What exactly is arterial plaque? It's a yellow, swollen area in the middle muscular layer and the lining of your artery. This lining is formed when lipid (fat or fat-like material and other nasty stuff listed below) is built up in the area.

It eventually causes thickening of the artery walls, narrowing of the arteries and stops the flow of blood and oxygen to your heart muscle, brain, and body extremities.

If you want a technical explanation this plaque is a mixture of triglycerides, collagen, phospholipids, fibrin, cholesterol, nucopolysaccharides, heavy metals, foreign proteins, muscle tissue, and other matter which all bonds together with calcium and solidifies.
This mixture is what blocks the artery. I might add that if it isn't stopped or reversed it will eventually completely block the artery and we all know the result-HEART ATTACK

So what the doctors aren't telling you is that contrary to popular belief, Cholesterol is only one of the components of arterial plaque.

Additionally lack of oxygen to your heart muscle can cause chest pain. This pain is called Angina. Now if you were for some reason to have a blood clot break free and travel around your arteries what do you think the effect will be when that clot encounters a narrowing in a heart artery? The clot will become wedged in the narrow area causing a blockage and stopping the blood flow, which then results in a sudden heart attack or stroke.

Take care... the heart is nothing to fool with because it will not stand for any mistreatment, and that's exactly what you are doing when you don't take care of your arteries. Your arteries are the only source of oxygen and nutrients that your heart has.

As your arteries clog with plaque, and they do, and they will put your heart at risk. The more plaque, the greater the risk to your heart, and you don't even know what's going on because you can't feel it!

The only way you will tell is if you get an Angina attack or like me something else triggers a trip to the doctors and you get stuck in the loop.