Coronary Artery Disease

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source of blood to bring nutrients to each heart muscle cell. The heart of a normal sized person will pump four to five liters of blood per minute, and the average heart will beat almost 4 million times per year. It is estimated that the energy required to continuously pump blood at these rates is almost 5 watts of power per hour. The substrate fro this astronomical effort comes exclusively from the chemical byproducts of nutrition which are carried to the heart muscle cells by way of the vascular system.
The main chamber for pumping oxygen-rich red blood to the body is called the left ventricle. After the blood exits the left ventricle, it enters the main channel of the vascular highway, called the aorta. The aorta is a tube of specialized tissue capable of carrying the entire four to five liters per minute to the rest of the body under a blood pressure of 140 millimeters of mercury, somewhat like the pressure of a garden hose. The very first branches arising from the aorta are small ‘feeder or nutrient’ vessels, called the coronary arteries which double back onto the surface of the heart. There are two main coronary arteries, one to the left ventricle, called the left main coronary artery, and another called the right main coronary artery which supplies mostly the right ventricle but also part of the undersurface of the left ventricle. These main coronary arteries give rise to several braches which then dive into heart muscle, bringing vital nutrients to each muscle cell.
Once coronary artery disease occurs, the channel inside these small but vital arteries becomes progressively ‘clogged’ with plaque material. This process is known as arteriosclerosis. In this disease, the inner channel of the coronary artery becomes obstructed and other body fats which invade the lining of the blood vessel wall. Over time, the bodies own inflammatory response to these fatty molecules leads to the flow channel of the artery....