How to Know if You Have Plague in Your Arteries
Clogged Arteries (Arterial Plaque)
Arteries are claret vessels that carry claret rich in oxygen throughout your torso. They go to your brain too every bit to the tips of your toes. Healthy arteries have polish inner walls and blood flows through them easily. Some people, however, develop clogged arteries. Clogged arteries outcome from a buildup of a substance chosen plaque on the inner walls of the arteries. Arterial plaque tin reduce claret flow or, in some instances, block information technology altogether.
Clogged arteries greatly increment the likelihood of eye attack, stroke, and even expiry. Considering of these dangers, information technology is of import to exist aware, no matter how old you lot are, of the causes of avenue plaque and treatment strategies to forestall serious consequences.
What causes arterial plaque?
Plaque that accumulates on the inner walls of your arteries is made from diverse substances that circulate in your blood. These include calcium, fatty, cholesterol, cellular waste material, and fibrin, a material involved in blood clotting. In response to plaque buildup, cells in your artery walls multiply and secrete boosted substances that tin worsen the state of chock-full 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 procedure seems to stalk from impairment to the lining of the arterial wall. This damage, which enables the degradation of plaque, may issue from:
- Loftier ''bad'' cholesterol and low ''practiced'' cholesterol. High levels of ''bad'' cholesterol, or low-density lipoprotein (LDL), are major contributors to arterial plaque formation. But that doesn't tell the whole story. Everyone also has ''good'' cholesterol, or high-density lipoprotein (HDL), circulating in the blood. HDL is believed to remove some of the bad cholesterol from plaque in clogged arteries and ship information technology back to the liver, where it is eliminated.
- Loftier blood pressure. Having high blood force per unit area increases the rate at which arterial plaque builds upwards. It also hastens the hardening of clogged arteries.
- Cigarette fume. Cigarette smoke seems to increase the rate of atherosclerosis in the arteries of the centre, legs, and the aorta -- the largest artery in the body.
- Diabetes, or elevated circulating claret sugar, is also a major culprit. Even people who accept elevated sugars non yet at the level of diabetes, such equally seen in metabolic syndrome, likewise have increased chance of plaque formation.
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Other risk factors include family unit history, stress, sedentary lifestyle and obesity. Knowing your family history is critical.
Plaque often starts to develop during the childhood or teenage years. So clogged arteries develop in middle age or later on.
What are the dangers of arterial plaque and chock-full arteries?
It depends on where arterial plaque accumulates. Clogged arteries in dissimilar parts of the trunk can pb to multiple medical weather, including:
- Coronary artery disease. When plaque accumulates in the arteries carrying blood to the centre, information technology results in coronary artery illness, or heart affliction. Coronary artery disease tin can crusade chest pain or shortness of jiff. This status can lead to heart attacks and is the leading cause of death in the United states of america.
- Carotid artery illness. The carotid arteries run up either side of your cervix. They supply oxygen to your brain. The accumulation of arterial plaque in the carotid arteries can lead to stroke.
- Peripheral avenue disease. If plaque builds up in the blood vessels that acquit claret to your legs, it can reduce the amount of oxygen delivered. The reduced blood flow can crusade you to feel pain, numbness, or serious infection in your legs and anxiety.
Do chock-full arteries cause any symptoms?
In many instances, chock-full arteries do not crusade any symptoms until a major event, such as a heart attack or stroke, occurs.
At other times, especially when the artery is blocked by seventy% or more, the buildup of arterial plaque may crusade symptoms that include:
- Chest pain
- Shortness of jiff
- Heart palpitations
- Weakness or dizziness
- Nausea
- Sweating
The first symptom, chest pain, is also called angina. It may issue from reduced claret flow to the eye. That reduced blood flow is caused by plaque in the arteries leading to the heart.
Chock-full arteries in carotid avenue affliction may cause stroke precursors known every bit transient ischemic attacks, or TIAs. TIAs may produce the following symptoms:
- Sensation of weakness or numbness on one side of your body
- Inability to movement an arm or a leg
- Loss of vision on ane side just
- Slurring of words
Clogged arteries in peripheral artery disease 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 volition determine which tests to prescribe based on your symptoms and medical history. The tests may include:
- Cholesterol screening
- Chest Ten-ray
- CT browse
- Ultrasound
- Echocardiogram and/or cardiac stress test
- Electrocardiogram
- MRI or PET scanning
- Angiogram
How are clogged arteries or arterial plaque treated?
There are a diverseness of prevention and treatment options for clogged arteries. What your doctor prescribes to reduce arterial plaque and forestall chock-full arteries will depend on the severity of your condition and your medical history. Your physician may prescribe one or more of the following:
1. Lifestyle changes. A healthy lifestyle is essential for the management of arterial plaque and treatment of clogged arteries. This includes:
- Eating a nutrition low in saturated fats and cholesterol, with less sugars and uncomplicated carbohydrates, and rich in fruits and vegetables
- Maintaining a healthy body weight
- Not smoking
- Exercising regularly
- Managing stress levels
- Keeping blood pressure and cholesterol down
- Maintaining low blood sugars
2. Surgical or interventional procedures. In some instances, surgery may be necessary to treat clogged arteries and prevent boosted arterial plaque accumulation. These procedures may include:
- Stent placement. A minor tube called a stent, which may contain medication, tin be placed in an artery to maintain adequate blood flow. A catheter is used through the avenue of the leg to reach the heart, and a stent is put in identify through the catheter in the area of the blockage.
- Bypass surgery. In this operation, arteries from other parts of the body are moved to featherbed clogged arteries and help oxygen-rich blood reach its target destination.
- Airship angioplasty. This procedure helps open clogged arteries that have become partially or fully blocked by opening up the blockage with a device that pushes the plaque to the side walls of the arteries.
iii. Medications. A number of medications may aid control some of the factors that contribute to the accumulation of arterial plaque. These include:
- Cholesterol-lowering drugs
- Blood pressure-lowering drugs
- Aspirin and other claret-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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