Heart disease is a term applied to a wide variety of disorders with genetic, trauma, or more commonly, lifestyle-related causes. Many of these diseases are not as well known as the results, such as heart attacks due to atherosclerosis. Often enough, the signs of heart disease are subtle and may only become apparent when you are most at risk.
Your heart is essentially a large muscle sectioned off into four chambers: two atria (the upper chambers) and two ventricles (the muscular lower chambers). Arteries and veins enter and exit the heart at the openings of each of these chambers while nerves lie within the heart itself.
The primary cause of most heart disease lies within this design itself: the heart is so crucial to survival that several small vessels known as the coronary arteries supply blood to the heart before providing blood to the rest of the body. However, these blood vessels are narrow and each supplies a certain portion of the heart. The heart requires a continuous flow of oxygen and nutrients through each of these vessels in order to function properly, especially in exercise and stressful situations. When one of these vessels is blocked, becomes narrow, or ruptures, the portion of the heart supplied by anything beyond the
damaged vessel may begin to die (cellular necrosis).
In situations where there is complete and rapid blockage this results in a heart attack or myocardial infarction. Slower processes which gradually block the arteries through plaque and fatty buildup become apparent by symptoms such as chest pain and inability to withstand intense exercise.
Blockage and narrowing of the coronary arteries can be attributed to a variety of causes such as thrombi (stationary clots), emboli (moving clots), and the buildup of plaque and resultant hardening of the artery (atherosclerosis). Each of these conditions is detailed in the following reports.
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