Why do you have vascular plaques and others don't? Listen to the cardiologist's explanation.

One medical word is often mentioned, and that is "plaque". As a cardiologist who focuses on coronary heart disease, plaque is something I have to deal with every day. Many people want to know why plaques grow in blood vessels, but most of the articles on the Internet are either too professional to understand, or some soft articles promoting health care products and health care devices, and the content is very unreliable. So I want to write such an unprofessional but reliable article to let everyone know how the plaque grows.

If we want to simply explain the root cause of long plaque, it is because people are alive and will continue to try to repair the damage of arterial wall. If the repair mechanism is abnormal, arterial plaque may be formed. For example, an artery is like a pipe. For some reason, the inner wall of the pipeline was damaged, and the boss sent a repairman to repair it. If he is an excellent repairman, the inner wall of the pipeline he repaired will be as good as ever, and the liquid flow inside will not be affected. But if a repairman with a three-legged cat comes, the inner wall of the repaired pipeline will bulge and the liquid will not flow smoothly. This bulge is equivalent to arterial plaque.

First, the factors of arterial injury

In fact, arterial injury occurs all the time. Hypertension, smoking, certain chemicals, diabetes, immune inflammatory injury (such as vasculitis and other connective tissue diseases) are common factors that aggravate arterial injury. This is why it is important to control blood pressure and blood sugar and quit smoking.

Second, the mechanism of arterial repair is abnormal.

Of course, the damage to the inner wall of arteries will occur, but why do some people have no plaques in their 80 s and some people have many plaques in their 20 s? This is mainly related to everyone's different ability to repair arterial injury. Some people have defects in the mechanism of arterial injury due to congenital or acquired factors, just like hiring a lame vascular repairman to repair arterial injury into plaques.

Third, the cholesterol level is too high.

Cholesterol is one of the main repair substances after arterial injury, and the cholesterol level has an important influence on the generation and development of plaque. Cholesterol is like a mending material in the hands of a repairman. If you give too much and happen to be a poor repairman, he will swell up the repaired place. Of course, some repairmen will repair the bulge even if the materials are insufficient, but it will be smaller.

Anyway, that's how the plaque is practiced. Of course, there are many other factors in plaque formation, but these three are the most important, and many risk factors of arterial injury can be prevented or treated. However, high cholesterol is currently controlled by statins, PCSK9 receptor antagonists and other drugs. I will introduce the types of plaque, the harm of plaque, treatment and other contents in the later writing, and welcome your attention.