Thursday, March 12, 2009

Coronary Artery Disease -What You Need to Know

By Katie A. Price

Heart disease is a general term for any ailments of the heart; however, it is also frequently associated with coronary heart disease. Coronary heart disease mainly affects the coronary artery of the heart. The coronary artery is a major vessel in the heart that receives oxygenated blood and distributes it to the heart muscles. Plaque is formed in the arterial walls causing narrowing of the vessels and limiting blood flow. This results in increased blood pressure as well.

You might probably be wondering what a fat deposit in your artery can do. Actually, these fat deposits are very harmful to you. When your vessels are narrowed because of these fat deposits, the blood that is oxygenated by the lungs will not be able to reach your heart muscles, or will reach it but the amount is inadequate. This causes a stabbing pain in your chest that radiates to your arms and shoulders. This pain is what we call angina.

Angina happens because not enough oxygen reaches the heart muscles. Muscles are aerobic, which means that it needs oxygen to work properly. When muscles work without an adequate oxygen supply, lactic acid is formed. The lactic acid will cause muscle fatigue then eventually pain. Angina is very painful because it feels like as if your chest is squeezed. Angina isnt limited to your chest because the pain radiates to several parts of the body such as jaws, back, and shoulders.

A heart attack is inevitable after an angina attack. Angina is like the alarm for an upcoming heart attack. The heart fails to function because it lacks the supply of oxygen needed for its optimum functioning. Heart muscles become necrotic or dead and malfunction because of the prolonged inadequacy in the supply of oxygen rich blood.

Now that you know all about the disease process of coronary artery disease, you should also know what its risk factors are so that you'll be able to prevent having such a disease. If you have a family history of coronary artery disease, you will have a greater chance of developing it. Smoking can also increase the risk of developing heart disease because nicotine causes blood vessel constriction which further narrows the arteries.

If you are living a sedentary or inactive lifestyle, it is now time to change your ways and to do some serious physical work. A sedentary lifestyle will increase your risk of developing heart disease because without physical activities, your heart muscles will become flabby and weak. You need to do some simple exercises to tone your heart muscles and make it strong.

Those who are overweight need to drop those extra pounds because they are also at risk for developing heart disease. People who are overweight have too much fat in their body which causes their muscles to be weak and not toned. Fats can also form plaque in the arterial walls which causes coronary artery disease. Exercise and proper diet should therefore be their approach to prevent developing heart disease.

Major lifestyle changes have to be made in order to prevent coronary heart disease. Living an active lifestyle is important to maintain good health. Coronary artery disease is a lifetime disease. Medications will be needed for maintenance and prevention of heart attack. Although there are a lot of procedures available to treat heart disease, these are only for management and not cure. - 15437

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