Introduction

Arteries possess thick walls compared to other blood vessels. This is the reason the arteries need to perform more critical functions like carrying oxygenated blood to all the body parts even under complications like considerable pressure. 

The arteries which have thin walls tend to get damaged leading to blood loss caused by the rupture of the artery lining. Now, what happens to the arteries?  The fuel that keeps our body alive and working is blood; the blood transports the oxygen cells to every part of the body to survive. To carry out this transportation the blood needs a pathway referred to as arteries. But as one grows older these clear pathways start getting hard and much narrow. 

Treatment for the hardening and narrowing of arteries

The lifestyle change will reduce much risk and complications due to atherosclerosis (hardening of the arteries). Things or changes you can bring to your daily lifestyle.

1. Quit smoking – the only single most important change you can bring in your life to reduce or maybe get well out of the risk and complications due to the hardening of arteries. It also helps in preventing fatal damages like heart attack and stroke.
2.  Avoid fatty foods – the main reason for forming plaque in your artery walls is the deposition of cholesterol which only comes due to the heavy consumption of fatty foods. To avoid these, one needs to prepare, maintain and eat a well-balanced diet, including balanced meals. To make it better you can add several servings of fruit daily to your diet. To get the needed amount of protein, you can also add fish to your diet. Most important thing is to avoid any fried foods.
3. Limit the amount of alcohol consumption – recommended servings are very important for alcohol consumption, as known from a study it is best to serve one drink a day for women and two drinks a day usually for men. Though it’s always best to skip the whole concept of consuming alcohol. As it will provide you with more advantages than disadvantages.
4. Keeping your body active – the most vital thing is to get a regular physical activity or workout, one needs to exercise moderately every day to avoid any of these risks. You can talk to your provider about your daily activities or the intensity of the activity also if you have been diagnosed with any kind of heart disease before.

The goal of the treatment is to keep your blood pressure under control, if you suffer from high blood pressure you need to reduce it to normal. As we know what happens to the arteries? If we don’t follow these procedures, leading to risks and complications.

Hypertension affects your body

Healthy arteries are usually flexible, strong, and are similar to elastic. Their inner lining is not thick and smooth to allow the flow of blood easily and freely. Do you know what happens to arteries with hypertension?

1. Damaged and narrowed – the artery walls or the lining can get damaged and destroyed due to high pressure. When the fats consumed from the diet enter the bloodstream, they get collected and deposited in the arteries. Eventually, with time the artery walls get thickened and become less and less elastic, limiting the amount of blood going throughout the body parts of the human body.
2. Aneurysm – over growing time, the constant pressure of blood moving inside a weakened artery leads to a certain section or part of the lining expanding and forming a lump (Aneurysm). An Aneurysm tends to rupture the lining of the artery walls causing serious life-threatening internal bleeding or damage. Developing an Aneurysm is random and can develop in any artery, but they are most seen forming in the body’s largest artery.

Even suffering from hypertension the heart goes through many problems including 

1. Coronary artery diseases – the disease caused by narrowing the artery walls because of high blood pressure 
2. Enlarged left heart –  due to the same high blood pressure the heart needs to apply much more force than usual which leads to enlargement of the lower left heart chamber.
3. Heart failure.

Other life-threatening problems caused due to narrowed artery

Damage to the brain, our brain depends completely on the blood flow from the heart to work properly. What happens to the body when the arteries are narrowed? Due to the poor supply of oxygenated blood, the brain goes through some disorders listed here.

1. Transient ischemic attack (TIA) – also known as a ministroke, a TIA is a short time or temporary disruption of blood supply to the brain. Narrowed or hardened arteries or blood clots formed due to the rupture in the inner lining and under high pressure causes TIA. 
2. Stroke – A stroke occurs when a particular part of the brain doesn’t get enough oxygenated blood or oxygen and nutrients, causing brain cells to die for a certain amount of time.
3. Dementia – A type of stroke that interrupts blood flow to the brain can also cause vascular dementia same as a normal stroke.
4. Mild cognitive impairment.

Conclusion

The patients suffering from hypertension with vascular diseases result in activation of the renin-angiotensin system (RAS), which is often secondary to ischemia. The combination stating volume expansion and the activation of RAS is mainly believed as the main factor behind the formation of hypertension. There are multiple reasons and factors leading to short term and long term regulation of high blood pressure, the factors include,

• Cardiac output and circulatory blood volume
• Vascular caliber, elasticity, and reactivity
• Humoral mediators
• Neural stimulation