WHAT ARE HEART ATTACKS?

Monday, August 10, 2009

The heart is virtually a pump with valves. It keeps the blood in circulation through approximately 125, 000 kilometers of veins and arteries in the human system. The blood which circulates in the human body brings oxygen and other nutrients required by the cells of the body. Coronary heart disease is caused through a clotting or blockage of blood in one of the arteries of the heart. Every part of the heart must have blood and if there is any stoppage in the flow of blood, that part of the heart which is descried of blood dies.

If clotting takes place in a major artery, it affects a large area of the heart and a massive heart attack takes place which may lead to death. If clotting takes places is one of the smaller arteries, a minor coronary attack develops, leaving a relatively small scar in the heart. The part of the heart that dies through loss of blood dies irrevocably and scar is left: it cannot recover its use as in the case of a diseased liver or a kidney.