What is Atherosclerosis and How to Prevent It

Atherosclerosis is another term for arteriosclerosis. Both terms sound complicated and an average person may not know what they actually mean.  But in simple terms, it means hardening of the arteries.  Atherosclerosis is a condition that does not just happen all at once.  It would have developed over years before you can be diagnosed with it.

Throughout your lifetime, fat and cholesterol mix together with other material and start to line the walls of your blood vessels.  This mixture is known as plaque.  Over the years, the plaque turns hard and becomes thicker.  This can cause the narrowing of your blood vessels and could even totally block them if it goes without treatment.



If you think about it, it’s hard for blood to go through these narrow vessels.  Consequently, the heart is put under stress.  This results in heart disease and can sooner or later cause a heart attack if the actual coronary blood vessels are blocked.

Moreover, pieces of the hardened plaque can eventually separate from the walls and break away.  If this happens, the small piece moves through the blood vessels and can bring about a heart attack or perhaps a stroke. 

How Hardening of the Arteries Develop?

On top of that, blood clots can form all over the rogue piece of plaque and obstruct blood flow even more.  The clots could also go to the brain, heart, or lungs.  The awful result of this may be as critical as a heart attack, stroke, or pulmonary embolism.

Sad to say, there are hardly ever symptoms of atherosclerosis. You will only know that you have a serious issue when you experience a chest pain or even a heart attack.  Beginning stages of it can at times be heard by using a stethoscope, but generally more extensive testing is necessary to identify hardening of the arteries.

The good news is that if you know about it earlier, you can do a lot of things to keep it from becoming worse.  Your doctor may recommend a low-fat, low-cholesterol diet plan so as to minimize the amount of fat and cholesterol in your blood.  You may likewise need to engage in more physical activities and work to lose some pounds.

In more serious conditions, medication might be necessary to help reduce cholesterol and even thin the blood to avoid clots.  Surgical treatment by means of angioplasty is likewise a treatment solution.  A procedure called endarterectomy may be carried out to actually take out some of the plaque from the vessel walls, although this is not as common. 

In very severe cases of blockage, a doctor may recommend the performance of a heart bypass surgery.  This creates a bypass around the blockage in the heart and could keep heart attacks from happening.

Best Diet for Removing Plaque Buildup in the Arteries