Plaque build-up in arteries is, unfortunately, a natural part of living. Even children and adolescents have early evidence of the process. However, diet and other lifestyle factors play an important role. High blood pressure, high LDL cholesterol and smoking can all worsen atherosclerosis.
"Making plaque disappear is not possible, but we can shrink and stabilize it," says cardiologist Dr. Christopher Cannon, a Harvard Medical School professor. Plaque forms when cholesterol (above, in yellow) lodges in the wall of the artery.
Atherosclerosis is a common condition that develops when a sticky substance called plaque builds up inside your artery. Disease linked to atherosclerosis is the leading cause of death in the United States. About half of Americans between ages 45 and 84 have atherosclerosis and don't know it.
Signs of Clogged Arteries
It can cause symptoms such as chest pain, breathlessness, heart palpitations and sweating, which may be triggered by physical activity. Transient Ischemic Attacks (TIAs) or mini-strokes can occur when there is a blockage affecting the brain.
Healthy arteries have smooth inner walls and blood flows through them easily. Some people, however, develop clogged arteries. Clogged arteries result from a buildup of a substance called plaque on the inner walls of the arteries.
The prevalence of fatty streaks in the coronary arteries increased with age from approximately 50% at 2-15-years-of-age to 85% at 21-39-years-of-age, and the prevalence of raised fibrous-plaque lesions increased with age from 8% at 2-15-years-of-age to 69% at 26-39-years-of-age.
By the age of 40, about half of us have cholesterol deposits in our arteries, Sorrentino says. After 45, men may have a lot of plaque buildup. Signs of atherosclerosis in women are likely to appear after age 55.
Optimal cholesterol levels don't always translate to perfect heart health, based on a recent study that found half of healthy patients with normal cholesterol levels have dangerous plaque build-up in their arteries.
Technically, a normal calcium score is 0, meaning you don't have any calcified plaque in your arteries. However, as they age, most people develop some plaque in their arteries.
How common is plaque? Everyone has dental plaque to some degree. If your teeth feel fuzzy when you run your tongue over them, that's plaque.
There are no quick fixes for melting away plaque, but people can make key lifestyle changes to stop more of it accumulating and to improve their heart health. In serious cases, medical procedures or surgery can help to remove blockages from within the arteries.
We found that 8.3% of the adults had one or more non-calcified plaques. Non-calcified atherosclerosis is believed to be more prone to cause heart attacks compared with calcified atherosclerosis.” The AHA/ACC guideline Bergström mentions does not address the use of CCTA in heart attack prevention.
A moderate amount of heart blockage is typically that in the 40-70% range, as seen in the diagram above where there is a 50% blockage at the beginning of the right coronary artery. Usually, heart blockage in the moderate range does not cause significant limitation to blood flow and so does not cause symptoms.
A CT coronary angiogram can reveal plaque buildup and identify blockages in the arteries, which can lead to a heart attack. Prior to the test, a contrast dye is injected into the arm to make the arteries more visible. The test typically takes 30 minutes to complete.
Dizziness or weakness. Heart palpitations, or sensations of your heart racing or fluttering. Nausea or sweating. Shortness of breath.
Eating specific foods cannot cleanse plaques out of the arteries, but a healthful diet can help manage and prevent heart disease. Over time, plaque buildup can lead to thickened or hardened arteries. This is a condition known as atherosclerosis.
In fact, a person can have high cholesterol and a zero CAC score. When both scores are high, a doctor may recommend taking statins to help lower cholesterol levels.
Vigorous exercise can induce coronary plaque rupture through several triggering mechanisms: increased wall sheer stress due to high blood pressure or increased heart rate and plaque disruption caused by coronary artery spasms or increased flexing of diseased coronary arteries.
Seemingly healthy people are “suddenly” having heart attacks because, as it turns out, their arteries are not perfectly healthy and they don't know it. With the proper noninvasive tests, these diseased arteries would have been identified, and the heart attacks wouldn't have happened.
"We found that less than 2 percent of heart attack patients had both ideal LDL and HDL cholesterol levels, so there is room for improvement," said Fonarow.
High blood pressure, high cholesterol, diabetes, obesity, smoking, stress and anxiety, a sedentary lifestyle and a family history of heart disease are all key risk factors for arterial plaque buildup.