What are some different types of cardiovascular disease?

What are some different types of cardiovascular disease? So cardiovascular disease is a general term that refers to diseases of the heart or of the blood vessels that carry blood around the body. The heart can be thought of as a muscle that pumps heart blood around the body. It relies on electrical signals across the surface of the heart in order to pump effectively and it also requires a fuel source which is the blood supplied by arteries called the coronary arteries in order to provide the fuel for the pump to function properly. The second broad category of cardiovascular disease is in the actual blood vessels themselves which are the tubes that carry blood around the body. Cardiovascular disease can affect either the heart, the blood vessels, or both. The most common type of cardiovascular disease is called atherosclerosis, which is the build-up of fatty deposits, or plaque, in the walls of the arteries in multiple places in the body. Where this happens in the heart or in the coronary arteries, we worry about the risk developing heart attack. Where this happens in the blood vessels of the brain it can lead to stroke or vascular dementia. If this affects the arteries in the lower limbs for example it can cause a reduction in the blood flow to the legs and therefore pain when people start start walking. And also the other sites include the aorta which is the main blood vessel that leaves the heart and takes blood to the rest of the body. The sorts of diseases that can affect the heart itself are diseases of the heart valves, which allow blood to flow in one direction through the heart. There can also be diseases affecting the heart muscle itself, which can affect how well it pumps. And there are multiple causes of cardiovascular disease which we're going to talk about today, which include hypertension or raised blood pressure, high cholesterol, diabetes, smoking, obesity, having low physical activity and being of certain ethnicities puts people at higher risk of cardiovascular disease.