Atherosclerosis.... Great topic. Wannna know why? This disease is the MVP in the the biggest killer in America. Coronary Artery Disease. (CAD). OK, as I type this I have to stray, Im sorry. I have to say ELTON JOHN ROCKS. He is on tv and Ive got it turned up and he sounds as good today, if not better then he did in the 70s. Ok, forgive my total immature nature. I really am glad this topic was brought up! Its hard to explain atherosclerosis without first talking a little about anatomy. First, many people dont really understand the difference between arteries and veins. In the normal condition, except for a few exceptions, arteries carry blood away from our hearts that are rich with oxygen. This arterial blood full of oxygen feeds our cells. Arteries are three layered. Imagine 3 circles within each other. If we were to cut an artery in half and look at it we would see a thin inner layer,the first cycle. Next, there is a big thick muscular layer. (2nd circle)). Last is the 3rd layer which is mostly connective fiberous tissue. (3rd circle). Veins return blood to the heart and anatomically are less complicated. I find many patients get confused about this. Veins can form blood clots but arteries are the vessels that develop atherosclerosis. This condition can occur in any artery in our body. Heart, brain,neck, legs..... It leads to diseases like CAD (heart attacks) , strokes, peripheral artery disease. Simply put atherosclerosis is a build up of plaque inside and artery. Its a process. Remember we said the inner layer of the artery was thin? Well, inflammation, high blood pressure and other chemical factors inside the artery may cause a small tear in this arterial wall lining. This is how the disease starts. Thrombocytes (platelets),our initial clotting mechanism are releases to plug the tear. Thats good! Yeah, well platelets are sticky. So any extra cholesterol floating in our blood gets stuck to this platelet plug. Over time fibrin and other clotting factors and that darn extra cholesterol keeps sticking to the clot. There you go. This can be happening in multiple arteries all over your body. When this happens u have atherosclerosis. I have published a very extensive article on CAD. It goes into far more depth but relates to this disease effect on the heart. It details causes, risk factors, and prevention. The principles are the same. The full article is available on line. If you scroll down the fb page u should find it. If not and u want to see it just let us know, Allan
Posted on: Sun, 18 May 2014 18:37:46 +0000
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