Blood Flow and cardiovascular Disease, non lipid cardiovascular risk Essay

Blood Flow and cardiovascular Disease, non lipid cardiovascular risk factors - Essay Example Blood, returning to the heart from all over the body, flows into the right atrium. The blood flows from the right atrium into the right ventricle, which in turn pump it out to the lungs for oxygenation. Then the oxygenated blood returns to the left atrium. From the left atrium, the oxygenated blood flows into the left ventricle which pumps the oxygen-rich blood into the arteries. Pumping or contraction of the left ventricle should be very powerful to keep flowing of the blood throughout the whole body. The strength of the heart muscle depends on the oxygen and nutrient supply coming from the coronary arteries. The walls of these arteries are strong, elastic and flexible. The heart muscle is supplied by three major coronary arteries. Two of them arise from a common stem, called the left coronary artery which supplies the left side of the heart. It divides into left anterior descending branch which supplies the front part of the heart, and the left circumflex branch which supplies the left lateral and back side of the heart. The right coronary is separate and supplies the right and the bottom parts of the heart. The inner layer of the coronary arteries is quite smooth allowing blood to flow easily. With aging, cholesterol and calcium content in the walls of the coronary arteries increases, making them thickened and less elastic. The prolonged effect of risk factors with the consequence of aging, damage of the inner layer of the arteries becomes predominant, especially in the coronaries. This change is called atherosclerosis which is a progressive hardening of the arteries caused by the deposit of fatty plaques and the scarring and thickening of the artery wall. Inflammation of the artery wall and the development of blood clots can obstruct blood flow and cause heart attacks or strokes.[1]Nieminen and colleagues concluded that coronary artery disease is a major cause of heart failure.[4]The deposits or plaques may increase in size and block the arteries. If