Arteriosclerosis
The thickening and hardening of the walls of the arteries
Arteriosclerosis
A chronic disease characterized by abnormal thickening and hardening of the arterial walls with resulting loss of elasticity, occuring typically in old age.
Signs and symptoms of Arteriosclerosis
Common symptoms include:
- chest pain or angina.
- pain in your leg, arm, and anywhere else that has a blocked artery.
- shortness of breath.
- fatigue.
- confusion, which occurs if the blockage affects circulation to your brain.
- muscle weakness in your legs from lack of circulation.
How Arteriosclerosis is Diagnosed
If you come to your doctor with these Symptoms, Your doctor will order more common tests if they think you may have Arteriosclerosis. These tests can include: a blood test to check your cholesterol levels. A Doppler ultrasound, which uses sound waves to create a picture of the artery that shows if there's a blockage. For more complex Arteriosclerosis Doctors will order more tests such as Ankle-brachial index, Electrocardiogram (ECG), Stress test, Cardiac catheterization and angiogram, and other imaging tests.
What triggers Arteriosclerosis
Arteriosclerosis is a Chronic disease it begins with damage to the endothelium caused by high blood pressure, smoking, or high cholesterol. That damage leads to the formation of plaque and the hardening of arteries leading to restricted blood flow
First Aid Care for Arteriosclerosis
Following Doctors treatment or advice to prevent stroke and or heart attack
Preventative Steps
nine risk factors are to blame for upwards of 90% of all heart attacks:
- Smoking
- High cholesterol
- High blood pressure
- Diabetes
- Abdominal obesity
- Stress
- Not eating healthy
- Excess alcohol intake (more than one drink for women, one or two drinks for men, per day
- Not exercising regularly
- Lifestyle changes: Reducing the lifestyle risk factors that lead to atherosclerosis will slow or stop the process. That means a healthy diet, exercise, and no smoking. These lifestyle changes won't remove blockages, but they’re proven to lower the risk of heart attacks and strokes.
Treatment Methods
Treatment methods include:
- Medication: Taking drugs for high cholesterol and High blood pressure, will slow and perhaps even halt the progression of atherosclerosis, as well as lower your risk of heart attacks and stroke.
- Lifestyle changes.
- Bypass surgery: Surgeons "harvest" a healthy blood vessel (often from the leg or chest). They use the healthy vessel to bypass a segment blocked by Arteriosclerosis.
Prognosis for someone with Arteriosclerosis
Hardening of the arteries cannot be reversed once it has occurred. However, lifestyle changes and treating high cholesterol levels can prevent or slow the process from becoming worse.
What is Atherosclerosis?