when one is concerned with cholestrol build up there is concern not only because one artery but rather many can be affected and that means that blood flow to the body can be significantly hindered by just little amounts of build up all over the body. this can lead to malfunctions of the circulatory system and heart problems and possibly failure.

the higher the blood pressure the more the heart has to work to pump blood to the various places of the body. this becomes an added stress on the body and that will lead to malfunctions as discussed earlier. also, this causes blood plasma to diffuse into the lymph by diffusion and can cause edema, which is swelling of the tissues.

the important fluid dymanics here are osmosis down concentration gradients and the hydrostatic pressures of the fluids in the body.