What is atherosclerosis - Get all the info you need to resolve your concerns

What is atherosclerosis? A big concern for each of us. How is atherosclerosis related to high cholesterol?

Atherosclerosis is well known slowly progressive process manifested by a significant increase in the thickness of the walls of blood vessels.

This will cause them to have a narrow lumen and to lose their elasticity. It usually affects big and medium sized arteries. Atherosclerosis occurs due to building up of fatty waste products on the inner walls (lining) of blood vessels.

In U.S.A, heart diseases caused by atherosclerosis are the main cause of death.

The phenomenon of atherosclerosis might begin in the early years of your life, though it is manifested by atherosclerosis symptoms later in adulthood.

Sometimes, atherosclerosis develops rapidly in the 3rd decade of life or it might occur in elderly people in 50-60 years of age. In order to have a clear idea about what is atherosclerosis; you must understand that process of development of atherosclerosis is very complex and what exactly triggers it to start, is not discovered yet.

But, there are myriad factors are proved to accelerate the individual’s susceptibility to develop atherosclerosis disease , and play an important role in what is atherosclerosis all about, including:

-Elevated blood pressure or hypertension (HTN)

Hypertension enhances Lipohyalinosis (disease affecting small blood vessels mainly of the brain) of the blood vessels leading to severe destruction of their endothelial lining, which will facilitate the accumulation of plaques, increasing your risk to develop atherosclerosis.

A systolic blood pressure less than 12 mmHg decreases your risk to develop ischemic stroke by 35%.

-Dyslipidemia and hypercholesterolemia, increase the amounts of fatty deposits accumulation on injured endothelium causing atherosclerosis.

Proper treatment of hypercholesterolemia lowers your risk of having a stroke by 28%.

- Raised fibrinogen levels in the blood.

- Increased in plasma Anti-Phospholipid Antibodies (APL-Ab), which is a famous factor of causing atherosclerosis in young people.

- Cigarette smoking

When talking about what is atherosclerosis, we can’t overlook smoking; as smoking accelerates development of atherosclerosis of the pulmonary arteries, aortic artery and the arteries of the extremities.

By time, fatty deposits, cholesterol, cellular waste products and calcium will accumulate on the injured inner arterial walls. Furthermore, this debris might stimulate the cells of the arterial lining to produce other inflammatory substance; causing more clustering of cells.

In this stage, an atherosclerotic lesion is starting to form. Some of the accumulated cells will divide, and further fatty debris will precipitate around these cells.

Eventually, a connective tissue will result (blood clot). Accordingly, the endothelial lining of the artery will be significantly thickened, and the lumen of the artery will be reduced (causing partial blockage of the artery); allowing less blood flow and less oxygen supply to the surrounding tissues.

When a blood clot grows and completely blocks the artery, the blood flow will be cut off causing ischemia of the tissues supplied by this artery.

For instance, if the heart muscle is deprived from sufficient oxygen supply; a heart attack will occur. If the oxygen is cut off from the brain; an ischemic stroke will happen.

Moreover, gangrene will result if oxygen supply for the extremities is decreased.

After learning all these facts on atherosclerosis, don't you think you should start to help yourself live better? If you can do something to lower your high cholesterol levels , why don't you start now? Good luck. Stay firm. Keep healthy.

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