Mix fat and cholesterol with other materials throughout your life and begin to line up your blood vessel wall. This mixture is called a plaque. As time passes, the plaque becomes harder and thicker. This can cause your blood vessels to become narrower and even block them completely without treatment.

It is conceivable that blood is difficult to pass through these narrow blood vessels. As a result, the pressure is concentrated on the heart. This can lead to heart disease, which can lead to a heart attack if the actual coronary blood vessels themselves become blocked.

In addition, the hardened plaque can actually separate from the wall and fall off. When this happens, small pieces flow through the blood vessels, which can actually lead to heart disease or even stroke.

In addition, bloody plaque can form around the plaque and even block blood flow. Clots can also spread to the brain, heart or lungs. Its tragic outcome may be as severe as a stroke, heart attack or pulmonary embolism.

Unfortunately, in addition to serious problems such as chest pain and even heart disease, there are rare symptoms of atherosclerosis. Sometimes it can be heard in the early stages of a stethoscope, but more extensive tests are often needed to diagnose arteriosclerosis.

The good news is that if you find it early, you can do a lot to prevent it from getting worse. Your doctor may prescribe a low-fat, low-cholesterol diet to reduce blood cholesterol and fat. You may also need to increase physical activity and lose weight.

In more severe cases, drugs may be needed to help lower cholesterol and even dilute the blood to prevent clots. Surgery by angioplasty is also a treatment option. Surgery called endarterectomy can be performed to actually remove some plaque from the vessel wall, although this is not common.

In very severe occlusion situations, a bypass surgery may be required. This creates a bypass around the heart blockage that prevents heart attacks.

Automatic defibrillator at home and at work

One of the most important advances in emergency response is the development of automatic defibrillators. If someone has a heart attack, this is a device that helps the electronics stimulate the heart to beat.

In the past, first responders had to rely on cardiopulmonary resuscitation to keep blood through the body until they helped, but now a trained person can actually start a procedure to start the heart.

Automatic external defibrillators [AEDs] are very user friendly. They come with two self-adhesive pads that attack the chest in specific areas. Then press the button on the machine to start the process.

The machine analyzes the heartbeat and tells the answer what to do. For example, if there is no heart rhythm that can be shocked, the machine will tell you to continue managing CPR.

The machine will also check your heart rate intermittently by telling you to stop CPR and wait. If it finds an electric shock rhythm, it will tell you to clear everyone away from this person and press the button to manage the power. It will then measure the heartbeat and give you a description of the next step.

Defibrillators can be found in many workplaces and aircraft. They allow someone to receive treatment quickly while waiting for the ambulance to arrive. It turns out that AED can increase the risk of heart attack by 50-74%. It can also buy one for your home, although they currently cost more than a thousand dollars.

It is essential that you receive appropriate training using AEDs. Along with using an AED, you may need to perform CPR. If the CPR is not performed correctly, it may cause injury.

You can receive AED and CPR training at the local American Heart Association or the American Red Cross. This training is inexpensive and saves lives. You may also want to discuss with someone in the workplace how to invest in an AED for the office and train all employees to use it.

Before the establishment of the AED, people could only perform cardiopulmonary resuscitation. Cardiopulmonary resuscitation is not about restarting the heart; it can only help keep oxygen moving through the body tissues until medical help comes.

The AED allows people to start trying to restart the heart. This not only increases the chances of survival, but also minimizes the risk of harm to the body due to lack of oxygen.

Atherosclerosis interpretation was originally published on Spring