Arteriosclerosis: Stiff Blood Vessels Restricting Oxygen Flow - Essay Sample

Introduction

Arteriosclerosis happens when the blood vessels which transport nutrients and oxygen from the heart to the other parts of the body, especially arteries, become stiff, causing a restriction of blood flow to the tissues within the body. Normally, arteries in a healthy condition are elastic and flexible. While arteriosclerosis is commonly regarded as heart disease, it can still affect arteries inside the body (Rafieian et al. 2014).

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The symptoms of arteriosclerosis develop gradually. The symptoms associated with coronary arteries include; arrhythmia, which is an unusual heartbeat, shortness of breath, chest, neck, jaw, or even arms pain. The symptoms that are related to the arteries which carry blood to the brain are; paralysis, acute headache, poor eyesight, and sagging facial muscles. Kidney failure may occur together with high blood pressure, which are symptoms associated with arteries that transport blood to the kidneys (Rafieian et al. 2014). Additionally, when the arteries of the legs, pelvis, and even arms are affected, numbness, and severe leg pains when one is walking may occur.

Arteriosclerosis may develop slowly from the childhood stage. The exact cause of this disease is unknown though it starts with the damage of the inner layers of the artery. The injury may result from high blood pressure, high triglycerides and cholesterol levels, smoking, and also inflammation disorders, including arthritis. Aging is the major risk factor of arteriosclerosis. Apart from aging, other risk factors include; diabetes, unhealthy diet, family history of the disease, increased levels of cholesterol, high blood pressure, stress, and lack of physical exercise (Rafieian et al. 2014).

The complications of this disease include heart failure, stroke, chronic kidney diseases., aneurysms, and angina. Arteriosclerosis can be prevented by running a healthy life routine. These routines include; doing regular exercises, refraining from smoking, taking healthy foods, and observing the recommended healthy weight. During diagnosis, a physical test may fist be undertaken by the doctor where when sins such as low blood pressure and whooshing sounds over the arteries are realized; further tests are taken. These tests comprise of blood tests which dig out the amout of blood sugar and cholesterol, doppler ultrasound, which evaluate blood pressure, electrocardiogram which analyses the electrical signals and detects previous heart attack.

Although a healthy lifestyle is the most recommended treatment for arteriosclerosis, at times, some medical procedures are also applied. Some drugs reduce the effects of this disease or still reverse the effects. These include water pills, angiotensin-converting enzyme inhibitors, calcium channel blockers, and antiplatelet drugs (Rafieian et al. 2014).

References

Rafieian-Kopaei, M., Setorki, M., Doudi, M., Baradaran, A., & Nasri, H. (2014). Atherosclerosis: process, indicators, risk factors and new hopes. International journal of preventive medicine, 5(8), 927. Retrieved from www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC4258672/