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Blood vessels carry blood from your heart to the rest of your body. They’re essential for making sure your organs and tissues get the oxygen and nutrients they need to work. But blood vessels can develop problems, such as blockages or enlargement.
Vasodilation is the medical term for when blood vessels in your body widen, allowing more blood to flow through them and lowering your blood pressure. This is a normal process that happens in your body without you even realizing it.
Vascular disease (vasculopathy) affects the blood vessels that carry oxygen and nutrients throughout your body and remove waste from your tissues. Common vascular problems happen because plaque (made of fat and cholesterol) slows down or blocks blood flow inside your arteries or veins.
Your cardiovascular system functions with the help of blood vessels. Some blood vessels (veins) return blood to your heart, while others (arteries) carry blood away from your heart. Your blood vessels work with your heart and lungs to continuously move blood through your body. Here’s how:
The great vessels of the heart are major blood vessels that connect directly to your heart. These arteries and veins circulate blood between your heart and lungs, and between your heart and the rest of your body.
A vasospasm is a tightening of an artery that lasts longer than a normal constriction. Vasospasms can happen in many parts of your body, but the most concerning are in your heart and brain. When your blood vessel is narrow, it reduces the amount of oxygen that reaches the organs and tissues it supplies. Medicines can help all types of vasospasms.
Bleeding into the skin is when one of your blood vessels bursts and leaks into the surrounding tissue. Your blood vessels are the tubes that carry blood throughout your body. Although bleeding into the skin may sound serious, it usually doesn’t cause severe symptoms.
Vasculitis is an autoimmune disease that causes inflammation in your blood vessels. The swelling makes it hard for blood to flow through your affected vessels, which can cause organ and tissue damage. Most people can manage their symptoms with medication.
Vasoconstriction is what healthcare providers call it when the muscles around your blood vessels tighten to make the space inside smaller. This is the opposite of vasodilation, which opens your blood vessels to make the space inside bigger.
Collateral blood vessels connect to your main blood vessels and remain small and unused until you need them. Other collateral vessels develop throughout life in a process called angiogenesis (the formation of new blood vessels).