BLOCKAGE of the arteries supplying the heart with blood is termed “coronary heart disease” or simply CAD. The problem develops because the coronary arteries become narrowed or completely blocked by plaque. When this occurs, blood, with its life-sustaining load of oxygen, can’t reach the heart muscle. Without oxygen, the heart begins to suffocate and will eventually stop pumping.
What causes the arteries to be clogged? Your body carries fats called lipids in the blood. Lipids can gradually build up inside the blood vessels. These buildups can harden or calcify. Then other factors become involved, making the blockages bigger and bigger. Blood has an increasingly difficult time passing through the arteries. That was the situation a friend of mine was in when he was rushed to the hospital. He was experiencing an acute problem that needed immediate acute care.
Dr. James L. Marcum, a board-certified Behavioral Cardiologist at Chattanooga Heart Institute in Tennessee said that one thing to keep in mind is that plaque buildup can be occurring in any artery anywhere in the body, including the brain, the aorta, or the legs. Developing hand in hand with this buildup is inflammation or increased swelling within the arteries. Sometimes a blockage, which is also called a “plaque mat” can become unstable. If this mat, which is sometimes thought of as a pimple, pops, there can be big problems, even if there’s only a 30 to 40 percent narrowing in the artery.
The body sees this rupture as an injury and sends what it believes to be healing cells to the site.
He says that, if you cut your arm, many different types of cells are recruited to fight the damage. The same thing happens inside the artery when a plaque mat ruptures. The cells rushing to the rescue mean to do the body good, and usually that’s what they do. But at the mat rupture site, they do something less than helpful. They finish plugging up what space remains in the artery. The result? Blood flow is stopped and the owner of the artery experiences a debilitating heart attack.
How many of us are going through life thinking everything is just fine when, unseen and unfelt, something is building inside us, something dangerous and life threatening?
Unfortunately, there are no diagnostic tests to predict which plaques will rupture. When a plaque “popped,” the recruited damage-fighting cells formed a clot that resulted in a great restriction of blood flow in the artery. Severe pain from a heart muscle not receiving enough blood immediately followed. The cornerstone in the acute treatment of CAD is first to restore blood flow to the heart as quickly as possible. Time lost is muscle lost. If the blocked artery is not opened quickly and the blood flow restored, a full heart attack will occur. Because of the lack of blood flow to the heart, the body’s electrical system could be damaged and malfunction, resulting in a dangerously slow, fast or uneven heart rhythm. When these rhythms occur, the heart may not be able to pump sufficient blood to the other organs of the body, and these organs can also begin to malfunction.
In addition to all this, the heart valves controlling the direction of blood flow depends on muscles that may be damaged during a heart attack. So now there’s blood flowing but in the wrong direction. Most severe of all, during a heart attack, it is even possible that a dead heart muscle may break open or rupture. This situation is usually fatal.
Going back to my friend, he says that he felt nothing until that attack. He didn’t know it was coming. So, where did it comes from? The stressors in your life, the cigarettes you smoked, the foods you ate and the genetic bombs you triggered with your unhealthy lifestyle all cause a heart attack.
