How To Repair Artery Damage

Chock-full Arteries (Arterial Plaque)

Arteries are blood vessels that carry blood rich in oxygen throughout your torso. They go to your brain as well every bit to the tips of your toes. Healthy arteries have smooth inner walls and claret flows through them easily. Some people, even so, develop clogged arteries. Clogged arteries result from a buildup of a substance called plaque on the inner walls of the arteries. Arterial plaque can reduce claret flow or, in some instances, cake it altogether.

Clogged arteries profoundly increase the likelihood of heart attack, stroke, and fifty-fifty death. Because of these dangers, it is of import to be aware, no matter how erstwhile you are, of the causes of artery plaque and handling strategies to foreclose serious consequences.

What causes arterial plaque?

Plaque that accumulates on the inner walls of your arteries is made from various substances that circulate in your blood. These include calcium, fat, cholesterol, cellular waste, and fibrin, a material involved in claret clotting. In response to plaque buildup, cells in your artery walls multiply and secrete additional substances that can worsen the state of clogged arteries.

As plaque deposits grow, a status called atherosclerosis results. This condition causes the arteries to narrow and harden.

Although experts don't know for sure what starts atherosclerosis, the process seems to stalk from damage to the lining of the arterial wall. This damage, which enables the deposition of plaque, may consequence from:

• High ''bad'' cholesterol and low ''adept'' cholesterol. Loftier levels of ''bad'' cholesterol, or low-density lipoprotein (LDL), are major contributors to arterial plaque formation. Merely that doesn't tell the whole story. Everyone also has ''skillful'' cholesterol, or high-density lipoprotein (HDL), circulating in the blood. HDL is believed to remove some of the bad cholesterol from plaque in chock-full arteries and transport it back to the liver, where it is eliminated.
• High blood pressure. Having high blood pressure increases the rate at which arterial plaque builds upward. It also hastens the hardening of clogged arteries.
• Cigarette fume. Cigarette smoke seems to increase the rate of atherosclerosis in the arteries of the heart, legs, and the aorta -- the largest artery in the body.
• Diabetes, or elevated circulating claret saccharide, is also a major culprit. Fifty-fifty people who accept elevated sugars not notwithstanding at the level of diabetes, such every bit seen in metabolic syndrome, also take increased risk of plaque formation.

• Other risk factors include family history, stress, sedentary lifestyle and obesity. Knowing your family history is critical.

Plaque frequently starts to develop during the babyhood or teenage years. Then chock-full arteries develop in middle age or later.

What are the dangers of arterial plaque and clogged arteries?

Information technology depends on where arterial plaque accumulates. Clogged arteries in dissimilar parts of the body can lead to multiple medical conditions, including:

• Coronary avenue affliction. When plaque accumulates in the arteries carrying blood to the center, it results in coronary artery disease, or heart disease. Coronary artery disease can cause breast pain or shortness of jiff. This status can atomic number 82 to heart attacks and is the leading cause of death in the United States.
• Carotid artery disease. The carotid arteries run up either side of your neck. They supply oxygen to your brain. The accumulation of arterial plaque in the carotid arteries tin lead to stroke.
• Peripheral artery disease. If plaque builds upwards in the blood vessels that carry blood to your legs, it tin can reduce the amount of oxygen delivered. The reduced blood flow tin can cause y'all to experience hurting, numbness, or serious infection in your legs and anxiety.

Exercise chock-full arteries cause any symptoms?

In many instances, chock-full arteries do not cause any symptoms until a major event, such equally a heart attack or stroke, occurs.

At other times, specially when the artery is blocked by 70% or more, the buildup of arterial plaque may cause symptoms that include:

• Chest hurting
• Shortness of breath
• Heart palpitations
• Weakness or dizziness
• Nausea
• Sweating

The first symptom, chest hurting, is also chosen angina. It may result from reduced blood flow to the heart. That reduced blood flow is caused by plaque in the arteries leading to the heart.

Clogged arteries in carotid artery disease may cause stroke precursors known as transient ischemic attacks, or TIAs. TIAs may produce the post-obit symptoms:

• Awareness of weakness or numbness on one side of your body
• Inability to move an arm or a leg
• Loss of vision on one side only
• Slurring of words

Clogged arteries in peripheral artery illness may cause:

• Leg pain
• Delayed healing of injuries to the feet
• Cold feet
• Gangrene

Are there tests for clogged arteries?

Yes. There are several tests for clogged arteries. Your doctor will determine which tests to prescribe based on your symptoms and medical history. The tests may include:

• Cholesterol screening
• Chest X-ray
• CT browse
• Ultrasound
• Echocardiogram and/or cardiac stress examination
• Electrocardiogram
• MRI or PET scanning
• Angiogram

How are clogged arteries or arterial plaque treated?

There are a variety of prevention and treatment options for clogged arteries. What your doctor prescribes to reduce arterial plaque and prevent clogged arteries will depend on the severity of your condition and your medical history. Your dr. may prescribe one or more of the following:

1. Lifestyle changes. A good for you lifestyle is essential for the direction of arterial plaque and treatment of chock-full arteries. This includes:

• Eating a diet depression in saturated fats and cholesterol, with less sugars and simple carbohydrates, and rich in fruits and vegetables
• Maintaining a healthy body weight
• Non smoking
• Exercising regularly
• Managing stress levels
• Keeping blood pressure level and cholesterol downwardly
• Maintaining low blood sugars

2. Surgical or interventional procedures. In some instances, surgery may be necessary to care for clogged arteries and prevent additional arterial plaque aggregating. These procedures may include:

• Stent placement. A pocket-sized tube chosen a stent, which may contain medication, tin be placed in an artery to maintain adequate blood flow. A catheter is used through the artery of the leg to reach the heart, and a stent is put in place through the catheter in the area of the blockage.
• Bypass surgery. In this operation, arteries from other parts of the body are moved to bypass chock-full arteries and aid oxygen-rich blood attain its target destination.
• Balloon angioplasty. This procedure helps open up chock-full arteries that have become partially or fully blocked by opening upwardly the blockage with a device that pushes the plaque to the side walls of the arteries.

3. Medications. A number of medications may assist control some of the factors that contribute to the accumulation of arterial plaque. These include:

• Cholesterol-lowering drugs
• Blood pressure level-lowering drugs
• Aspirin and other blood-thinning drugs, which reduce the likelihood of dangerous blood clot formation

Source: https://www.webmd.com/heart-disease/clogged-arteries-arterial-plaque

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