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What Are the Causes of Defective Blood Vessels in the Brain?

The condition of defective blood vessels in the brain, known as cerebrovascular disease, poses a serious threat to life and health. Damaged blood vessels interfere with blood flow to the brain. Weak spots in blood vessels---caled aneurysms---can rupture. Knowing the causes of this disease provides you with the opportunity to prevent or mitigate damage to cerebral arteries as well as blood vessels in other areas of your body.

  1. Hypertension

    • High blood pressure is one of the leading causes of blood vessel damage. On his website, Severehypertension.net, Dr. Alexander Davidyan describes hypertension's contribution to defective blood vessels. High blood pressure stresses the arteries, reduces their elasticity and causes cracks in arterial plaque built up over a lifetime of poor dietary choices that include high amounts of saturated fats. Your body responds to the injuries to your blood vessels with the same treatment provided to an external injury---platelets rush to the area to create a seal---or clot. In time, the accumulation of blood clots eventually blocks blood flow, causing a stroke.

    Diabetes

    • In May 2010, the website Cell Metabolism published a report on research by Christian Rask-Madsen of the Joslin Diabetes Center in Boston, et al. The group investigated the cellular function of the insulin response in signaling the process that aids in the prevention of the arterial buildup of fatty plaques. The study concluded that the impaired insulin sensitivity in diabetics fails to protect blood vessels against cellular atherosclerotic damage and contributes to the acceleration of the disease.

    Obesity

    • Excess body weight is a significant risk factor in hypertension and diabetes, two known causes of defective blood vessels and atherosclerosis. According to a study reported in American Heart Association Journals in January 2010, the extent of obesity "was a significant risk factor for ischemic stroke regardless of sex or race." One of the causes of an ischemic stroke is a blood clot blocking a defective cerebral blood vessel causing the blood flow to cease.

    High Cholesterol

    • On its website, the Department of Biological Sciences of Santa Barbara City College cites high cholesterol as the major cause of atherosclerosis, a degenerative disease of blood vessels. Cholesterol accumulates within the blood vessel walls, creating a fatty plaque that causes them to thicken and impede blood flow. Occlusion---or closure---of a cerebral artery caused by atherosclerosis is one of the causes of stroke.

    Smoking

    • According to SevereHypertension.net, the chemicals inhaled by smokers---nicotine and carbon monoxide---damage blood vessels throughout the body, creating a physiological response similar to that of hypertension. Smoking is a leading contributor to conditions such as cardiovascular disease, pulmonary disease and cancer, as well as to cerebrovascular disease.

    Atherosclerosis

    • Along with the normal process of aging, all of the risk factors described above---hypertension, diabetes, obesity, high cholesterol and smoking---set the stage for the development of atherosclerosis. According to the American Stroke Association, the development of atherosclerosis begins in childhood, continues throughout life and is at its worst in the elderly. Plaque formed by fats, cholesterol, calcium, platelets and cellular debris traveling through the bloodstream accumulates within the artery walls. The buildup of plaque continues, eventually rupturing and injuring blood vessel walls.

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