Coronary artery disease :

The major blood vessel that is responsible for providing heart with blood, nutrients and oxygen. When these arteries are damaged due to some disease or because of build up fatty deposits called plaque the condition is known as coronary artery disease. The deposits are potent to narrow the coronary arteries and thus affecting the amount of blood reaching out to heart. The reduced flow of blood to the heart will result in the chest pain. A complete blockage will trigger heart attack. Coronary artery disease takes decades before it can appear so it goes unnoticed unless it causes a heart attack. However, there is hope in changing your life style that can prevent human beings from developing coronary artery disease.

Symptoms of Coronary Artery Disease

The coronary arteries on getting narrower cannot supply ample oxygenated blood to the heart. In cases when heart is working hard, at times of exhausting work, the oxygen that reaches from the arteries to the heart declines. Initially working hard will not generate any symptoms of coronary artery disease but as the accumulation of fatty deposits increases at the coronary arteries symptoms start to emerge. Some of these symptoms are angina (that is pain in chest), shortness of breath (as the heart starts to beat fast so the demand of oxygen can be fulfilled) and heart attack (at the complete blockage of coronary arteries the heart gets an attack).

Causes of Coronary Artery Disease

Development of atherosclerosis is considered to be the reason of coronary artery disease. It is thought that the beginning of coronary artery disease is the injury of or damage to the inner layer of coronary artery in earlier times such as childhood. There are a number of factors that can damage the coronary artery and some of them are: high blood pressure, high cholesterol, smoking, diabetes and radiation therapy that is used for the treatment of certain types of cancer.
Once a portion of coronary artery is damages the fatty deposits, known as plaques, made of cholesterol and similar waste products of cell starts to make their way for deposition, a process that is commonly termed as atherosclerosis. At the breakage or rupture of these surface fatty deposits, platelets (the blood cells) will clump at the damaged site and try to repair the artery. These clumps can block the artery and lead to heart attack.
Risk factors of coronary artery disease are as follows:

• Getting older will increase your tendency to damage or narrow the coronary arteries.
• Men are more vulnerable to develop coronary artery disease than women however the menopause can increase the risk factor in women. So gender difference will eliminate by the passage of time and both genders will have equal chances of developing coronary artery disease.
• Having a history of heart disease makes you an easy target of coronary artery disease. In cases where parents coronary artery disease in an early age (that is before 60 years) the risk factor of coronary artery disease in children increases.
• Blood vessels are constricted by the nicotine and carbon monoxide can damage the inner lining of coronary arteries, thus making the arteries susceptible to develop atherosclerosis. In women who smoke 20 cigarettes a day the risk factor of developing coronary artery disease is six times higher than the non-smoking women where in men the danger of getting coronary artery disease triples with smoking.
• Higher blood pressure if not controlled can harden and thicken the arteries and narrow the space from which blood flows.
• The risk of deposition of plaques on coronary arteries can increase with the high levels of cholesterol. High level of low density lipoproteins (LDLs) called bad cholesterol or low level of high density lipoproteins (HDLs) called good cholesterol are the causes of elevating the level of cholesterol.
• The risk of having coronary artery disease is directly related to diabetes. High blood pressure and obesity are the same risk factors for both diseases.
• Getting weight makes one more susceptible to accumulate plaque on the lining of coronary artery.
• Physical activity is also not only related to the coronary artery disease but also with other diseases.
• High stress level in one’s life can increase the risk of damaging arteries while worsening the other risk factors to intensify the coronary artery disease.

Risk factors are not independent of each other but exists in the form of clusters where each risk factor is built upon another risk factor for example obesity is related to high blood pressure as well as diabetes. When risk factors are built upon one another they can lead to greater risk of developing coronary artery disease and later on further complications.

It is worth noticing that there are no hard and fast rules to figure out who with which risk factors will be victimized by coronary artery disease and who will not. However, researchers and biologists are looking into number of other significant factors other than the above mentioned to sort out the exact reasons. Some of these other related risk actors are C-reactive protein (CRP), homocysteine, fibrinogen and lipoprotein. The best way is to secure one self is changing your life style and eating habits, as prescribed by the physicians.

 

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