#plaque buildup

[shinestardentalcare]

If you are looking to fix your crooked teeth, you may be considering traditional braces or Invisalign. Invisalign is a form of orthodontics and is a newer way to straighten teeth. Utilizing new scanning technology, dentists non-invasively scan your teeth to create a set of aligners to slowly adjust your teeth to the optimal position.

[harmeet-saggi]

Understanding Cholesterol: The Good, The Bad, And The Heart-Health

Cholesterol is a buzzword in the world of health, but do you really understand what it is and how it affects your body? In this comprehensive guide, we'll dive deep into the intricacies of cholesterol, exploring the good, the bad, and how to maintain heart-healthy levels. By the end of this article, you'll have a clear understanding of cholesterol and how to make informed choices for a healthier life.

Know more

[vaidyaslaboratory]

High Cholesterol: Causes, Symptoms, and Treatment

High cholesterol is a prevalent yet silent enemy that has become a global health concern. It plays a critical role in heart disease and can lead to serious complications if left uncontrolled. But what exactly is cholesterol, and why does it become a problem? In this comprehensive guide for cholesterol, we will explore the types of cholesterol, its causes, symptoms, and effective treatment measures to control and maintain healthy cholesterol levels.

Types of Cholesterol (LDL & HDL)

Cholesterol is a fatty substance required for building cell walls and hormones. There are two main types:

LDL (Low-Density Lipoprotein): Often known as 'bad cholesterol', high levels of LDL can cause plaque buildup in arteries, leading to heart diseases.

HDL (High-Density Lipoprotein): Termed as 'good cholesterol', HDL removes excess cholesterol from the blood, lowering the risk of heart problems.

What Are the Causes of High Cholesterol?

High cholesterol levels can result from a combination of factors:

Cause of LDL Cholesterol: High intake of saturated fats, lack of exercise, obesity, smoking, and genetics can increase LDL levels.

Causes of High HDL Cholesterol: Regular exercise, a healthy diet rich in omega-3, and moderate alcohol consumption can elevate HDL, which is generally considered beneficial.

What Are the Symptoms of High Cholesterol?

High cholesterol usually has no overt symptoms, making regular cholesterol tests vital for early detection. However, in severe cases, symptoms of related conditions like chest pain or stroke may occur.

Treatment for Cholesterol

Cholesterol treatment involves a multifaceted approach:

Lifestyle Changes: Adopting a heart-healthy diet, engaging in regular exercise, and quitting smoking.

Medication: Statins and other cholesterol-lowering drugs may be prescribed.

Monitoring: Regular check-ups and cholesterol tests to ensure that the treatment is effective.

How to Control Cholesterol Level?

Controlling cholesterol goes beyond medication:

Dietary Choices: Reducing saturated fats, trans fats, and increasing fiber intake.

Exercise: Regular physical activities like walking, cycling, or swimming.

Avoiding Tobacco and Alcohol: These substances can adversely affect cholesterol levels.

How to Maintain Cholesterol Level?

Maintenance requires a lifelong commitment:

Continued Healthy Habits: Maintaining a balanced diet, regular exercise, and stress management.

Regular Screening: Frequent cholesterol checks, especially if there is a family history of heart disease.

High cholesterol is a silent threat that requires awareness and active management. Understanding the types of cholesterol, recognizing the causes, being vigilant about the symptoms, and adopting effective treatments are key to controlling and maintaining healthy cholesterol levels. Embrace a heart-friendly lifestyle today and consult healthcare professionals like Dr. Vaidya's Laboratory for personalized advice and cholesterol tests tailored to your needs.

[goldkirk]

If anyone remembers all the dental work I needed done uhhhhhhh three years ago and never went back and ran away forever…I’m finally going back to a dentist on Thursday to restart the process and face my deep and utter abiding terror. And I also scheduled my COVID and flu vaccines for a couple hours later. And my psych appointment to restart meds.

I figured get it all done in one day, have my miserable immune reaction on Friday that I seem to always get with Moderna COVID shots, and then flee directly into the weekend and never be a person again except when I’m on and off crying. It’s going to be so kind to future me to get these things done and I can do it no matter how much I feel like I am constantly about to Actually Physically Die.

