Hardening of the Arteries (Arteriosclerosis)
The cause of heart attacks and strokes is hardening of the arteries. The veins can be compared to pipes that lead the blood around the body. When you strain yourself, your pulse and blood pressure rises. Thereby extra blood is pumped out into your muscles for them to function better. This is both clever and healthy.
The hardening of the arteries itself consists of, among other things, cholesterol – which is a kind of fat. Therefore it is more accurate to talk about ‘fattening’ of the arteries instead of hardening of the arteries.
If your arteries are blocked, not much blood can reach your muscles, the heart or the brain – herby, they cannot function optimally. If the veins are completely blocked, the blood flow stops – like blockage in a pipe. When there blood no longer reaches a part of the heart or the brain, that part of the heart or the brain dies.
Cholesterol is formed in the liver. You need cholesterol but only in very small amounts. You are born with a cholesterol level of 2,5 mmol/l which is the amount of cholesterol you need – everything about this level is too high.
On average, the cholesterol levels of adults of the western world are way too high and diet carries big blame. You should therefore eat fish often because fish do not contain much cholesterol. The fatter diet, the more cholesterol the liver forms. Some foodstuffs – eggs, liver and meat, with a lot of animal fat – contain a lot of cholesterol. If you for example eat 3 eggs every day, it can help raise the cholesterol level. However, if you eat a moderate amount of eggs, for example a couple of eggs a week, it has not effect on your cholesterol level. This is because the liver forms the majority of your cholesterol itself. What you eat is only a part of the total amount of cholesterol.
If you both have too high blood pressure, are a smoker, are over overweight and do not exercise the blood vessels are hardened extra fast. Therefore, an unhealthy lifestyle and too high blood pressure is a dangerous ‘cocktail’.