Cardiovascular system: Blood, venous, and arterial disorders

Cardiovascular disorders are disorders of the blood, the blood vessels, and the heart, affecting the body’s ability to carry oxygen and nutrients from the heart to the tissues and remove waste products, such as carbon dioxide from the tissues. Some of these disorders are anemia, venous disorders, and atherosclerosis.

Anemia is a disorder of the red blood cells, or RBCs, that decrease their ability to carry oxygen. This usually develops when there’s low iron or deficiency of certain B vitamins, which leads to decreased production of RBCs.

Anemia also occurs when the person is losing blood due to a disorder, such as ulcers and cancers of the gastrointestinal system.

A biological female can also develop anemia due to heavy menstruations. Other causes include decreased production of RBCs from the bone marrow, inherited disorders that cause abnormal shapes in some RBCs, and hemolytic disorders that cause excessive destruction of RBCs.

Clients with anemia will become tired easily and can have difficulty breathing, and their skin and mucous membrane becomes more pale.

Okay, moving onto venous disorders. Normally, the veins move the blood towards the heart and they have one-way valves to prevent backflow.

In venous disorders, veins lose their elasticity and the valves are not working properly, allowing blood to leak backward and pool in the lower legs.

This makes individuals prone to varicose veins, which is when the veins in the lower legs become enlarged from this additional blood, and they start becoming tortuous, or twisted.

Although there are probably a lot of factors that play into the development of varicose veins in the legs, biological females tend to be more at risk than biological males; people that stand or cross their knees for long periods of time and those who are obese are also at greater risk. Clients with varicose veins often complain of pain in the legs, swelling, and a sensation of heavy legs.