and even atrial fibrillation.
Perhaps most striking was their latest finding: that clots removed from stroke patients during mechanical thrombectomy procedures also show amyloid characteristics. These clots lit up under amyloid staining. And remarkably, no one had ever stained stroke clots for amyloid before. Not only does this discovery challenge our assumptions about the nature of stroke, but it also opens a door to ask whether amyloid formation is contributing to cardiovascular events.
Grixti, Justine M., et al. "The clots removed from ischaemic stroke patients by mechanical thrombectomy are amyloid in nature." medRxiv (2024): 2024-11.
Doug explained protein folding and how proteins can shift into amyloid forms under the right conditions. He also drew a striking parallel with prions—misfolded proteins that can induce other proteins to misfold. Fibrin, a major clotting protein, seems capable of doing the same. Once a few molecules misfold into amyloid, others quickly follow. This process creates clots that are not only harder to break down but also capable of trapping other proteins and altering their structure.
We explored the idea that these microclots may build up over time. Rather than one big clot breaking loose and causing a stroke, it could be slow accretion—layer upon layer, growing silently until catastrophe strikes. This changes how we might think about stroke prevention altogether.
It also raises questions about treatments. Doug made an eye-opening comment: intravenous iron, a standard treatment for low iron, could actually worsen clotting in those predisposed. Iron catalyses the formation of these abnormal clots. He warned that even trace elements like bacterial endotoxins or estrogenic compounds can kickstart amyloid clot formation.
And then came something I did not expect. Doug shared that traditional Chinese medicine might already have an answer. A herbal formula known as Shue Fu Zhu Yu Tang—used for centuries to treat blood stasis—appears to help some long COVID patients recover. It might not be a coincidence. Perhaps ancient insights are being validated by modern science.
Kell, Douglas B., Etheresia Pretorius, and Huihui Zhao. "A Direct Relationship Between ‘Blood Stasis’ and Fibrinaloid Microclots in Chronic, Inflammatory, and Vascular Diseases, and Some Traditional Natural Products Approaches to Treatment." Pharmaceuticals 18.5 (2025): 712.
What Doug and his collaborators are doing is real science. It is observational. It is experimental. It challenges assumptions and invites scrutiny. And in a world where some findings are suppressed or ignored for being inconvenient, this work is even more vital.
His vision is clear. Build clot banks. Compare pre and post-pandemic samples. Use proteomics and histology. Connect clot characteristics with stroke subtypes and chronic symptoms. Then, most importantly, find interventions that actually help people.
To me, this conversation was not just another scientific interview. It was a reminder of what science should be: curious, humble, rigorous, and fearless. If we are willing to look closely, the answers may already be in front of us.
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