Why are heart attacks and things of that nature more common in obese people?
In: Biology
The main cause of a heart attack, for example, is the clogging of the coronary arteries, which carry blood with oxygen to the muscle that makes the heart beat. And what clogs these arteries? One of the mechanisms is the deposition of fat in these arteries, creating a fatty plaque, which can break, activating clotting, creating a huge clot around the fatty plaque, ending up clogging the artery, preventing blood flow. If this happens in the coronary arteries, it will impede the flow of blood with oxygen to a part of the heart muscle, which starts to die. This is the heart attack. This process of forming fatty plaques and such is atherosclerosis.
Obesity means “excess fat”, which alters the metabolism and transport of fats, leaving the body prone to atherosclerosis in the vessels.
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