Coronary Artery Disease Essay

Coronary heart disease (CHD), also called coronary artery disease, is a condition in which plaque builds up inside the coronary arteries. These arteries supply oxygen-rich blood to your heart muscle. This plaque is made up of fat, cholesterol, calcium, and other substances found in the blood. When plaque builds up in the arteries, the condition is called atherosclerosis, the buildup of plaque occurs over many years. Over time, the plaque hardens which causes your coronary arteries to narrow, which limits the amount of oxygen and blood your muscles are supposed to get to function properly. Coronary Artery Disease is the leading cause of death in the United States because of the people’s not so healthy diet, lack of exercise, and tendency to smoke, which are the leading causes of Coronary artery disease. The symptoms might be very noticeable, or you might not experience anything when having CHD, one of the main symptoms is Angina which causes major chest pain or at least some discomfort or abnormal feeling on your chest. Also, you may feel like your chest is closing up and it will become harder for you to breathe, also may experience pain on your neck, lower back, and extremities, oh and not less important, fatigue and weakness are also symptoms. For treatment, your doctor will give you specific medications based on how severe your case is, eating habits will need to change, start exercising, and if a smoker, to quit smoking. Oh, very important to know, DO NOT under any circumstances, stop your medication, it will come back and probably worse than before it was treated. In very extreme cases, an angioplasty and stent placement, coronary artery bypass surgery, or a minimally invasive heart surgery will be needed in order to survive. Although everyone is different, early detection of CHD generally results in a better outcome. But after treatment, it’s not all gone; you might be stuck with some long-term effects. One of them being Unstable Angina, which I said was a severe chest pain due to not enough oxygen going to the lungs. Heart failure could also happen, due to the lack of blood and oxygen being transported to the heart, it weakens which makes everything much difficult than before, this is a heart failure. A long- term coronary artery disease could lead to suffering heart attacks, which happens when the artery is completely blocked, so no oxygen or blood flowing through whatsoever. Coronary artery disease is a very harmful disease when not treated, but being healthy could prevent it References: * http://health.nytimes.com/health/guides/disease/coronary-heart-disease/overview.html * http://www.nhlbi.nih.gov/health/health-topics/topics/cad/