Atherosclerosis is a chronic disease that leads to the fact that the lumen of the arteries gradually narrows, their functioning is disrupted. When the blood flow in the artery of an organ becomes insufficient, it also stops working properly.
It is believed that the disease occurs due to the accumulation on the walls of arteries of cholesterol, as well as fibers and cells of scar tissue. However, with the expansion of knowledge and deepening of research, it turned out that this theory of the occurrence of atherosclerosis cannot be the only true one. Indeed, cholesterol is found in the adrenal glands, brain, and human adipose tissue. In the body, it undergoes various transformations, the quality of which depends on metabolic processes. As a result of these transformations, such compounds can appear with other substances (mainly protein) that significantly facilitate the penetration of cholesterol into the walls of blood vessels. Thus, an increase in its content in blood serum is an undesirable factor accelerating the development of the disease, but still not the main one.
The main causes of atherosclerosis and its further development lie in the change in the state of tissue cells on the artery wall, in the deviation of biochemical processes that occur in it.
The manifestations and types of atherosclerosis depend on which arteries of which organs are affected, since the defeat of the disease of the whole organism practically does not occur. Basically, the vessels of the legs, kidneys and brain, coronary vessels of the heart are affected.
The manifestations and types of atherosclerosis in case of damage to the arteries of the brain are, first of all, a stroke (acute circulatory failure). Usually it comes suddenly. However, with hypertension and vascular damage, there are precursors of apoplexy stroke. They can be: increasing headache, dizziness, heaviness and noise in the head.
The manifestations and types of atherosclerosis in lesions of the coronary vessels that feed the heart muscle are coronary insufficiency. The spasm of the vessels aggravates the disease . There are two types of coronary insufficiency: acute and chronic. Due to coronary insufficiency, when the blood supply to the heart is disrupted, new, more severe manifestations and types of atherosclerosis can develop - myocardial infarction, angina pectoris, coronary artery disease. Often, clogging of the lumen of the coronary arteries of the heart is also joined by a blockage of the vessel in the area of its lesion, which leads to the fact that to a certain part of the muscle of the heart the blood either arrives poorly or does not enter at all. Increases the possibility of a blood clot disruption of the blood coagulation process, and the spasm of coronary arteries plays an important role. Insufficient supply of blood to an organ with angina pectoris may go unnoticed for some time and appear only during physical exertion, when the heart muscles are in dire need of oxygen.
Manifestations and types of atherosclerosis with damage to the vessels of the legs are obliterating endarteritis, aorto-arteritis. They are characterized by pain (which increases during movement and during physical exertion) and weakness in the lower limbs, impaired gait, cramps in the calf muscles.
The human vascular system is able to gradually independently compensate for the flow of blood, which was disturbed by atherosclerosis and its complications. But for such a colossal restructuring of its channel, it is required that the organs perform functions natural to it (without overloads), and not atrophy completely without movement. It is also necessary to observe moderation in nutrition throughout life, not only in the amount of food taken, but also in its composition, calories.