With no vitamin C, collagen production ceases and in a relatively short time the entire system loses its structural integrity. This is scurvy. Today most people get enough vitamin C to avoid getting scurvy. However, enough to prevent scurvy isn't necessarily enough to keep your cardiovascular system healthy. If your diet includes only minimal amounts of vitamin C, collagen production is reduced and blood vessels weaken.
Tiny lesions develop in the vessel walls, and the blood vessels lose elasticity.
In order to combat this, the body sends clusters of fat molecules into the blood vessel walls, acting as repair agents to do the work that collagen should be doing. But like a plaster patch on a wall, the result is a repair that is not as strong or stable as the original structure. Over time, the body overshoots the repair mechanism. If these deposits develop in the arteries of the heart they lead to the heart attack. If they develop in the arteries of the brain they lead to stroke.