Arteriosclerosis causing life-threatening condition

Arteriosclerosis is hardening thickening of blood vessels by age, causing various life-threatening conditions. There are various causes such as aging, obesity, stress, smoking or lack of exercise, but the major cause is dietary life. Especially fat becomes a big risk factor of arteriosclerosis.
 
Arteriosclerosis Quiz

Q1. Which person tends to have arteriosclerosis?
(A)A person who likes fried food
(B)A person who likes fatty part of meats
 
A1. (B) A person who likes fatty part of meats
Why does a person who likes fatty part of meats tend to have arteriosclerosis?
There are vegetable fat such as sesame oil or canola oil often used for fried food and animal fat contained in fatty part of meats. Animal fat more easily changes to neutral fat than vegetable fat in the liver.
 
Neutral fat is an important energy source for us to live. Neutral fat is delivered to the whole body containing in a container. At that time, LDL cholesterol rides together in the same container. Neutral fat and LDL cholesterol are in the ratio of 4:1. But if you take too much animal fat causing too much neutral fat, more neutral fat comes into the container, the space left for LDL cholesterol in the container becomes small. That downsizes LDL cholesterol. When the downsized LDL cholesterol comes to blood stream, it invades small wounds on the walls of blood vessels where usually can’t be invaded. The invading downsized LDL cholesterol starts to form plaque and it gradually becomes bigger. Fig. 1 shows a blood vessel that arteriosclerosis happened.
 
Taking a lot of animal fat increases neutral fat and downsizes LDL cholesterol, leading to the progression of arteriosclerosis.
 
What increases neutral fat is not only animal fat.
 
Q2. Which increases neutral fat when you eat too much?
(A)Soba (Buckwheat noodles)
(B)Udon (Wheat noodles)
 
A2. (B) Udon (Wheat noodles)
Sugar contained in carbohydrate is one of the things which increases neutral fat. Both Soba and Udon are carbohydrate.
 
Why does Udon increase neutral fat?
Sugar contained in Udon is absorbed faster in the small intestines than the sugar contained in Soba. If you eat too much Udon, sugar in the blood rapidly increases a lot. The surplus sugar which was not consumed as energy in the body goes to the liver and increases neutral fat. As a result, if the plaque formed in the blood vessel breaks, blood vessel is blocked and the blood flow stops, possibly causing serious condition such as heart attack.
 
If you are worried about arteriosclerosis, what should you be careful about?
 
Q3. Which action more easily breaks plaque?
When you enter a cool room after you were under the brazing sun,
(A)Drinking beer
(B)Smoking a cigarette
 
A3. (B) Smoking a cigarette
The biggest trigger that bursts the plaque likely to burst is sudden contraction of the blood vessel.
 
When you enter the air-conditioned room from the outside under the brazing sun, the cool air contracts the blood vessel. At that time, if you smoke a cigarette, the blood vessel is contracted more. The speed of the blood flow becomes faster and by that stimulation, plaque gets ruptured. That makes the possibility to have heart attack or other serious condition higher.
 

---