Anything to do with arteries or veins in the human body comes under the general title of vascular disease. Vascular translates to vessel, which in this case refers to the vessels that carry our blood from our heart (arteries), around our bodies, and back to our heart again (veins).
The arteries carrying freshly oxygenated blood via our lungs feed the capillaries, which in turn feed the organs of our bodies. This is then returned via the veins back to the heart and lungs so they can be oxygenated again. Our arteries are susceptible to disease - which causes hardening and gradual narrowing. This can present with a variety of symptoms such as pain on walking, stroke or heart attack. The main causes of this are raised blood pressure, high cholesterol, and smoking.
The key role of the veins is to return the blood to the heart. For this to work efficiently (or even at all), our veins contain one-way valves to stop the blood flowing backwards on its way back to the heart - fighting the force of gravity if we're in a standing or walking position. If any of those valves malfunction, then problems of varying degrees can occur to the vascular system. This is just one example of what can cause vascular disease, but it's also the reason for the most common vascular disease of all: varicose veins.
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