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Article: Rich foods, clotting, and heart attacks. (high-fat diets increase heart attack risk by causing over-reactive blood clotting system) (Brief Article)
- Article from:
- Science News
- Article date:
- January 30, 1993
- Author:
CopyrightCOPYRIGHT 1993 Science Service, Inc. This material is published under license from the publisher through the Gale Group, Farmington Hills, Michigan. All inquiries regarding rights should be directed to the Gale Group. (Hide copyright information)
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A high-fat diet may lead to an overly aggressive blood-clotting system, which in turn can lead to a heart attack in people with coronary artery disease.
Fat-laden diets tend to raise concentrations of cholesterol in the blood. Cholesterol is a fatty substance that builds up on the inner wall of the artery and along with other debris hardens into a substance called plaque. ff that plaque gets too thick, it can obscure the blood flowing through the heart's coronary arteries and thus cause a heart attack.
However, there's another way for a heart attack to occur: If a hunk of plaque breaks away from the artery wall, the body's clotting system attempts to ...