Cardiovascular Disease and its Impact on the Human Body

This resource provides an in-depth understanding of the cardiovascular system and its relation to other systems like respiratory, nervous and endocrine systems. It explains how atherosclerosis complicates the system and the relevance of feedback loops for maintaining homeostasis and integration of body systems. The resource also discusses the impact of cardiovascular diseases on the human body.

Case Study Topic: Cardiovascular Disease Resource
Student Name: NAHIM MASHIAT
Student Number: MASND1801
INTRODUCTION
Unlike single celled organisms, multi-cellular organisms have a large and complex body
which needs its nutrients and waste products to be transported by blood. The heart pumps
the blood through a fine branches of blood vessels. The heart along with the blood and
blood vessels makes up the most fundamental system of human body the cardiovascular
system. (Betts,2017) Cardiovascular system is closely related to respiratory system, Nervous
system and the endocrine system. 4 of these systems closely works on the basis of one
another. Nervous system is directly associated with every systems of the body, It sends
neural messages to the heart to beat and the heart beating regulates the respiratory system
which controls the rate of inhalation and exhalation. Whenever a stimulus detects a change
in equilibrium, in response releases nervous response or an endocrine response (hormonal
response). Cardiovascular diseases are a range of diseases of the heart and diseases related
to the heart, which includes coronary heart disease, heart failure, atherosclerosis, heart
stroke, atherothrombosis, etc (Betts,2017). A deathrate of over 45000 Australians were
recorded at the end of 2015 because of cardiovascular diseases (ABS,2004). In the case
study, Geoffrey have atherosclerosis which is a heart disease caused by fats lining up in the
artery walls which results in the shortness of breath and eventually having chest pain.

Cardiovascular system is one of the major systems in a human body. Its main constituent is
blood which not only carries red blood cells, but also nutrients, white blood cell, fibrinogen,
protein albumins etc. The cardiovascular system has a huge channels of blood vessels all
around the body. The blood is pumped from the right ventricle of the heart to the lungs by
pulmonary artery to get the blood oxygenated and give away waste products like carbon
dioxide. The oxygenated blood then reaches the left atrium then to left ventricle through
pulmonary vein which is then pumped to the rest of the body through aorta at a very high
pressure. The channels of the blood vessels are so fine that they reach through every cell of
the body and distribute nutrients and oxygen and collects waste products on its way and
returns to the hear at a lower pressure. (Azizi,2008) Cardiovascular system plays an
important role in maintaining the oxygen demand of the tissues. Whenever there is a
vigorous exercise or where the cells need more energy to do its work, the heart rate
increases providing more oxygen to the tissues. It is also responsible for maintaining the
temperature of the body. Atherosclerosis occurs when you eat too much saturated fats but
have little to no exercise for the body. These fats pile up on the arterial walls blocking the
flow of the blood and if this blockage takes place in one of the main coronary arteries then it
might result to have a heart attack.
Oxygen is a very crucial component in human body, since every cell in the body needs it for
the oxidative stage of cellular respiration, by which energy is produced in the form of ATP.
Respiratory system is very important in maintaining the amount of oxygen consumed by the
body. It is responsible to inhale oxygen and exhale carbon dioxide. Nasal cavity, trachea and
the lungs make up a Respiratory system. Respiratory system is very crucial in maintaining

homeostatic environment for a human body. The pH of a normal human blood is about 7.35
which is slightly alkaline. When a body is undergoing heavy work the releases more carbon
dioxide which eventually becomes carbonic acid which decreases the pH of the blood which
is harmful for the body. The respiratory on response increases the breathing rate, inhaling
more oxygen and providing more oxygen to the cell and making the pH of the blood back to
normal. When cells are unable to get oxygen in crucial organs like the heart muscle it causes
chest pain and if things go more severe it can cause heart stroke. (Reece,2017)
Nervous system is the control central for the human body. Whatever action a muscle or
tissue is doing either voluntary or involuntary, is because of the nervous system. Nervous
system is comprised of two major regions, the central nervous system which consist of the
brain and the spinal cord and peripheral nervous system is everything else. Nervous system
responsible for any action of the body. It collects sensory information from the receptors,
interprets the information and then provides sensory outputs to the effector cells. For
example, when the outside temperature varies, it regulates the internal body temperature
by giving instruction to secrete sweat glands and dilate blood vessels closer to skin if it is hot
and constrict blood vessels if it is cold. It sends neural messages to the heart as to how
much heart beat rate it should maintain and also to lungs as to how much inhalation and
exhalation it should do.
Atherosclerosis is can be very fatal if left untreated. When the cholesterol lines up in the
arterial walls and due time starts to form a plaque and damages the endothelium.
Whenever a cholesterol passes the damaged endothelium it gets inside the arterial walls

