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Comment by lightedman | Hacker News Reader

"Blood vessels grow according to growth factors that are released in response to hypoxia"

Is this how some people have managed to grow secondary aortic passages naturally and usually without knowing until some cardiac event shows it?

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In the larger diameter blood vessels, it’s also due to relieving back pressure and finding a path of least resistance. This causes existing pathways to dilate and eventually join together to form a new channel / anastomosis (aortic coarctation is quite an extreme example - because of severe narrowing at the aorta existing blood vessels widen so much they cause notching of the ribs, which is visible on chest x-ray). Things like liver cirrhosis can cause back pressure and dilatation in a similar way.

Indeed. One family member with a rare desease discovered new blood vessels last week after an internal bleeding. These vessels had developed in the wrong places in the stomach and will be closed again and the normal vessels, which had been blocked by blood clothing, will be unblocked.

I wonder if I have a bunch given I had untreated severe sleep apnea for 10 years or so.

It is likely.

https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC3649685/

> another possible adaptive mechanism of coronary circulation to chronic intermittent ischemia of OSA patients is the development of coronary collaterals

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Collateral_circulation

You should get a CPAP machine. Is life changing to not feel tired all the time + huge health benefits such as blood pressure etc

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