Are There Complications Of A Heart Attack
Complications following a heart attack can include:
- Arrhythmia your heart may develop an irregular heartbeat following a heart attack due to damaged heart muscles disrupting electrical signals.
- Heart failure your heart may have ongoing difficulty pumping enough blood, due to its muscles being too weak or stiff.
- Cardiogenic shock where your whole body goes into shock from extensive heart muscle damage.
- Heart rupture this is a rare but serious complication in which the hearts muscles, walls or valves split apart.
These can be dangerous if untreated, but your healthcare team will help to manage them if they occur.
Risk Factors You Can Control
The major risk factors for a heart attack that you can control include:
- High blood sugar due to insulin resistance or diabetes
Some of these risk factorssuch as obesity, high blood pressure, and high blood sugartend to occur together. When they do, it’s called metabolic syndrome.
In general, a person who has metabolic syndrome is twice as likely to develop heart disease and five times as likely to develop diabetes as someone who doesn’t have metabolic syndrome.
For more information about the risk factors that are part of metabolic syndrome, go to the Health Topics Metabolic Syndrome article.
What Factors Are Used To Calculate Heart Disease And Stroke Risk
- an irregular heartbeat
- family history of heart attack or stroke
- if you are of Aboriginal or Torres Strait Islander descent or other cultural background, who are at higher risk
- if you are overweight.
After considering all these factors, your doctor will calculate your percentage score your absolute risk of experiencing a heart attack or stroke in the next five years. Your doctor will then use treatment guidelines to recommend the appropriate action for your absolute risk level.
Some people who have particular medical conditions do not need a risk score, because they are already at high risk. Your doctor will tell you if you are in this group and advise you about what to do to reduce your risk.
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Heart Attacks Striking Younger Women
Younger women are having more heart attacks, says a recent study.Researchers were surprised to find that while the heart attack rate hasdecreased among older adults, it’s risen among those ages 35-54, especiallywomen. TheAtherosclerosis Risk in Communities studyreviewed more than 28,000 hospitalizations for heart attacks in fourcities.
“This observational study found a trend in young women,” saysVirginia Colliver, M.D., cardiologist withJohns Hopkins Community Physicians-Heart Carein Bethesda, Maryland. “But the research doesn’t provide insight into whythe uptick in heart attacks is happening to younger people. I suspect ithas to do with more people having risk factors for heart disease at anearlier age.”
Smi: Unaware Of Possible Danger
The number of people who suffer an SMI and don’t realize it is alarming. A study in the Nov. 10, 2015, Journal of the American Medical Association looked at almost 2,000 people ages 45 to 84 who were free of cardiovascular disease.
After 10 years, 8% had myocardial scars, which are evidence of a heart attack. Most surprising was that 80% of these people were unaware of their condition. Overall, the prevalence of myocardial scars was five times higher in men than in women.
SMI and regular heart attacks share the same risk factors: smoking, being overweight, lack of exercise, high blood pressure, high cholesterol levels, and diabetes. They can be just as dangerous, too. “SMI often leaves scarring and damage to the heart, which, combined with the fact that many people who have an SMI don’t seek immediate care, can further raise a person’s risk of a second and potentially more harmful heart attack,” says Dr. Plutzky. In fact, people who have an SMI and don’t get treatment have a three times greater risk of dying from coronary artery disease. “A silent heart attack is a loud signal your body sends that you have some kind of underlying health issue that needs attention,” says Dr. Plutzky.
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Complications Of A Heart Attack
Complications of a heart attack can be serious and possibly life threatening.
These include:
- arrhythmias these are abnormal heartbeats. 1 type is where the heart begins beating faster and faster, then stops beating
- cardiogenic shock where the heart’s muscles are severely damaged and can no longer contract properly to supply enough blood to maintain many body functions
- heart rupture where the heart’s muscles, walls or valves split apart
These complications can happen quickly after a heart attack and are a leading cause of death.
Many people die suddenly from a complication of a heart attack before reaching hospital or within the 1st month after a heart attack.
The outlook often depends on:
- age serious complications are more likely as you get older
- the severity of the heart attack how much of the heart’s muscle has been damaged during the attack
- how long it took before a person received treatment treatment for a heart attack should begin as soon as possible
Sudden Spike In Physical Activity
Exercise acts as a medicine for the body and there is no doubt that moderate to vigorous physical exercise can improve cardiovascular health. But similar to medicines, proper care needs to be taken to avoid overdose or underdose of exercise. In recent times, people are eager to regain their fitness levels after being stuck inside their homes due to the pandemic. In order to become active, many are engaging in rigorous forms of exercise which can cause cardiac events, especially when performed by unfit, inactive, individuals with known or undiagnosed heart disease. Also, to quickly get back to shape, many people are increasing the intake of high-calorie protein powders, energy drinks, anabolic steroids, etc. which can further prove detrimental for heart health. Large amounts of steroids taken over a long period of time can cause severe damage to the heart and even lead to sudden cardiac arrest or heart attack.
