What are arteries?
Arteries are the vessels that carry blood from your heart to your body. It is important that these vessels are strong and smooth.
What is arteriosclerosis?
Arteriosclerosis is a thickening, hardening, and loss of elasticity of the arterial walls, which results in impaired blood circulation. Arteriosclerosis can occur because of fatty deposits on the inner lining of arteries (called atherosclerosis), calcification of the wall of the arteries, or thickening of the muscular wall of the arteries from chronically elevated blood pressure.
What is atherosclerosis?
Atherosclerosis is a type of arteriosclerosis. The two terms are often interchangeable. Atherosclerosis also means hardening of the arteries. It occurs when fat, cholesterol, and other substances build up in the walls of arteries and form hard structures called plaques.
Over time plaques make the artery narrow and less flexible, making it harder for blood to flow through. If your coronary arteries become narrow, blood flow to the heart can slow down or stop. This can cause chest pain (aka stable angina), shortness of breath, heart attack and other serious medical symptoms.
It’s similar to what happens when you continually pour grease down your kitchen sink – the grease sticks to the walls of the pipes, hardens and eventually blocks the flow of water.
In the same way, plaque blocks your blood flow. And if your blood flow is stopped by a clot that gets stuck between plaque filled walls, a heart attack (lack of blood in the heart) occurs if blockage is in a chest artery. It’s called a stroke if blockage occurs in your neck artery.
What is coronary heart disease?
Coronary artery disease is the narrowing of the arteries leading to the heart sufficiently to prevent adequate blood supply to the heart muscle.
What is heart disease?
When you think of heart disease in men, usually people think of coronary artery disease (narrowing of the arteries leading to the heart), but coronary artery disease is just one type of heart disease.
Heart disease can mean more than one specific health problem. For a definition of various forms of heart disease we recommend clicking on WebMD.
What is cardiovascular disease?
Cardiovascular disease includes a number of conditions affecting the structures or function of the heart. They can include:
- Coronary artery disease (including heart attack)
- Abnormal heart rhythms or arrhythmias
- Heart failure
- Heart valve disease
- Congenital heart disease
- Heart muscle disease (cardiomyopathy)
- Pericardial disease
- Aorta disease and Marfan syndrome
- Vascular disease (blood vessel disease)
Symptoms of all the different disease labels
Symptoms usually do not occur until blood flow becomes restricted or blocked. What that means is you can’t feel your arteries slowly getting blocked until all of a sudden a clot stops blood flow to your heart.
Medical treatments
Since there are different kids of diseases that relate to your arteries and to your heart we don’t want to make any comments. Please refer to the online medical sites listed below.
Cardiovascular disease is the leading cause of death for both men and women in the U.S. It is important to learn about your heart to help prevent heart disease. And, if you have heart disease, you can live a healthier, more active life by learning about your disease and treatments and by becoming an active participant in your care.
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