Atherosclerosis is the pathological basis of a variety of cardiovascular and cerebrovascular diseases. Its complicated etiology and chronic course seriously threaten human health. The prevention and treatment of atherosclerosis have been the focus of traditional Chinese and western medicine. This paper reviews the pathogenesis characteristics of atherosclerosis, and holds that deficiency of vital qi is the pathogenesis basis of atherosclerosis, which involves deficiency of heart, spleen and kidney, mutual knot of phlegm and blood stasis, and obstruction of veins. In clinical treatment, the common treatment were summarized on the principle of "replenishing deficiency and removing phlegm and blood stasis". In order to understand the relationship between deficiency and phlegm and blood stasis and atherosclerosis from the perspective of Traditional Chinese Medicine. The paper provides a theoretical basis for Traditional Chinese Medicine prevention and treatment for atherosclerosis.

Atherosclerosis; Deficiency; Phlegm and blood stasis; Vital Qi; Traditional Chinese Medicine therapy