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The Centers For Disease Control And Prevention

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The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) reports, the cause of death to be roughly 720,000 citizens in the United States die from cardiovascular disease each year (Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, 2014.) Deaths’ relating to cardiovascular disease have slightly dropped annually since the 1980’s. Coronary artery disease is the most prevalent type of cardiovascular disease in the U.S. and it kills around 400,000 Americans annually (Murphy, Xu, Kochanek, 2013.) Statistics like these are astounding and suggest the seriousness of this epidemic we are dealing with. Determinants of one’s health are vast but vary based on each individual. Coronary artery disease (CAD) affects all races and ethnicities worldwide. In 2008, …show more content…

Coronary artery disease is the most common cause of a myocardial infarction (MI). As a result of CAD, plaque builds up in the arteries, thus narrowing the coronary arteries and preventing adequate blood flow to the heart. This condition is called atherosclerosis. In 2012, Huether, S., & McCance, K. defines Atherosclerosis when it begins to occur when there has been an injury to the coronary vessel wall. When injury occurs on the vessels endothelial layer it triggers a clotting mechanism. That mechanism sends chemotaxsis signals through the body for monocytes/macrophages to come clean the open vessel wall that is leaking LDL into the blood. The macrophages attempt to digest the fatty substance but have a hard time doing so. When the cells cannot digest the LDL, cell proliferation happens and they become static. Static macrophages turn into foam cells that then begin to cover the open vessel wall. Stasis of these foam cells occurs and forms a fatty streak, beginning to slowly occlude the artery. Then with time, build up of collagen occurs on top of the

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