Monday, April 4th, 2011
Before discussing the symptoms of atherosclerosis, it would be imperative to know about the disease itself. Atherosclerosis disease is basically a slow process of thickening the wall of arteries causing the less flow of blood in any part of the body as it can affect any organ of the body. but it becomes more fatal when it affects the arteries leading to the heart or brain. it is the narrowing of the arteries being occurred due to the formation of plaques in the inner part of these blood vessels. the thickness of the blood vessels increases with age.
Atherosclerosis has become a major cause of death in America since it affects the blood vessels not only leading to heart and brain but also some most important organs like kidney, intestine, etc resulting in the less supply of blood to these organs and causing more complications.
The paradox of this disease is that it affects right from adolescent stage but at the same time it’s not symptomatic. the symptoms become obvious only when the blood supply to an organ is severely reduced. this condition is called ischemia which causes discomfort and pain. Sometimes people die without the knowledge of any such symptoms as they suffer from sudden heart attack or stroke. Moreover, the symptoms also depend upon the fact that which part of your body is affected with the less supply of blood.
If blood vessels leading to the heart are affected you will have coronary artery disease. in that case you may feel pain in the heart there will be all possibility of heart attack.if blood vessels leading to brain get affected, you might suffer from cerebrovascular disease and you tend to have Ischemic attack.if arteries of your legs are affected you are prone to peripheral arterial disease. in that case you feel intermittent pain in your thighs and you won’t have smooth walk.
Some notable signs and symptoms of atherosclerosis are given below:
1. Pain in the shoulder2. Heart attack or stroke3. Brain stroke4. Blood clotting in legs5. Pain and cramps in legs6. Claudicating7. Thrombosis in coronary artery8. Erectile dysfunction
All the symptoms can be confirmed by a doctor only because some signs of atherosclerosis may match with the symptoms of some other diseases.