Polypill Efficacy And Safety Outcomes
Study findings suggest that patients in the polypill group had a 9.5% incidence of these four cardiovascular events, compared to 12.7% in the standard care group. Cardiovascular-related death occurred in 48 patients in the polypill group, compared to 71 in the standard care group. Adverse events were similar between the two groups.
Self-reported medication adherence was higher among patients assigned the polypill, confirming the findings of an earlier study . The researchers proposed that better medication adherence may partly explain the better outcomes observed in the polypill group.
When asked to comment on these findings, Dr. Eric D. Peterson, MPH, praised the researchers for conducting this clinical trial on an important issue but told Medical News Today he had some misgivings about the efficacy of the polypill strategy.
hile the reported differences in outcomes are quite impressive, it is somewhat difficult to wrap your head around whether they are believable. Specifically, while there were modest differences in reported adherence with polypill vs separate therapies, these did not result in any measurable differences in LDL level or BP . Given this, not sure how the polypill resulted in huge differences in mortalityPersonally, I would like to see another trial replicate these findings.
Dr. Eric D. Peterson
Causes Of A Heart Attack
Coronary heart disease is the leading cause of heart attacks.
CHD is a condition in which the major blood vessels that supply the heart get clogged with deposits of cholesterol, known as plaques.
Before a heart attack, 1 of the plaques bursts , causing a blood clot to develop at the site of the rupture.
The clot may block the supply of blood to the heart, triggering a heart attack.
The Role Of Inflammation In Heart Disease
Inflammation is part of your bodys immune response to an illness or injury. When you have a wound or an infection, inflammation helps fight off germs and facilitates healing. Buildup of cholesterol and other substances in your arteries can set off an inflammatory response, too.
For short-term conditions, inflammation is helpful, explains Michos. But sustained low levels of inflammation irritate your blood vessels. Inflammation may promote the growth of plaques, loosen plaque in your arteries and trigger blood clots the primary cause of heart attacks and strokes.
When a blood clot blocks an artery to the heart, you have a heart attack. If the blood clot blocks an artery to the brain, the result is a stroke.
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Common Heart Attack Treatments
Youll find many common heart attack treatments listed here. For more detailed explanations of these treatments, see our page devoted to cardiac procedures.
- Angioplasty: Special tubing with an attached deflated balloon is threaded up to the coronary arteries.
- Angioplasty, Laser: Similar to angioplasty except that the catheter has a laser tip that opens the blocked artery.
- Artificial heart valve surgery: Replaces an abnormal or diseased heart valve with a healthy one.
- Atherectomy: Similar to angioplasty except that the catheter has a rotating shaver on its tip to cut away plaque from the artery.
- Treats blocked heart arteries by creating new passages for blood to flow to your heart muscle.
- Cardiomyoplasty: An experimental procedure in which skeletal muscles are taken from a patients back or abdomen.
- Heart transplant: Removes a diseased heart and replaces it with a donated healthy human heart.
- Minimally invasive heart surgery: An alternative to standard bypass surgery.
- Radiofrequency ablation: A catheter with an electrode at its tip is guided through the veins to the heart muscle to destroy carefully selected heart muscle cells in a very small area.
- Stent procedure: A stent is a wire mesh tube used to prop open an artery during angioplasty.
- Transmyocardial revascularization : A laser is used to drill a series of holes from the outside of the heart into the hearts pumping chamber.
Where Did The Idea Of Cough Cpr Come From
According to Sorrentino, the idea was initially supported by anecdotes and case reports.
We would occasionally see that in the intensive care unit or in a cardiac catheterization lab someone would go into a ventricular arrhythmia or supraventricular arrhythmia , Sorrentino said. And when we tell the patient to cough really hard that could terminate the rhythm.
In this instance, it seems like the method works successfully. But Sorrentino notes that most heart rhythms are more complex than a single cough can handle.
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Women Have Heart Attacks Too
Women and men usually experience the same heart attack symptoms. But research shows women tend to not recognise the symptoms as a sign of a heart attack as quickly.
If you’re experiencing symptoms of a heart attack, you should call 999 immediately.In the UK, an average of three women die of coronary heart disease every hour, many of them due to a heart attack.You dramatically reduce your chance of survival if you don’t call 999 straight away.
Most heart attacks are caused by coronary heart disease .
CHD causes your coronary arteries to become narrowed by a gradual build-up of fatty deposits called atheroma.
If a piece of atheroma breaks off, a blood clot forms around this to try and repair the damage to the artery wall.
This clot can block your coronary artery either a partial blockage or total blockage . This causes your heart muscle to be starved of blood and oxygen.
Other less common causes of a heart attack include:
Questions To Ask Your Doctor
- Is there a test I can take to see if my arteries or blocked so I know if Im at risk of a having a heart attack?
- What is the likely cause of my heart attack?
- How serious was my heart attack?
