Complications of High Cholesterol - Health Channel

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Complications of High Cholesterol |

Complications of High Cholesterol, Health Channel

Two things happen when cholesterol accumulates in the artery wall: it grows until it obstructs he blood flow and the plaque starts growing and it breaks and a blood clot forms very quickly. Dr. Ian del Conde, Cardiovascular Specialist with Miami Cardiac & Vascular Institute, describes what happens during the process of cholesterol accumulation.

Transcript

Complications of High Cholesterol, Health Channel

What kind of complications can we expect from this kind of a buildup that we see so that’s a very interesting question and even though I’m summarizing this in literally ten seconds this is a huge field of study and people have focused their careers understanding each step that is involved in the development of atherosclerosis but I think that for for the viewers there’s two main things that that can happen when cholesterol accumulates in the artery wall the first one is that it accumulates and it grows and grows and grows until it obstructs blood flow like a pipe that’s blocked but the second and perhaps more dangerous scenario is that the plaque starts growing and then it breaks it ruptures in when it ruptures a blood clot forms very quickly and very quickly obstructs blood flow and that’s generally what happens when you have a heart attack Wow and how long can it take for somebody to have a buildup of this kind of accumulation are we talking months years give us an idea you can that’s a great question and it’s something that we’re still researching but I think that the answer is really it’s a it’s a relatively slow process that happens in the scale of years not months not weeks you

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