Starting from the age of seven or eight, something gradually begins to accumulate in the blood vessels!

In January 2022, Nature Reviews Cardiology, a subsidiary of Nature, published a major review pointing out that exposure to cardiovascular risk factors in childhood can easily lead to the formation of preclinical atherosclerosis phenotypes in adulthood, increasing the risk of cardiovascular disease-related events.

In fact, the inner wall of a person's artery is smooth and elastic when they are just born, but this does not mean that young blood vessels can always be smooth. Generally speaking, the occurrence of atherosclerosis actually starts in childhood.

Wang Fang, chief physician of the Department of Cardiology at Beijing Hospital, said at an event in 2017, "Through autopsies of some children, we found that things gradually accumulate in blood vessels starting from the age of seven or eight, initially forming lipid streaks."

However, "our heart is very strong, and normally only 25% of it is needed to supply blood. Therefore, it is often not until the blood vessels are narrowed by more than 75% that the blood supply to the myocardium is affected," said Wang Fang in an interview with Health Times in 2020.

1. Overnutrition

Teenagers who eat too much oil and high-fat, high-sugar snacks will absorb too much sugar and oil, which will lead to more and more lipids in the blood vessels and increase the levels of low-density lipoprotein cholesterol and triglycerides in the blood. These substances will be deposited on the blood vessels and form atherosclerotic plaques.

2. Too little exercise

Exercise can promote blood circulation and help the body excrete metabolic waste. Children who do not love exercise not only have slow blood circulation, but are also prone to accumulate more fat in the body and increase fat streaks in the blood vessels.

3. Obesity

A study published in The Lancet Child & Adolescent Health in 2019 showed that the arteries of obese adolescents begin to become stiff in their teens.

High arterial stiffness is a clear sign of atherosclerosis, which increases the incidence of myocardial infarction, stroke and cardiovascular disease mortality.

After adulthood, bad habits accelerate blood vessel blockage!

Professor Hu Dayi, a famous cardiovascular expert, said in an interview with Health Times in 2013 that some bad habits cause cholesterol to accumulate on the blood vessel walls of some people when they are young. When atherosclerosis develops rapidly, more and more garbage is deposited on the blood vessel walls, just like making dumplings, the fillings are getting bigger and the skin is getting thinner. Clinical symptoms will only appear when the blood vessel cavity is squeezed and narrowed to 70%.

Professor Wang Fang also talked about this in a popular science event in 2017, that generally speaking, women start to really age after the age of 55 and men after the age of 45, the rate of vascular plaque deposition will also accelerate, and the blood vessel walls will become thicker and thicker.

If you stay up late, don't rest, rely on smoking to refresh yourself or drink a lot of alcohol, sympathetic excitement will occur in the body, which will increase heart rate and blood pressure, cause plaque rupture, promote blood clot formation, quickly block blood vessels, and cause serious disability or death.

1. Chronic stress

Today's young and middle-aged people are too busy and are in high-pressure and stressful work for a long time. Huang Jinyu, chief physician of the Department of Cardiology at Hangzhou First People's Hospital, said in an interview with Health Times in 2016 that high-pressure and high-intensity work and frequent staying up late may disrupt the human body's biological clock, and the sympathetic nerves are in an excited state for a long time, leading to excessive secretion of adrenaline and norepinephrine in the body, which in turn causes vasoconstriction, increased blood pressure and blood sugar, and accelerates the process of atherosclerosis.

2. Staying up late for a long time

A study in the journal Nature in February 2019 found that lack of sleep increases inflammatory cells, which is the main cause of atherosclerosis. They conducted experiments on mice and found that compared with other mice, sleep-deprived mice had gradually larger arterial plaques and the levels of certain inflammatory cells in their blood vessels (such as monocytes and neutrophils) were twice as high as those of normal mice.

3. Long-term smoking

For people who smoke frequently, smoking causes damage to the blood vessel walls, providing a breeding ground for cholesterol deposition and accelerating the formation of plaques.

4. Long-term sitting

Zhang Qiang, chief physician of the orthopedics department of Beijing Ditan Hospital, published an article in Health Times in 2017, stating that people who sit for long periods of time and do little exercise will have slower blood circulation, increased blood viscosity, and weak myocardial contraction. Over time, they will suffer from arteriosclerosis, coronary heart disease, etc.

5. Chronic diseases and obesity

People with hypertension, diabetes or abnormal blood sugar, and obese people are all at high risk of atherosclerosis.

These behaviors help improve vascular hardening!

1. Improve your lifestyle

Talking about carotid artery plaques, Guo Yifang, deputy director of Hebei Provincial People's Hospital, wrote in Health Times in 2016 that first of all, we must improve our lifestyle, that is, control our diet, improve our dietary structure, increase exercise, lose weight, quit smoking and limit alcohol. These measures can help lower blood cholesterol levels and prevent further growth or increase of plaques.

For example, to control your diet, you can avoid high-fat foods, reduce your intake of staple foods, and increase your intake of high-protein and high-fiber foods.

2. Keep chronic diseases under control

Secondly, Professor Guo Yifang said that if you suffer from high blood pressure or diabetes, you should actively and reasonably control your blood pressure and blood sugar. High blood pressure and diabetes are both important factors that lead to the formation of atherosclerotic plaques.

3. Make sure you keep exercising

The article "Research Progress on the Mechanism of Exercise in Reversing Atherosclerotic Plaques" mentioned that experiments have shown that exercise can prevent plaque growth and induce reversal of the degree of coronary artery wall stenosis.

The "Guidelines for Primary Prevention of Cardiovascular Disease in China" also pointed out that for elderly patients, 12 weeks of low-to-moderate intensity physical activity can significantly improve vascular elasticity. For elderly hypertensive patients, aerobic exercise 2-3 times a week for 20-30 minutes each time can also help lower systolic blood pressure.

It is recommended that if your body allows, you can exercise for no less than 30 minutes each time, at least 5 times a week, and your heart rate for each exercise should be 170 minus your age. The value obtained is the maximum exercise heart rate, and you should not exceed it. Generally speaking, after exercise, you should sweat slightly, breathe a little faster but feel comfortable, and have no obvious fatigue.