The Human Body: It's Structure and Operation by Isaac Asimov

Author:Isaac Asimov [Asimov, Isaac]
Language: eng
Format: epub
ISBN: 9780451623584
Google: YfkMzQEACAAJ
Amazon: 0451617746
Goodreads: 50089
Published: 0101-01-01T00:00:00+00:00

OUR HEART AND ARTERIES

181

sive studies (one begun in 1949 and the other in 1969) were released in 1980, finally providing the evidence needed to support those suspicions. A thirty-year study of thousands of people in Framingham, Massachusetts, revealed that individuals with very high levels of blood cholesterol were far more likely to suffer heart attacks than those with lower levels. In fact, that study demonstrated that humans with cholesterol levels above 200

milligrams per deciliter were as likely to fall prey to heart disease as those who suffered from hypertension or were heavy smokers.

The shorter study, involving large numbers of males in seven different countries, produced similar results. In one instance, male subjects in a village in Finland who had a mean cholesterol level of 265 milligrams per deciliter suffered fatal heart attacks at a rate fourteen times higher than similar men in towns in Japan and Yugoslavia. The only intrinsic difference between the Finns and their Japanese and Yugoslavian counterparts was in their diets, the latter having eating habits that gave them cholesterol levels that averaged 160 milligrams per deciliter.

The production of cholesterol, while a normal process in itself, is one that can easily get out of control in many individuals. An overabundance of cholesterol can be an inherited trait, or one that is affected strongly by dietary considerations. Current medical thinking holds that maintaining cholesterol levels below 200 milligrams per deciliter reduces the likelihood of atherosclerosis.

This goal can be helped by lowering the amount of fats consumed in oils, red meats, and dairy products while increasing the consumption of leaner meat products, vegetables, and the polyunsaturated fatty acids found in vegetable oils.

Damage to the atherosclerotic artery is dangerous for two reasons. In the first place, the rough coating can harm small bodies in the blood whose function it is to intiate clotting. There is therefore always the chance of clots forming in such an artery. A clot may break up without damage after being formed, or it may be whirled along by, the bloodstream until it comes to an artery too small to pass through-in which case it may plug the vessel and stop that portion of the blood flow. This is

thrombosis (throm-boh’sis; “clot” G). A thrombosis in

Download

Copyright Disclaimer:
This site does not store any files on its server. We only index and link to content provided by other sites. Please contact the content providers to delete copyright contents if any and email us, we'll remove relevant links or contents immediately.