A woman experiencing chest pains. [Photo-rtmagazine.com]
This is one the gravest health condition in one’s body. One is diagnosed with the disease when plaque- a deposition, forms on the walls of the coronary artery just as the name suggests, this condition is also referred to as atherosclerosis.
The arteries, which are always smooth and elastic soon turn out to be rigid and narrow consequently constrains enough blood to flow to the heart. Therefore the heart is starved of vital nutrients and oxygen to continue carrying out its daily activity of pumping the blood to other parts of the body.
It takes a process to develop this kind of a fatal disease, throughout one’s growth, a deposition of cholesterol-loaded with plaque accumulates on the walls of the blood vessels, and the blood vessels get inflamed subsequently predisposed to the dangers of blood clots and heart attack. These plaques cause the walls of blood vessels to be thick and sticky.
This results in the sticking of other substances that travel in the bloodstream such as inflammatory cells, lipoproteins, and calcium to the walls of the blood vessels.
After all, these have happened, the squeezed coronary artery may develop new blood vessels that when one is under pressure, exertion and stress, the new vessels are not able to supply the heart muscles with blood rich in oxygen.
The blood clot is fatal as to some extent it might cause a total blockage of blood supply to the heart muscle, this results in the condition referred to as heart attack. Moreover, an ischemic stroke can result if a blood vessel to the brain is blocked. Besides ischemic stroke, a hemorrhagic stroke may result if a blood vessel bursts in the brain due to hypertension (high blood pressure)