 As we age, both our blood vessels and heart muscle naturally become stiff and loose their ability to flex as the heart beats and blood pressure changes. This is believed to worsen both blood vessel and cardiac function in older individuals. The stiffened tissue is likely to be less able to adapt to the stresses and remodeling that occur after a heart attack myocardial infarction because the loss of functional heart tissue predisposes the heart to poor function and the hearts blood vessels undergo various changes in order to increase the supply of blood to the damaged areas. 