which narrows the passage for the blood to flow through it or sometimes may form a blood
clot. This is very serious as it deprives cells from getting sufficient oxygen in time. This
deprivation of oxygen provides a stimulus to the brain stating the body needs to generate
more oxygen to the cell and on response it sends neural message to the brain’s pacemaker
to beat faster which eventually makes the flow of blood more and as an effect the person
will have hypertension (flow of blood higher in the arterial walls). Too much work or getting
more emotional like Geoffrey can end up having too much stress in life which affects the
normal functioning of the human body. Since in these situation body blood lusts for more
oxygen and cells are needed to be provided with sufficient oxygen in due time which makes
the heart beat go faster putting more and more pressure on the arterial walls and since
Geoffrey does not do exercise and does not have healthy food, the arterial walls get
damaged by the building up of cholesterol.
For Geoffrey since he is having hypertension and emotional stress his body is using up more
energy. For which the brain is commanding the heart to beat faster and at the same time its
commanding the lungs to provide more oxygen to the blood. Since more work are put upon
the lungs muscle, pulmonary hypertension results a body to have shortness of breath. As
more blood is rushed through the blood vessels but due to blood clotting in the arterial
walls leads to have stroke in a human body which happened with Geoffrey.
Endocrine system is responsible for maintaining the blood glucose level in a human body.
Two hormones which regulates the blood glucose level are insulin and glucagon secreted y
the pancreas. Whenever a person has a heavy meal the blood glucose level increases in the
blood stream where insulin is triggered to release beta cells in the pancreas, which triggers

the cell body to use up glucose and also converts glucose to glycogen (storage molecule) in
the liver. If the blood glucose level falls down glucagon releases alpha cells which converts
the stored glycogen in the liver to glucose and releases it in the blood stream making the
glucose level in the blood back to normal. Being overweight makes more resistant to the
tissue and cells in the body against body generated insulin. This causes hypertension which
eventually ends up having cardiovascular diseases.
Cardiovascular disease is very fatal for human body as it links to two more vital system, the
nervous system and the respiratory system. Cardiovascular disease like heart stroke,
atherosclerosis can end up being very serious for Geoffrey. He should from now onwards
have more healthy diets and more exercise. He should have a decent workload and less
emotional stress and essential to have a good family time as these improves a human body
health and mental stability.
The following paragraphs give a detailed description about the nervous and endocrine system,
how they monitor blood pressure how they are simultaneously affected by stress as well as
exercise, how atherosclerosis complicates it. Special focus is given on the relevance of feedback
loops for maintaining homeostasis and integration of body systems.

REFERENCES
1. Betts, J.G, et al.,2017, Anatomy and Physiology, openstax, Huston, Texas.
2. Australian Bureau of Statistics 2004a, Causes of Death Australia, cat. no.
3303.0. ABS, Canberra.
3. Azizi, M.H,2008, A Brief History of the Discovery of the Circulation of Blood in the
Human Body, History of Medicine, volume 11 (3), pp- 345-350.
4. Reece, J.B, et al., 2017, Campbell Biology, 11th edition, Pearson education Australia,
Australia

Homeostatis is related to physiological processes which maintain an an internal environment
for internal environment thus maintaining constant conditions. Feed-back loops on the
contrary controls the levels of sensor, control of the central effectors as well as methods of
communication. They can be positive as well as negative feedback loops where changes in a
given direction causes change in the same or opposite direction respectively. Homeostasis
basically involves negative feedback loops which help in counteracting the changes
numerous properties from their set points. Disruptions in the feedback loop loops can
subsequently lead to formation of various diseases. For an instance, Diabetes is caused due to
the broken feedback loop which involves the hormone insulin. Moreover, homeostasis is the
normal thermoregulation mechanism. Neural impulses from the body sends a signal to the
hypothalamus which in return compares the body’s temperature to a set point. Thus
homeostasis along with feedback loops leads to changes in thermoregulation.
The endocrine and nervous systems are related in a variety of ways .Firstly, hormones help in
providing feedback for neural processing including the brain. Hypothalamus is an organ
playing a pivotal role in the control of pituitary gland along with various endocrine glands.
Reproductive hormones also have a very important role to play for the nervous system and its
subsequent development. There is local and global control pertaining to the blood flow which
sums up the total blood pressure. Arterial hypertension on a global network is connected to
the sympathetic nervous systems. Local mechanism controlling blood flow are the
vasodilation and vasoconstriction respectively. Endocrine system is involved as adipose
tissue, an important endocrine organ secrets adipokines which along with angiotensinogen act
at both global and local endocrine levels. Maternal stress, depression often cause increase in
glucocorticoids. Moreover it affects the functional and structural development of the brain
(Valsamis, Chrouss, Mastorakos, 2018). Stress alongside exercise leads to the activation of
autonomous nervous system. It also leads to the release of neurotransmitters in peripheral