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What Are The Symptoms Of Heart Attack
The major symptoms of a heart attack are
- Chest pain or discomfort. Most heart attacks involve discomfort in the center or left side of the chest that lasts for more than a few minutes or that goes away and comes back. The discomfort can feel like uncomfortable pressure, squeezing, fullness, or pain.
- Feeling weak, light-headed, or faint. You may also break out into a cold sweat.
- Pain or discomfort in the jaw, neck, or back.
- Pain or discomfort in one or both arms or shoulders.
- Shortness of breath. This often comes along with chest discomfort, but shortness of breath also can happen before chest discomfort.
Other symptoms of a heart attack could include unusual or unexplained tiredness and nausea or vomiting. Women are more likely to have these other symptoms. Learn more about women and heart disease.
Every 40 seconds, someone in the United States has a heart attack.1Learn more facts about heart attack and heart disease.
What Is Hri Doing
HRI is conducting innovative research to develop new therapies for detecting, preventing and treating heart attacks.
Our Arterial Inflammation and Redox Biology Group is investigating unstable atherosclerotic plaque, which can cause blockages leading to heart attack, and how to detect and prevent the formation of this high-risk plaque.
Our Coronary Diseases Group is investigating whether the anti-inflammatory drug colchicine, which has already proved safe and effective for treating conditions like arthritis and gout, can be repurposed to protect against repeat heart attacks. A collaboration between the Coronary Disease Group and our Clinical Research Group has also discovered that the heart releases certain substances during a heart attack that can be detected in the laboratory.
Our Thrombosis Group is undertaking research to understand how blood clot formation occurs in healthy individuals. This research is crucial for developing safer and more effective therapies for heart attacks, amongst other cardiovascular diseases.
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What Are The Symptoms Of A Heart Attack
Symptoms of a heart attack include:
- Angina: Chest pain or discomfort in the center of the chest also described as a heaviness, tightness, pressure, aching, burning, numbness, fullness or squeezing feeling that lasts for more than a few minutes or goes away and comes back. It is sometimes mistakenly thought to be indigestion or heartburn.
- Pain or discomfort in other areas of the upper body including the arms, left shoulder, back, neck, jaw, or stomach.
- Trouble breathing or feeling shortness of breath.
- Sweating or “cold sweat.”
- Rapid or irregular heart beats.
If you are having any of these symptoms and they last for more than 5 minutes, SEEK EMERGENCY TREATMENT WITHOUT DELAY. These symptoms could be the signs of a heart attack and you need to get treatment as soon as possible.
Heart Attack Prevention Measures
A healthy lifestyle is essential to make sure you dont have a heart attack.
Stop Smoking: Smoking is the worst offender when it comes to causing heart diseases. Encourage people in your house that smoke to quit. We know it isnt easy, but with enough determination, its possible. Take the help of a professional and close ones to help you quit. Its easier to quit when you have support.
Healthy diet: A healthy diet is the first step towards a healthy lifestyle. Your diet can help you control cholesterol, blood pressure, diabetes, and weight. Consume nutrient-rich food with lots of vitamins, minerals, and fiber. Limit sugar intake and red meat. Make sure your diet consists of lots of vegetables, fruits, whole grains, poultry, fish, and legumes.
Control blood pressure, stress, and diabetes: Consult your doctor and keep that blood sugar in check. Have proper medicines and reduce salt intake. Keep it at an optimal 120/80 mmHg. Maintain your diet so that your blood glucose level stays at a reasonable level. Get rid of some stress from your life. You only live once, so try to reduce as much stress as possible. There are many guides out there on stress management.
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Heart Risks Much Higher With Infection Than Vaccines
During the public comment, anti-vaccine advocates said no child or teen should be vaccinated against a disease that poses little serious threat to their lives.
Though the risk of death among teens who contract COVID-19 is small, the pandemic has made a dramatic impact on the lives of millions of teens and young adults across the country who have seen graduations, college plans, and jobs be put on hold for the last year. A new survey shows that nearly 80% of high school juniors and seniors say the pandemic has affected their plans after graduation, and 72% of 13- to 19-year-olds say they have struggled with their mental health, according to the New York Times.
In countries seeing a surge of new cases due to variants, young, unvaccinated adults represent a significant proportion of new cases, and public health experts have long said young adults and teens are conduits of COVID-19’s community spread.
Today the Department of Health and Human Services released a statement on ACIP’s findings, saying myocarditis and pericarditis are much more common if a person contracts COVID-19 than from vaccination.
In total, the CDC COVID Data Tracker shows that 379,446,660 COVID-19 vaccine doses have been delivered in the United States and 319,223,844 doses have been administered, with 150,426,657 Americans fully vaccinated .
Heart Attack Symptoms In Women
Although many people think heart attacks happen mostly to men, heartdisease is the leading cause of death for both men and women. So it’s justas important for women of every age torecognize heart attack signsand seek immediate medical attention.
For the vast majority of people men and women chest pain or discomfortis the primary symptom of a heart attack. However, women are more likelythan men are to have less recognizable heart attack symptoms, such as:
- Pain or discomfort in different parts of the upper body
- Shortness of breath
- Nausea and vomiting
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What Is A Heart Attack
A heart attack, also called a myocardial infarction, happens when a part of the heart muscle doesnt get enough blood.
