Chronic Coronary Artery Disease
Chronic coronary artery disease is also
known sometimes simply as heart disease, and tragically, it is the
number one killer in America. It is cause by a buildup of plaque in
your arteries, which causes them to harden and become more narrow. In
turn, this severely restricts the blood flow to your heart, which
needs the oxygen and nutrients delivered by your blood in order to
function properly. Nearly thirteen million Americans are affected by
this disease, and this is in the face of the fact that a lot of it
could have been prevented. To see how, let's take a look at how it
develops in the first place.
Chronic coronary artery disease can
begin developing at a surprisingly young age. What happens is plaque
starts getting deposited onto the walls of your blood vessels. Then,
as you begin to age, this pattern continues, which raises your risk
of blood clots (or even heart attacks) quite significantly. Stress
and added exertion can limit the ability of your arteries to deliver
oxygen rich blood to your heart muscle even further. If a blood clot
totally blocks the supply, that will cause a heart attack. So, as you
can see, it is best to do everything you can to prevent any blockage
from occurring in the first place.
The main ways to decrease your chances
of developing chronic coronary artery disease are through diet and
exercise. Of course, you have the added benefit here that proper diet
and exercise are among the most important ways to stay healthy in
general. In particular, when it comes to your diet, you need to
severely limit your intake of bad cholesterol. There is a such thing
as good cholesterol, but the bad kind will accelerate the buildup of
plaque in your arteries even further, which has resulted in the
belief that the main cause of heart disease in America is ultimately
a poor diet.
The treatment of chronic coronary
artery disease, once it has been diagnosed, usually begins with an
anti-cholesterol medication. This can decrease the buildup of plaque
along the walls of your arteries, which is obviously the goal of the
treatment. Of course, if your disease is diagnosed in its later
stages, then surgery may be required. That is precisely why it is so
important to get your checkups regularly. The earlier this and other
health problems are caught, the easier they are to fix.