tissues of the cardiovascular system (Clark and Mach, 2016). Atherosclerosis is the
narrowing of arteries due to accumulation of fats and related cholesterol. Thus, accumulation
may cause limited supply of blood, leading to angina pectoris which basically occurs due to a
block in the blood flow reducing its smooth transmission. The subsequent increase in
atherosclerotic factors causes hypercholesteromia, increases in carotid intimal medial thickness
(IMT). Hence in the following ways the atherosclerotic factors complicates the endocrine-
vascular system.
Atherosclerosis is the condition leading to narrowing of the arteries due to formation of
plaque around the walls of the artery. Popularly known as atherosclerotic vascular disease, it
prevents blood flow throughout the body leading to various complications. It primarily starts
with the damage of the endothelium due to building of cholesterol. In severe conditions, it
can lead to coronary heart diseases and heart attack. Atherosclerosis is the condition caused
due to blocking of arteries. Depending on specific arteries affected it might lead to angina
pectoris which is acute chest pain. Atherosclerosis is often associated with migraine and if the
intensity of the diseases increases along with the intensity of the paroxysm it is known as
angina pectoris. The preferred medication isuse of metallic coronary stents which is an optimal
therapy (Imran et al. 2017).
The respiratory system is involved as from the case study it can be seen that Geoffe suffers
from short breaths apart from chest pain. It can be found that the short breaths linked to chest
pain is due to any obstruction in the respiratory system. Obstructive pulmonary diseases are
often shown to have a connection with atherosclerosis. Airflow limitations are often an
important factor for mortality and morbidity. Geographic locations lead to differences in
structuring of the age of the population along with smoking. Thus respiratory disorders are
prevalent in cases of smoking in patients which subsequently leads to an increase in angina

pectoris. Thus considering Geoffes situation, symptoms of shorts breaths is an indication of
increase in chest pain and cardiovascular diseases.
Nervous system controls the heart rate through its balance in the sympathetic and
parasympathetic nervous system. Subsequent changes in activity of the two systems leads to
heart rate regulation. The parasympathetic system secrets catecholamine like epinephrine and
norepinephrine, sending it to the sinu-atrial node which simultaneously leads to increases in
the heart rate (Kingsley and Figueora, 2016).
Similarly the nervous system also affects the rate of cardio vascular contractions. The
sympathetic nervous system simultaneously causes an increases in the calcium ions thus
leading to increased contraction of both the ventricles and atria. The sympathetic system also
increases the conduction velocity of the atrio-ventricular node (Gordan, Gwathmy and Xie,
2015).

References
Clark, A. and Mach, N., 2016. Exercise-induced stress behavior, gut-microbiota-brain axis
and diet: a systematic review for athletes. Journal of the International Society of Sports
Nutrition, 13(1), p.43.
Imran, T.F., Malapero, R., Qavi, A.H., Hasan, Z., de la Torre, B., Patel, Y.R., Yong, R.J.,
Djousse, L., Gaziano, J.M. and Gerhard-Herman, M.D., 2017. Efficacy of spinal cord
stimulation as an adjunct therapy for chronic refractory angina pectoris. International
journal of cardiology, 227, pp.535-542.
Kingsley, J. D., & Figueroa, A. (2016). Acute and training effects of resistance exercise on
heart rate variability. Clinical physiology and functional imaging, 36(3), 179-187.
Valsamakis, G., Chrousos, G. and Mastorakos, G., 2018. Stress, female reproduction and
pregnancy. Psychoneuroendocrinology.