The more time that passes without treatment to restore blood flow, the greater the damage to the heart muscle.
Coronary artery disease is the main cause of heart attack. A less common cause is a severe spasm, or sudden contraction, of a coronary artery that can stop blood flow to the heart muscle.
What Are The Risk Factors For Heart Attack
Several health conditions, your lifestyle, and your age and family history can increase your risk for heart disease and heart attack. These are called risk factors. About half of all Americans have at least one of the three key risk factors for heart disease: high blood pressure, high blood cholesterol, and smoking.2
Some risk factors cannot be controlled, such as your age or family history. But you can take steps to lower your risk by changing the factors you can control.
Learn more about risk factors for heart disease and heart attack.
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Heart Attack Risk Factors For Women
There are several factors that increase your chance of developing heartdisease. Almost 50% of all Americans have at least one of three major riskfactors for the condition:
- High blood pressure: Women can develop high blood pressure as a side effect of birth control pills or during pregnancy. All women over 65 are more likely than men are to have high blood pressure.
- High cholesterol: Estrogen seems to protect women against unhealthy levels of cholesterol. But after menopause, estrogen levels drop and high cholesterol becomes more likely.
- Smoking: Although men are slightly more likely to smoke, the gap in cigarette usage between genders is smaller than ever and women are less likely to be able to quit successfully.
Additional risk factors include:
- Excessive alcohol use
What Causes Heart Attacks
The most common cause of a heart attack is coronary heart disease. This is where fatty deposits, cholesterol and other substances build up in the walls of the coronary arteries that supply oxygen to the heart. Over time, this build-up hardens into plaque that can break off at any time and cause a blood clot which blocks the artery.
In some cases, heart attacks have another cause:
- Coronary artery spasm is an unusual narrowing of blood vessels that can stop blood flow to the heart.
- Spontaneous coronary artery dissection is a sudden tear in the wall of a coronary artery, which can also affect people who have few risk factors for heart disease.
Certain lifestyle factors are shown to increase your chances of heart disease and having a heart attack.
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Heart Attack And Stroke Statistics
- Approximately 1.5 million heart attacks and strokes occur in the United States each year.
- Someone in the U.S. has a stroke every 40 seconds, accounting for one out of every 19 deaths.
- Cerebrovascular disease accounted for 6.2 million deaths worldwide in 2017.
- Each year, approximately 605,000 new heart attacks and 200,000 recurrent heart attacks occur in the U.S.
- In 2016, heart attacks, strokes, and heart failure caused 2.2 million hospitalizations.
- Acute myocardial infarctions accounted for 260,000 emergency room visits in 2017, and cerebrovascular disease accounted for another 492,000.
What It’s Like To Have A Heart Attack In Your 20s Or 30s
Heart attacks can strike at any ageand they’re twice as likely to be fatal for young women than men.
When you picture the typical heart attack patient, it’s probably an older man clutching his arm and grimacing in pain. But the truth is, heart disease isnt just a mans conditionits also the leading killer of women, claiming about one in every four females lives in the United States, according to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention.
And while its true that our risk of having a heart attack increases as we age, younger women are not immune to them. In fact, the Women’s Heart Foundation says that of the 435,000 American women who have heart attacks annually, 8% of them of them are younger than 55.
What’s more, heart attacks under 50 are twice likely to be fatal for women as they are for men, possibly because women often ignore early warning signs. In a 2015 study published in Circulation: Cardiovascular Quality and Outcomes, Yale University researchers interviewed women aged 30 to 55 who survived a heart attack and discovered many of the women brushed off pain, dizziness, and other symptoms. Additionally, a 2013 study published in JAMA Internal Medicine revealed that many younger women who survived heart attacks never experienced any chest pain.
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Kara Burns 41 Had A Heart Attack At Age 39
As a former cardiology nurse, I knew all about the symptoms of a heart attack. But that was the farthest thing from my mind when I was hit with sudden chest pain one morning in 2013.
It was just a normal Saturday I was sitting in bed with my husband and three-month-old baby, watching the news and drinking coffee. Looking back, I had all the classic symptoms: I felt dizzy and nauseous, and the chest pain was radiating out to my back. I knew something was wrongand I knew I needed to get to the hospitalbut I didnt think I was having a heart attack.
I was just about to get into my car when I turned to my husband and said, Im not going to make it. Thats when he called an ambulance, which was there in about two minutes. The firefighters came, toothey were rearranging my furniture in my living room while the EMTs put me on a gurney. They kind of swooped me away and we were off to the hospital. My husband was following behind the ambulance in my Toyota Highlanderlater, he told me, I didnt know your car could do 95 miles per hour on the highway. I had no idea how fast we were going.
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At the hospital, they took me into the trauma room right away. I only remember bits and pieces of the next 24 hours. I was an emotional wreck, so they kept me pretty sedated. I remember waking up and seeing my mom, waking up and asking where the baby was.