Heart Attack Advice
By: Robert NamTotal Views: 374, Word Count: 840,
What is a heart attack?
The heart is a muscle like other body parts. Heart needs blood flow to supply oxygen to muscles to help them to work. When there is shortage of oxygen, the muscles suffer and when there is no oxygen, the muscles start to die which results in a heart attack.
Heart attack usually occurs when blood clot develops in one of the blood vessels. If the clot is big, it can stop the supply of blood to the heart. Supply of blood to heart can also be left undetermined, if the artery narrows suddenly as in the case of spasm.
Causes of Heart Attack
· Age – This is one of the most important risk factor involved. When the men and women get above the age of 40 their risk factor starts rising.
· Angina – Angina is a type of illness in which enough amount of oxygen does not reach to the patient’s heart. This raises the risk of heart attack in many angina patients.
· Cholesterol levels – If the person’s blood cholesterol level is high, he/she have a higher risk of blood clotting in the arteries. Blood clots can block the supply of blood to heart muscle resulting in heart attack.
· Diabetes – People suffering with diabetes have a greater risk of getting several diseases. However, which contribute to a higher risk of heart attack.
· Diet- A person eating large quantities of animal fats and saturated fats derives a higher risk of a heart attack.
· Genes- You can inherit more chances of heart attack from your parents or grandparents.
· Heart surgery- Person who had undergone heart surgery involves a higher risk of heart attack.
· High blood pressure (hypertension) – High blood pressure occurs because of the ignorance towards physical activities, over weight, diabetes, genes, and some other factors.
· Over weight and lack of exercise – This is the lead cause of heart attack.
· Smoking- People who smokes regularly involves a much higher risk of a heart attack.
Symptoms of a Heart Attack
The person who suffers from a heart attack suffers from the following symptoms
- Chest pain and Coughing
- Dizziness
- Shortness of breath
- Face seems to be gray
- Nausea and Vomiting
- Restlessness
- Clammy and sweaty
If you experience these symptoms or witness with any other person, call the emergency services immediately. In UK, the emergency call no is 999, in the USA and Canada 911, Australia 000, New Zealand 111 and on cell phone emergency no is 112.
Heart Attack Diagnosis
If any doctor, nurse, or health care professional suspects that, the person has a heart attack, than they send the person directly to the hospital for several tests. In the hospital following tests can be done.
· ECG ( Electrocardiograph)
ECG is a medical device used to monitor the electrical activity of your heart muscles. A small electric signal is produced at every heartbeat. A heart specialist can use this device to see the functioning of the heart.
They check whether there is any damage to heart muscles or abnormalities with the heart rhythm. After checking the data from ECG, doctor can give report to patient that he had a heart attack or not.
· Cardiac enzyme tests
When a person gets a heart attack usually some enzymes enter into the blood stream. A cardiac enzyme test can detect these enzymes.
· Chest X-ray
This test can be useful if the heart has any type of swelling on it.
Treatment during a Heart Attack
· CPR ( Cardio-pulmonary resuscitation)
Some of the heart patient after the heart attack stops responding or breathing. In this case CPR should be started immediately, which involves:
· Manual chest compressions & mouth-to-mouth breath
It has 30 chest compressions to heart with a mouth-to-mouth resuscitation breath.
· Defibrillator
Defibrillator is a CPS medical device, which aims to use electricity to shock the heart in order to make the heart function in a proper activity.
· 300 mg Aspirin
Aspirin stops the clotting of blood in the artery from growing
· Painkillers
Painkiller is given to a patient to control the discomfort and the pain. Anxiety is also reduced.
Tips to prevent heart attacks
Particularly people cannot control their family history or genetic background. However, they can minimize the risk factors related to the heart attack by following the below steps.
· Quite smoking
· Control your blood pressure level
· Control your cholesterol level
· Don’t be over weight
· Try to manage your diabetes
· Be aware of chest pain
· Eat a low fat diet
· Exercise regularly
· Eat healthy food
These above mentioned are life long challenges to cure heart disease and heart attack.
About the Author
Dr. Robert Nam is a well known heart specialist and has done postgraduate training in cardiology at the national heart hospital, the London chest hospital and UCL hospital, London. He was also engaged in research at the national heart and lung institute. Nowadays he is working as a consultant cardiologist at UCL hospital, London.
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