!44: Hardening and Narrowing of the Arteries

!±8± Hardening and Narrowing of the Arteries

Hardening and narrowing is a common condition affecting millions of Americans. Perhaps you are one of them? And even if you aren't, there is a good chance that you will be impacted, at least to some degree, at some point in your life. In this article delving into hardening and narrowing of the arteries we will briefly walk through some of the nuances of this condition, ultimately arriving at the a number of the most often mentioned causes.

Hardening and narrowing of the arties is more commonly known as arthrosclerosis, a condition which the arteries carrying blood from the heart to other parts of the body becomes narrowed due to plaque deposits. As an artery, or arteries, slowly start to close pressure is put on the heart to pump harder and faster to accomplish the same amount of work. Despite the body's best effort oxygen and blood supply will slowly start to dwindle leaving such areas as the eyes, brain, stomach, kidneys, and legs with a shortage of blood and oxygen. Additional pressure on the heart combined with limited blood and oxygen flow to important areas of the body opens the door for myriad of symptoms, conditions, and diseases including heart attack and stroke. According to American Heart Association 75% of heart attack deaths are linked to hardening and narrowing of the arteries.

What about symptoms?

There is a very good chance that in its earliest stages atherosclerosis will produce no symptoms at all. And if a few do occur they will be attributed to the aging process or working too many hours. This is one of the real dangers of the disease, putting people silently on the road to immanent disaster silently long before a serious heart attack or stroke occurs. And one interesting fact along these lines according to the Center for Disease Control is that almost half of heart attack victims fail to make it to the hospital before dying.

But as the grim reaper of hardening and narrowing of the arteries comes closer symptoms often will start to appear relatively often and become quite noticeable. The most common of these are chest pain, shortness of breath, sweating, anxiety, and fluid accumulation around the ankles and/or in the lungs (edema).

If the carotid or vertebral arteries supplying the brain has begun to narrow a person may notice speech problems, weakness, difficulty swallowing, blindness, and in advanced cases partial paralysis.

Does cholesterol play a role in hardening and narrowing of the arteries?

There are a number of different factors that play a role in hardening and narrowing of the arteries with cholesterol being one the most important. The reason is cholesterol is the primary building block for artery plaque. For this reason the American Heart Association warns that a diet consisting of more than 10 percent cholesterol laden saturated fat may put a person at risk, with a diet consisting of more than 30 percent total fat also presenting risks to heart and artery health. Warnings such as these have lead many people to seek out help for controlling dangerous high cholesterol through either prescription medications (statins) or natural cholesterol reduction supplements.

Other factors that have been shown to contribute to hardening and narrowing of the arteries are inactivity, obesity, cigarette smoking, high blood pressure, diabetes, genetics, age, and race.