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The extra red blood cells make your blood thicker than normal. As a result, blood clots can form more easily. These clots can block blood flow through your arteries and veins, which can cause a heart attack or stroke. Thicker blood also doesn't flow as quickly to your body as normal blood.
Hypertrophic cardiomyopathy. Hypertrophic cardiomyopathy (HCM) is an inherited disease of your heart muscle, where the muscle wall of your heart becomes thickened. HCM is a genetic condition caused by a change or mutation in one or more genes and is passed on through families.f you have HCM, the muscular wall of your heart-the myocardium-becomes thickened, making the heart muscle stiff. This thickening makes it harder for your heart to pump blood out of your heart and around your body. How thick your muscle is, and how much of your muscle is affected, varies from one person to another.