Arteriosclerosis is a disease process that occurs in arteries throughout the body. Overtime, areas of arteriosclerosis can show large amounts of fat accumulation, often with numerous cholesterol crystals, areas of calcification, and large amounts of fibrous scar tissue.
Hydrogenated oils play a key role in increasing your risk of arteriosclerosis.
What is Arteriosclerosis?
Arteriosclerosis is a disease process that occurs in arteries throughout the body. It occurs very slowly over decades and in many cases may never cause any severe medical problems. The disease shows itself as a small bumps which develop in arteries predominately at or near branch points in the arterial tree. Early on, arteriosclerosis may show only as small bumps with expansion of normal tissues of the vessel wall. Years later, the areas of arteriosclerosis show large amounts of fat accumulation, often with numerous cholesterol crystals, areas of calcification, and large amounts of fibrous scar tissue. Arteries with large areas of arteriosclerosis can suddenly become plugged with a blood clot resulting in the death of whatever tissue lies downstream.
What is coronary artery disease?
Coronary artery disease is nothing more than arteriosclerosis occurring specifically in the arteries of the heart. Arteriosclerosis in the arteries of the heart is of obvious medical priority because reducing or obstructing blood flow to any portion of the heart muscle can become an immediate life-threatening event. Complete obstruction, or heart attack, if not aggressively and promptly treated results in the death, or infarction, of the portion of heart muscle downstream of the obstructed artery. Reduced blood flow can result in chest pain, known as angina, that may not be immediately life-threatening but it can result in a reduction in the amount of work that the heart can do. In such a patient, chest pain may be accompanied by a sense of shortness of breath and ultimately could develop into heart failure. Also of concern, a portion of the heart that is not getting enough blood flow can become electrically unstable and dangerous, possibly life-threatening abnormal heart rhythms can develop.
