Arteries are the pipes that carry blood from the heart to the different organs in the body. Unlike pipes in your plumbing system, however, the walls of arteries are made up of living tissue that are prone to disease. Over the years, the smooth, flexible walls of the large arteries in the body change in everyone and become bumpy and hard. Doctors call it atherosclerosis.
Atherosclerosis is the leading cause of both brain attack and heart attack.
When an artery has atherosclerosis, its inner wall gets thicker, thereby narrowing the artery. When the arterial wall is thick and bumpy, it becomes a magnet for platelets. Platelets are like little pieces of Velcro that float around in the blood. Everyone has platelets. Like Velcro, platelets like to stick to rough or bumpy surfaces, which is very helpful if one suffers a cut.