What Causes Angina: Learn and Safeguard Yourself?
Temporary shortage of blood (oxygen) to the heart muscle is what causes angina pain. In order to understand the causes of angina it is important to understand the blood circulation system that provides blood to the heart muscle.
Blood carries oxygen and other nutrients to all the muscles though arteries. Coronary arteries are responsible to carry the blood to the heart muscles. Blood requirements of the heart muscles vary depending upon the physical activities. For example climbing stairs is harder physical work than the normal walking therefore the blood requirements of the heart muscle increases during climbing. Normally the coronary arteries can handle the excess blood requirements.
Impaired blood supply capabilities of the coronary arteries cause angina pain. Following are the causes of reduced blood supply to the coronary arteries that causes angina pain.
Coronary Artery Disease (CAD) is the number one cause of angina pain.
Coronary arteries can get clogged or narrowed due to fatty deposits. This condition is called atherosclerosis.
The fatty deposits or plaque sometimes is hard and stable which gradually narrows or even block the arteries. This type of plaque deposit causes stable angina. Some times the plaques are soft and temporary which causes clots. These clots can suddenly partially or totally block the arteries causing unstable angina which can be life threatening.
Heightened physical activities like climbing stairs, walking uphill, exercising and even emotion like stress, anger and frustration can trigger stable angina.
In the unstable angina the blood clot temporarily reduces the blood supply and within a short period the clot gets dissolved opening up the blockage to provide sufficient blood supply. The blood clots can occur, dissolve and reoccur. Every time the clot blocks the artery angina pain occurs. If the clot doesn’t get dissolved soon then it causes heart attack and permanent damage to the heart muscle.
There is another rare kind of artery blockage occurs due to coronary artery spasm. The spasm causes the coronary arteries to tighten, resulting in lower or slower blood supply to the heart muscle which causes angina pain. This is called variant angina (Prinzmetal's angina) and it can happen to the people without having any coronary artery disease.
Read more on types, symptoms, prevention methods and angina home remedies in the other related articles.
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