Rumors debunked | 20% of blood vessels are blocked without any feeling, 40% cause fatigue, and 50% cause high blood pressure?

Popular saying: When human blood vessels are 20% blocked, there is no feeling; when it is 40% blocked, people feel tired easily; when it is 50% blocked, blood pressure starts to rise, insomnia occurs, and resistance decreases; when it is 70% blocked, heart problems begin, dizziness, headaches, and memory decrease; when it is 80% blocked, limb numbness occurs; when it is 90% blocked, stroke, paralysis, cerebral hemorrhage, and even myocardial infarction may occur.

Fake rumors

Verification points:

Whether it is an artery or a vein, a large blood vessel, a medium blood vessel or a small blood vessel, the symptoms caused by blood vessel blockage in different parts are different. The percentage of blood vessel blockage cannot correspond to the symptoms of a specific disease, because these symptoms are non-specific, and most symptoms can neither be attributed to cardiovascular problems nor to the degree of vascular stenosis.

Recently there has been a saying circulating on the Internet that when human blood vessels are 20% blocked, there is no feeling; when it is 40% blocked, one will feel tired; when it is 50% blocked, blood pressure starts to rise, insomnia occurs, and resistance decreases; when it is 70% blocked, heart problems begin, dizziness, headaches, and memory decrease; when it is 80% blocked, limb numbness occurs; when it is 90% blocked, stroke, paralysis, cerebral hemorrhage, and even myocardial infarction may occur.

Figure caption: It is said that blood vessel blockage to a certain extent can cause various disease symptoms

This statement contains very little information and has no medical theoretical basis. It is estimated that the person who made up this statement does not understand medicine. The purpose of making this statement may be to tell everyone to pay attention to preventing cardiovascular blockage. However, for many people who pay attention to cardiovascular health information, this statement will be misleading and they will take it for granted. They may even mistake minor symptoms as signs of blood vessel blockage, making themselves more anxious. Therefore, I will explain the problem of cardiovascular blockage to you in a more thorough way here.

1. The symptoms caused by blocked blood vessels vary greatly depending on the location of the blocked blood vessels. The symptoms of blockages in the brain, heart, lower limbs, etc. are obviously different, but the rumors circulating on the Internet have confused all of this. Strictly speaking in medicine, even if it is clear that the blocked part is the brain blood vessels, blockages in different parts of the brain can cause completely different symptoms and signs. In addition, the rumors did not distinguish whether it was an artery or a vein that was blocked, whether it was a large blood vessel, a medium blood vessel, or a small blood vessel. The symptoms caused by artery and vein blockages are even more different.

There is no explanation for the data such as "20%, 40%, 50% blood vessel blockage" mentioned in the online rumors. So what do these blood vessel blockage percentages refer to?

Clinically, the percentage of vascular blockage refers to the inner diameter of the vascular stenosis. Generally speaking, the normal inner diameter stenosis is about 70%, and the inner diameter stenosis of more than 90% will seriously affect blood flow, which is why lesions with inner diameter stenosis of more than 70% often require stent implantation for treatment.

Second, symptoms such as dizziness and myocardial infarction are non-specific, and most symptoms cannot be completely attributed to cardiovascular problems. It is also mentioned in the popular saying that blood vessel blockage can lead to high blood pressure, dizziness and numbness, memory loss, and even myocardial infarction. In fact, these are non-specific. Most symptoms can neither be attributed to cardiovascular nor cerebrovascular diseases, and it is even more impossible to distinguish between arterial and venous stenosis. The percentage of vascular stenosis cannot correspond to the symptoms of a specific disease, because many diseases can have similar symptoms, and the degree of vascular stenosis cannot be inferred from these symptoms. Take dizziness as an example. High blood pressure can cause dizziness, low blood pressure can also cause dizziness, and many cerebrovascular diseases, ear diseases, ophthalmic diseases, cervical spondylosis, etc. can also cause dizziness, but dizziness cannot be used to infer that the patient has high blood pressure. Doctors need to conduct careful investigations. This is clinical thinking.

Taking the coronary arteries of the heart as an example, when the vascular stenosis is less than 50%, it rarely causes symptoms. When the vascular stenosis exceeds 50%, chest pain and chest tightness will occur due to insufficient blood supply to the myocardium under a certain amount of activity. The more severe the vascular stenosis, the easier it is for the symptoms to appear. However, if the patient is elderly or diabetic, the symptoms may be atypical or very mild, or even without obvious symptoms, manifesting as occult myocardial ischemia. The occurrence and severity of symptoms are also affected by many factors, such as medication, vascular development, daily exercise and endurance.

Therefore, the online rumor that 40% blockage of blood vessels will cause fatigue and 50% blockage will cause high blood pressure is not true. The degree of vascular stenosis cannot cause the other non-specific symptoms mentioned above, but if these symptoms occur, you still need to see a doctor in time and go to the corresponding specialist for investigation.