- What course of treatment do you recommend? Do I need medicine? Surgery?
- Do I need to participate in a cardiac rehabilitation program?
- When can I return to normal physical and sexual activity?
- What is my risk of having another heart attack?
- Are my family members at an increased risk of heart attack?
- Do I need to take medicine to prevent another heart attack?
- Will the medicine interact with any of the medicine I already take?
- What lifestyle changes should I make at home to prevent another heart attack?
- Can sexual activity cause a heart attack?
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What If Its A Heart Attack
A panic attack feels like a heart attack, says Dr Binu. Someone suffering from a panic attack may even feel like their chest is tightening up. During a panic attack, youre not prepared for the episode of sudden panic, which sometimes increases the heart rate, Dr Binu explains.
People who have had a panic attack also complain of having palpitations and a pounding heart and since they feel like theyre going to die, or that everything is going to end, they rush to the hospitals Emergency Room, thinking that theyre having a heart attack. We always explain that if there is nothing to prove anything is wrong with your heart or your lungs then it could be a panic attack.
One reason why a panic attack feels like a heart attack is that a panic disorder is a neurochemical change in the right amygdala, located in the temporal lobe of the brain that controls your emotions connected to fear.
Recovering From A Heart Attack
The time it takes to recover from a heart attack will depend on the amount of damage to your heart muscle.
Most people can return to work after having a heart attack. Some people are well enough to return to work after 2 weeks. Other people may take several months to recover. How quickly you can go back to work depends on your health, the state of your heart and the type of work you do.
The recovery process aims to:
- reduce your risk of another heart attack through a combination of lifestyle changes , and medicines , which help to lower blood cholesterol levels
- gradually restore your physical fitness so you can resume normal activities
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Is It A Panic Attack Or A Heart Attack How To Tell Them Apart
Psychiatrists advise how to make the distinction between the two and how to cope
Ive found that music plays in my mind in the oddest of situations, like when I was waiting for my husband to be discharged from the hospital Emergency Room.
Earlier that day, my 34-year-old husband, called me from work and in what sounded like Morse, he said, ambulance going to hospital chest pain heart attack.
A shiver ran down my spine and I could feel my t-shirt clinging to my back when I heard the last two words. One minute I was exchanging pleasantries with my colleagues, while heating my lunch, the next moment, I was trembling like a sopping wet child made to stand outside a pool as punishment from the coach.
My mind was screaming, Hes going to die hes going to die Im going to die! I was trembling, I did not know why. All I knew that those last two words had awakened me into a dreadful reality.
After five or so minutes that felt like eons, the fear and chills gave way and some kind of normal returned. I tried to steady myself enough to drive to the hospital where I was supposed to meet my husband. Like most people, I assumed, this episode might have been a panic attack, however, after speaking to psychiatrists for the sake of this story, I realised that those few minutes in hell, may not have been one.
Experiencing A Medical Emergency Complete Care Can Help
If youre still unsure of what to do when someone is having a heart attack, Complete Care is here to help. Our emergency care facilities are open 24/7 and provide hospital-grade care to patients within minutes, not hours, with no appointment necessary and no surprise billing.
We have ER locations in both Texas and Colorado .
Visit your nearest Complete Care location today for quick, efficient, patient-centered care today.
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Risk Factors For Cardiovascular Disease
You can reduce your risk of developing CVD and having a heart attack by removing or reducing risk factors. These include:
- unhealthy eating
- smoking either being a smoker or inhaling other peoples smoke
- having high cholesterol
- having depression, being socially isolated or not having quality social support.
Other factors you cant change that can increase the risk of developing CVD include:
- having a family history of early death from CVD, such as a first-degree relative younger than 60
- ethnicity Indigenous, Mori, Pasifika people and those from South Asian countries, are at higher risk of heart disease
- being a post-menopausal woman.
What To Look Out For
According to Priory Wellbeing Centre, approximately one in four people will have a panic attack at some point and two per cent of those will go on to develop a panic disorder. Women are two to three times more likely to experience panic attacks than men, and the highest incidence of panic disorder is between 15 and 24 years, with a second peak later in life between 45 and 55 years.
There are symptoms to look out for, says Dr Waleed.
Intense psychological and physical symptoms are common with panic attacks
- including a strong feeling of dread, danger, foreboding, losing control, or dying
- feeling like one is not connected to the body or feelings of unreality
- ringing in the ears and abdominal symptoms like the need to go to the toilet
- breathlessness and feelings of choking
- racing or pounding heartbeat
- feeling sick, faint or dizzy
- pins and needles sensation in fingers
Panic attacks are harmless and do not physically cause damage. Patients with panic attacks usually do not require hospital admission. However, they can be quite debilitating if people start avoiding situations that they think are associated with the attacks, he explains.
