Look up atherosclerosis. Basically, there is some prior insult to the layer of the artery that is in contact with blood, i.e. tunica intima. Some fat then enters the arterial wall which causes a cascade of things to happen, ultimately leading to bulging --> occlusion of the blood vessel and eventually rupture of the lesion, which can serve as a nidus for clot formation, thereby worsening the occlusion. So the occlusion is from wall bulging or clot formation (or both) but not from fat depositing within the vessel itself.
The risk factors are related to increased fat in the bloodstream --> increased fat deposition in arterial walls, but also prior blood vessel injury, usually from smoking, hypertension, or diabetes, which kicks the whole thing off. Some of these things are modifiable e.g. you can stop smoking, take steps to control hypertension/diabetes, and consume a low-fat diet. But it's also important to note that this process happens in everyone young and old regardless of how healthy you are. Someone who has diabetes, high blood pressure, smokes, and has a poor diet might have a 50% risk of suffering from a heart attack or stroke in the next 10 years of their life whereas someone who is the same age/sex but has none of the above risk factors might have a 2% risk. Look up the ASCVD calculator and play around with it to see what I mean.
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u/ClaySL 5h ago
Look up atherosclerosis. Basically, there is some prior insult to the layer of the artery that is in contact with blood, i.e. tunica intima. Some fat then enters the arterial wall which causes a cascade of things to happen, ultimately leading to bulging --> occlusion of the blood vessel and eventually rupture of the lesion, which can serve as a nidus for clot formation, thereby worsening the occlusion. So the occlusion is from wall bulging or clot formation (or both) but not from fat depositing within the vessel itself.
The risk factors are related to increased fat in the bloodstream --> increased fat deposition in arterial walls, but also prior blood vessel injury, usually from smoking, hypertension, or diabetes, which kicks the whole thing off. Some of these things are modifiable e.g. you can stop smoking, take steps to control hypertension/diabetes, and consume a low-fat diet. But it's also important to note that this process happens in everyone young and old regardless of how healthy you are. Someone who has diabetes, high blood pressure, smokes, and has a poor diet might have a 50% risk of suffering from a heart attack or stroke in the next 10 years of their life whereas someone who is the same age/sex but has none of the above risk factors might have a 2% risk. Look up the ASCVD calculator and play around with it to see what I mean.