Atherosclerosis and coronary heart disease
Cotral disease of the heart, or coronary atherosclerosis, is an atherosclerosis, which causes compaction, narrowing of the coronary arteries. Diseases resulting from a decrease in the flow to the cardiac muscle of the blood due to coronary atherosclerosis are coronary heart diseases( CHD).Cotral disease of the heart is directly related to atherosclerosis.
What is atherosclerosis
Atherosclerosis is a gradual process when cholesterol plaques settle on the walls of arteries. These plaques help to tighten the walls of the arteries and narrow the artery lumen( internal artery channel).The arteries narrowed due to atherosclerosis are not able to deliver the right amount of blood to maintain the normal functioning of the body parts they supply. Atherosclerosis of the arteries can lead to vascular dementia( mental degradation due to many years of gradual death of the brain tissue) or to a stroke( sudden death of brain tissue).
Atherosclerosis may cause coronary heart disease. Coronal heart diseases include: sudden death, heart attacks, abnormal heart rhythms, chest pains( angina pectoris), heart failure due to weakening of the heart muscle.
Heart attack in coronary heart disease( coronary atherosclerosis)
It happens that the surface of the cholesterol plaque ruptures and forms on the surface of the blood clot. This clot is an obstacle to passage through the arteries of blood, which causes a heart attack. The cause of the rupture is not known to a large extent, but it is facilitated by nicotine exposure to the body, high LDL cholesterol( low-density lipoproteins), elevated levels of catecholamine in the blood( adrenaline), high blood pressure, and other biochemical and mechanical causes. The heart muscle with a heart attack dies and the loss is irreversible.
About half of patients with heart attacks have warning signs before they occur. It is angina of tension or rest, however, such symptoms are weak and do not pay attention to them.
Factors causing arteriosclerosis, also coronary heart disease
High levels of cholesterol in the blood are associated with a high risk of a heart attack, because cholesterol is the main component of plaques that settle on the walls of the arteries. Cholesterol can dissolve in the blood, being only in conjunction with special proteins - lipoproteins. Without connecting with lipoproteins, cholesterol turns into measles into a solid substance. A high level of cholesterol with high-density lipoproteins is associated with a risk of( increased) heart attack.
The development of coronary atherosclerosis is facilitated by the use of tobacco. Tobacco smoke contains chemicals. These substances damage the walls of blood vessels, also accelerate the formation of atherosclerosis and increase the risk of a heart attack.
Increased atherosclerosis of the body is accompanied by insulin-independent and insulin-dependent types of diabetes mellitus( types 1 and 2, respectively).Patients with diabetes are also at risk of reduced blood flow to the legs, erectile dysfunction, coronary heart disease, strokes at an early age, earlier than those without diabetes.
Hypertension is also a factor in the development of atherosclerosis, also a heart attack. And high diastolic( when the heart is at rest) and high systolic( when the heart is contracting) the pressure of the onset of a heart attack is increased.
At any age in men, much more than women, there is a risk of developing atherosclerosis, coronary heart disease. This is due to the difference in the amount of HDL cholesterol in the blood( high-density alpha-lipoprotein cholesterol).With age, such a difference is less evident.
To avoid the development of atherosclerosis and coronary heart disease, it is necessary to take all the preventive actions of this disease. This is the right food, keeping a healthy lifestyle and so on.
