Arteriosclerosis is one of the arterial diseases that cause high blood pressure. Basically, that is a disorder that includes thickening of the walls in arteries. That thickening breaches into the lumen of artery and that area is filled with yellowish material. Arteriosclerosis can emerge very early in a person, but in the beginning, there are no symptoms. Symptoms start to emerge when ateroma (thickened part of the wall), because of lipid accumulation, induces narrowing of the lumen of the blood vessel. Gradual enlargement of ateroma can lead to its rupture. And if the thrombus comes along the way, blood vessel can be completely blocked.
Factors
Risk factors related to the occurrence of arteriosclerosis are divided into changeable and non-changeable. Non-changeable are aging, gender and genetic factors (frequency of occurrence of arteriosclerosis in the family). Potentially changeable factors are hypertension, smoking, hyperlipidemia (hypercholesterolemia, hypertriglyceridemia), low values of HDL (good cholesterol), diabetes, obesity, physical passivity etc.
A place in the organism where arteriosclerosis happens often is aorta, or more specifically, aorta breaching spot, carotid arteries and arteries of lower extremities. The increase of LDL has a direct toxic effect on the endothelium of blood vessels. In arterial hypertension, beside reduction of vascular protective abilities of endothelium, there are also some other disorders of the walls in the blood vessels.
Clinical manifestation of arteriosclerosis depends of the level of development and activity of risk factors. If a blood vessel is completely blocked because of arteriosclerosis, heart attack might occur. But also, some other things can happen, such as infarct of brain and inner organs. If the blockage is not complete, in that case, coronary, cerebral and visceral insufficiency can happen. It is very important to determine a so-called lipid status of the patient, which results in two forms of arteriosclerosis. One is spontaneous arteriosclerosis and it has a slower growth, while the other one, accelerated arteriosclerosis, is faster and changes in the blood vessel do not happen that easily. Most common accelerated arteriosclerosis happens during bypass surgery, PTCI, heart transplantation, etc. Main role in the creation of accelerated arteriosclerosis is performed by immunological factors.
Treatment
Adequate eating habits, that will lead to reduction of the high blood pressure and also arteriosclerosis might be prevented like this. Herbal food is recommended, vegetables more especially. Intake of fat has to be reduced; especially non-essential fatty acids should be avoided. Decreased intake of carbs and overall value of calories is also a great prevention and therapy method for this condition.
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