Why is not possible to get rid of plaque in your arteries? It seems like once its there you cant get rid of it, you can only prevent buildup

Question

I know that eating healthy foods and doing cardio will reduce plaque buildup and decrease your risk but it seems like there’s nothing you can do to get the buildup out once is there. All the advice is about prevention not elimination

In: Biology

Answer 1

Bad answers here. Truth (from med school) is that, while we can use a lot of fats for energy, we cannot produce enzymes that break down some trans fats, for example. Since we can’t break them down, they build up. Our white blood cells try to deal with them, but end up stuck in our blood vessel walls and cannot be broken down. They build up over time since we do not have a mechanism to break them down or excrete them. This sucks and is the cause of atherosclerosis.