[raendragon]

[what-the-fuck-khr]

GOOD NEWS EVERYBODY IM BACK I HAVE ANSWERS so we looked at my teeth etc and I’m not gonna die of sepsis bc despite all the shit my toothache caused me there’s no infection. so what was it, Bronwyn? good question!

wisdom teeth

[kirstielol]

melly had her yearly vet checkup this morning ❤️ she's always so good at the vet, she's such a friendly cat ❤️❤️ she goes back next wednesday for a full teeth cleaning though. even though we supplement her food with "dental" crunchies. the vet said she must have something genetic with her teeth, seems like every year she's got buildup and needs them cleaned. but other than that, she seems healthy! got her blood taken too so we'll hear if anything's up with that, but seems unlikely she has anything wrong besides her teeth.

[mocacheezy]

I was today years old when I learned that lack of flossing/cleaning between your teeth with those tiny bristle things, will result in your gums bleeding due to food buildup and bacteria (as that stuff can't be removed with just a regular toothbrush)

Watching my dentist hold up her tool, with a bloody glob at the end as she explains dental hygene to me was not on my checklist for the day, but it sure was an experience.

[jupitercl0uds]

actually remembered to brush my teeth today im so proud of myself

[who-is-the-barest-of-them-all]

Heyy, how is your week going?

My week involved my car wing mirror being taken off the ONE night she was parked on street (which wasn't my choice) and going to the dentist for the first time since I was around 10 🫠 and that costing me £90 because I am not an NHS patient.

All in all, I need some time to recover (and it's only bloody Thursday)

[leefi]

itchy tooth all day. constant runny nose & cough continuing on 5 days after I recovered from my cold. ears feeling plugged/high-pressure and popping (then getting replugged again) over the past week. haven’t heard things around me properly in days. I’m about to bite into someone

[carcarrot]

got a bad grade in teeth

[nonbinary-sticks-the-badger]

my dad will go "hm i wonder why i have high blood pressure and then drink 3 espressos at once

[mariyanaa]

7 Foods For Healthy Teeth and Gums. Click here to remove Dental plague naturally

[tallymali]

IMPRISONED

taking tippy to the vet tomorrow for being stinky

[swampgallows]

Now we know how COVID attacks your heart

Even patients with mild COVID symptoms could face a higher risk of developing heart disease and stroke

By Sanjay Mishra Nov 07, 2023 04:08 PM 5 min. read

Scientists have noticed that COVID-19 can trigger serious cardiovascular problems, especially among older people who have a buildup of fatty material in their blood vessels. But now a new study has revealed why and shown that SARS-CoV-2, the virus that causes COVID-19, directly infects the arteries of the heart.

The study also found that the virus can survive and grow inside the cells that form plaque—the buildup of fat-filled cells that narrow and stiffen the arteries leading to atherosclerosis. If the plaque breaks, it can block blood flow and cause a heart attack or a stroke. The SARS-CoV-2 infection makes the situation worse by inflaming the plaque and increasing the chance that it breaks free.

This can explain long-term cardiovascular effects seen in some, if not all, COVID-19 patients.

SARS-CoV-2 virus has already been found to infect many organs outside the respiratory system. But until now it hadn't been shown to attack the arteries.

"No one was really looking if there was a direct effect of the virus on the arterial wall," says Chiara Giannarelli, a cardiologist at NYU Langone Health, in New York, who led the study. Giannarelli noted that her team detected viral RNA—the genetic material in the virus—in the coronary arteries. “You would not expect to see [this] several months after recovering from COVID.”

Mounting evidence now shows that SARS-CoV-2 is not only a respiratory virus, but it can also affect the heart and many other organ systems, says Ziyad Al-Aly, a clinical epidemiologist at Washington University in St. Louis. Al-Aly's research has shown that the risk of developing heart and cardiovascular diseases, including heart failure, stroke, irregular heart rhythms, cardiac arrest, and blood clots increases two to five times within a year of COVID-19, even when the person wasn't hospitalized.

