When your arteries harden, you can be sure that there will be SOME complications. And no, it?s not an old folk’s disease, either. The problem can start building up in teenage years. Actually, quite a few of us get arteriosclerosis without ever knowing it. We can go through an entire lifetime and never suffer any noticeable ill effects. There is a gradual loss of elasticity and stiffening of the artery, but it is so gradual that it often takes decades to really set in with symptoms we can feel.

But arteriosclerosis can finally lead to brain strokes and heart attacks, so we shouldn’t take a diagnosis of it too lightly. My mom died of congestive heart failure, and the doctors discovered that she had hardening of the arteries two days before the Big Event that robbed Marsha of her grandmother. You can rest assured I had the entire family checked after we were through with the mourning, and it turned out I have it too.I underwent something called nuclear stress testing when I was diagnosed, to find out just how serious it was. Yes, my case was congenital,I had inherited it from my mother, and she from her father and grandfather. Other cases are acquired. They can come from what is known as the metabolic syndrome, which is a whole slew of other problems related to our excessive, sedentary lifestyles.

Being overweight certainly puts us in the risk group for arteriosclerosis, and so does smoking. Other factors can’t be controlled so easily, such as diabetes. Not that I?m implying that quitting smoking is easy ,I was on the patch for three months before I put out my final fag. But the doctor insisted that I had to quit, and that I had to get regular exercise.

Well, here I am five years later, in good shape. Maybe I can actually thank my genes for giving me incentive to shape up and chuck the bad habits out but it could have gone wrong too. I’m writing this to tell you that getting wise now is better than the paranoia I went through. Get that checkup today if there is even the slightest doubt.