The Physics of Blood Flow and Cardiovascular Disease

This book reframes cardiovascular disease as a mechanically organised process driven by the physics of blood flow. It argues that vascular geometry determines how blood moves, how that motion generates forces such as wall shear stress, and how endothelial cells translate these forces into biological behaviour. Through this chain, flow patterns dictate where disease forms, explaining why conditions like atherosclerosis and aneurysms appear in predictable locations rather than randomly.Classical principles, including Bernoulli's and Poiseuille's laws, are used to interpret stenosis, resistance, and pressure, while pulsatile flow, blood rheology, and computational modelling extend understanding across scales.The book integrates engineering and biology, showing disease progression as a feedback loop between flow, endothelial response, and vessel remodelling. It concludes that future medicine will rely on haemodynamic assessment, personalised modelling, and interventions that reshape flow to restore protective biological function.