According to Dr Binu, people those diagnosed with a panic disorder are advised to undergo Anti-Panic Cognitive Behavioural Therapy and relaxation techniques like JPMR – Jacobson’s relaxation technique that focuses on tightening and relaxing specific muscles.
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How Long Does It Take To Recover From A Heart Attack
A heart attack is a life threatening medical condition in which the blood flowing to the heart suddenly stops due to a blocked coronary artery. Damage to surrounding tissues occurs immediately.
Recovering from a heart attack ultimately depends on the severity of the condition as well as how quickly its treated.
Immediately after the event, you can expect to stay in the hospital for 3 to 5 days, or until your condition is stable.
Overall, it takes several weeks and possibly up to several months to recover from a heart attack. Your individual recovery is dependent on:
- your overall condition
Despite its name, a widowmaker heart attack can affect women, too.
With this type of heart attack, you may be in the hospital for a few extra days, especially if you need to have surgery to open up the LAD artery.
A low-fat, low-calorie diet has been proven to help prevent the risk of a heart attack. However, if youve already had a heart attack, eating right is simply a must to help prevent future occurrences.
One helpful eating plan is called the dietary approaches to stop hypertension, or DASH.
The overall goal of this diet is to limit sodium, red meat, and saturated fats while focusing on potassium-rich sources of fruits and vegetables, along with lean meats, fish, and plant oils.
The Mediterranean diet is similar to DASH in that they both emphasize plant-based foods.
Overall, aim to:
age 65 .
Having a heart attack as an older adult also comes with special considerations.
How To Treat A Heart Attack
This article was co-authored by David Nazarian, MD. Dr. David Nazarian is a board certified Internal Medicine Physician and the Owner of My Concierge MD, a medical practice in Beverly Hills California, specializing in concierge medicine, executive health and integrative medicine. Dr. Nazarian specializes in comprehensive physical examinations, IV Vitamin therapies, hormone replacement therapy, weight loss, platelet rich plasma therapies. He has over 16 years of medical training and facilitation and is a Diplomate of the American Board of Internal Medicine. He completed his B.S. in Psychology and Biology from the University of California, Los Angeles, his M.D. from the Sackler School of Medicine, and a residency at Huntington Memorial Hospital, an affiliate of the University of Southern California.There are 8 references cited in this article, which can be found at the bottom of the page.wikiHow marks an article as reader-approved once it receives enough positive feedback. In this case, several readers have written to tell us that this article was helpful to them, earning it our reader-approved status. This article has been viewed 291,459 times.
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S For The Primordial Prevention Of Heart Disease
Five key lifestyle steps can dramatically reduce your chances of developing cardiovascular risk factors and ultimately heart disease:
1. Not smoking
One of the best things you can do for your health is to not use tobacco in any form. Tobacco use is a hard-to-break habit that can slow you down, make you sick, and shorten your life. One way it does this is by contributing to heart disease.
In fact, researchers examining the relationship between cigarette smoking and smoking cessation on mortality during a decades-long perspective study of over 100,000 women found that approximately 64% of deaths among current smokers and 28% of deaths among former smokers were attributable to cigarette smoking.
- This study also reported that much of the excess risk due to smoking may be drastically lowered after quitting. Additionally, the excess risk for all-cause mortalitythat is, death from any causedecreases to the level of a never-smoker 20 years after quitting.
The nicotine that tobacco products deliver is one of the most addictive substances around. That makes tobacco use one of the toughest unhealthy habits to break. But dont get discouraged many smokers do quit! In fact, in the United States today there are more ex-smokers than smokers. Learn more about the hazards of smoking, the benefits of quitting, and tips for quitting from the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention.
2. Maintaining a healthy weight
3. Exercising
4. Following a healthy diet
5. Improving sleep health
How To Cope With Panic Attacks
Dr Waleed says that if you know what to expect, there are things you can do to help make further attacks easier to manage. During a panic attack, he advises:
- Recognise that this is a panic attack its temporary and will soon pass it is not life threatening. To realise this effectively, some familiarity may be required and so this is for subsequent panic attacks.
- Dont try to avoid the situation try and stay with the feeling without fighting it
- Some people find it helpful to find an object to focus on and notice everything possible about it they will verbally describe it in detail to themselves as a means of distraction and grounding
- Our thoughts, feelings, and bodily responses are interconnected, so think about a happy place, memory or positive experience
- Another grounding technique is to look at your surroundings and think about five things you can see, four things you can touch, three things you can hear, two things you can smell, and one thing you can taste
In terms of lifestyle changes, Dr Waleed adds: Anything that reduces stress and anxiety levels can potentially limit the occurrence of panic attacks.
Effectively managing stress by taking breaks, managing time and tasks, getting enough sleep, eating wholesome foods, regular exercise, mindfulness practice, self-soothing activities like taking a massage and journaling all go a long way to help calm the mind and body. Reducing ones caffeine intake will also help.
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