The prevalence of cardiovascular diseases, including coronary heart disease (CHD), which often ends in myocardial infarction, is extremely high today, moreover, a person is only 40 to 50 years old. And the root cause is that atherosclerosis is “younger”. In this disease, specific formations are deposited on the inner surface of the walls of the arteries – plaques that narrow the lumen of the vessels or even completely clog them. If atherosclerosis affects the blood vessels of the heart, then when their lumen is narrowed by 50%, there are signs of insufficient supply of blood and oxygen to the myocardium, which leads to coronary artery disease. If cerebral vessels are affected by atherosclerosis, this can lead to cerebral stroke.
So, only a few dozen years ago, atherosclerosis was the lot of the elderly, the elderly, and now it is developing “accelerated”, prematurely leading to serious complications.
Epidemiological surveys conducted by scientists from all over the world, the USA and other countries of millions of people of different sex and age living in different social and climatic conditions revealed 4 main factors that determine the widespread occurrence of atherosclerosis, including among young people. If they are listed by degree of importance, then first of all it is necessary to call improper diet, when the body receives excess cholesterol with food, then its norm rises, then it goes into hypertension, smoking and low motor activity. And these features distinguish the lifestyle of a modern person.
Typically, in each patient, one of these factors (cholesterol normal) plays a major role, others accompany it, exacerbating its detrimental effect on the body.
The leading role of the norm of cholesterol in the development of atherosclerosis more than 70 years ago was pointed out by the Russian scientist N. N. Anichkov. Subsequently, this theory was repeatedly confirmed by various indisputable facts in the experiment and clinic.
The cholesterol theory of atherosclerosis is also proved by the fact that people with high cholesterol where their blood norm is elevated are more likely to suffer from such a manifestation of atherosclerosis as coronary heart disease.
What blood cholesterol figures are considered high, and which are normal? Until recently, this indicator was differentiated by gender and age. So, for 30 – 39-year-old women, the cholesterol norm was about 235 mg%, that is, 235 milligrams of cholesterol per 100 milliliters of blood serum, For 40 – 49-year-old women, the cholesterol norm was about 250 mg% and so on. Now a single, stricter norm of cholesterol is found for its content in the blood for both men and women of all ages.
Scientists have been encouraged by the results of studies indicating that if the concentration of cholesterol (norm) in the blood is more than 200 mg%, part of it necessarily begins to be deposited in the vessel wall, regardless of the person’s gender and age. When this figure rises to 240, the rate of development of atherosclerosis increases by 2 times, and at a level of normal cholesterol in the blood above 240. Mg% – by 4 – 5 times.
An excess norm of cholesterol enters the body with food abundant in animal fats found in fatty meats and fish, in fat and butter, in cream and sour cream. However, there are people with congenital resistance (resistance) to the development of atherosclerosis. The cholesterol that comes with food, as well as “own” (part of all cholesterol is synthesized in the body) is oxidized in their liver, turning into bile acids, which are excreted from the body through the intestines. And even that part of the cholesterol that enters the bloodstream is quickly taken from it by special complexes, delivered to the liver and oxidized.
In contrast, many people are genetically (innately) predisposed to the development of atherosclerosis. By the way, as the family chronicle testifies, usually in such families there are cases of myocardial infarction or cerebral stroke in blood relatives under the age of 55 years. Cholesterol in people predisposed to atherosclerosis, both supplied with food and formed in the body, does not oxidize in the liver, since it does not cope with this load, and a significant part of it enters the bloodstream.