"This important study links, for the first time, directly the SARS-CoV-2 virus with atherosclerotic plaque inflammation," says Charalambos Antoniades, chair of cardiovascular medicine at the University of Oxford, United Kingdom.

Virus triggers the inflammation in plaque

A recent study of more than 800,000 people led by Fabio Angeli, a cardiologist at University of Insubria in Varese, Italy, has shown that COVID-19 patients develop high blood pressure twice as often as others. More worrying is that the risk of cardiac diseases can also rise for patients who suffered only mild COVID symptoms.

"I saw a patient who now has a defibrillator, and she didn't even have a severe [COVID] illness," says Bernard Gersh, a cardiologist at Mayo Clinic, Rochester, Minnesota.

Wondering whether the cardiovascular damage during COVID was due to the virus directly attacking the blood vessels, the NYU team analyzed autopsied tissue from the coronary arteries and plaque of older people who had died from COVID-19. They found the virus was present in the arteries regardless of whether the fatty plaques were big or small.

"The original finding in this study is that the virus was convincingly found in the plaque in the coronary artery," says Juan Carlos Kaski, a cardiovascular specialist at St George's, University of London, who was not involved in the study.

The NYU team found that in the arteries, the virus predominantly colonized the white blood cells called macrophages. Macrophages are immune cells that are mobilized to fight off an infection, but these same cells also absorb excess fats—including cholesterol from blood. When microphages load too much fat, they change into foam cells, which can increase plaque formation.

To confirm that the virus was indeed infecting and growing in the cells of the blood vessels, scientists obtained arterial and plaque cells—including macrophages and foam cells—from healthy volunteers. Then they grew these cells in the lab in petri dishes and infected them with SARS-CoV-2.

Giannarelli found that although virus infected macrophages at a higher rate than other arterial cells, it did not replicate in them to form new infectious particles. But when the macrophages had become loaded with cholesterol and transformed into foam cells, the virus could grow, replicate, and survive longer.

"We found that the virus tended to persist longer in foam cells," says Giannarelli. That suggests that foam cells might act as a reservoir of SARS-CoV-2. Since more fatty buildup would mean a greater number of foam cells, plaque can increase the persistence of the virus or the severity of COVID-19.

Scientists found that when macrophages and foam cells were infected with SARS-CoV-2 they released a surge of small proteins known as cytokines, which signal the immune system to mount a response against a bacterial or viral infection. In arteries, however, cytokines boost inflammation and formation of even more plaque.

"We saw that there was a degree of inflammation [caused] by the virus that could aggravate atherosclerosis and cardiovascular events," says Giannarelli.

These findings also confirm previous reports that measuring inflammation in the blood vessel wall can diagnose the extent of long-term cardiovascular complications after COVID-19, says Antoniades.

"What this study has found is that plaque rupture can be accelerated and magnified by the presence of the virus," says Kaski.

Understanding heart diseases after COVID

While this new research clearly shows that SARS-CoV-2 can infect, grow, and persist in the macrophages of plaques and arterial cells, more studies are needed to fully understand the many ways COVID-19 can alter cardiac health.

"The NYU study identifies one potential mechanism, especially the viral reservoir, to explain the possible effects" says Gersh. "But It's not going to be the only mechanism."

This study only analyzed 27 samples from eight elderly deceased patients, all of whom already had coronary artery disease and were infected with the original strains of virus. So, the results of this study do not necessarily apply to younger people without coronary artery disease; or to new variants of the virus, which cause somewhat milder disease, says Angeli.

"We do not know if this will happen in people who have been vaccinated," says Kaski. "There are lots of unknowns."

It is also not clear whether and to what extent the high inflammatory reaction observed in the arteries of patients within six months after the infection, as shown in the new study, will last long-enough to trigger new plaque formation. "New studies are needed to show the time-course of the resolution of vascular inflammation after the infection," says Antoniades.

COVID patients should watch for any new incidence of shortness of breath with exertion, chest discomfort, usually with exertion, palpitations, loss of consciousness; and talk to their physician about possible heart disease.