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.
Which Of The Following Is Not A Symptom Of Heart Attack
Heart attack is the most common problem in people of all ages. Previously, elderly people were mostly found suffering from heart attack and other disorders of heart. But today the situation is averse. People belonging to different age groups are undergoing severe symptoms of heart attack. One reason of this problem is the unhealthy, inactive and unhygienic life styles that are being happily adapted by the people of today.Heart attack has got into our minds to such an extent that even with a slight pain in the chest or joints, we presume that we are suffering from a heart disease or we will suffer a heart attack shortly. This is actually wrong because only a doctor can diagnose a disease. The symptoms of heart attack are not common like the symptoms of other diseases. Most of the people think that pain in legs is the symptom of heart attack but this is not true. Pain in legs is not the symptom of heart attack but pain in the entire joints of the body can be a common symptom of a possible heart attack.
What Do I Do If I Have A Heart Attack
After a heart attack, you need quick treatment to open the blocked artery and lessen the damage. At the first signs of a heart attack, call 911. The best time to treat a heart attack is within 1 or 2 hours after symptoms begin. Waiting longer means more damage to your heart and a lower chance of survival.
If youâve called emergency services and are waiting for them to arrive, chew an aspirin . Aspirin is a potent inhibitor of blood clots and can lower the risk of death from a heart attack by 25%.
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What Causes Acute Myocardial Infarction
Your heart is the main organ in your cardiovascular system, which also includes different types of blood vessels. Some of the most important vessels are the arteries. They take oxygen-rich blood to your body and all of your organs. The coronary arteries take oxygen rich blood specifically to your heart muscle. When these arteries become blocked or narrowed due to a buildup of plaque, the blood flow to your heart can decrease significantly or stop completely. This can cause a heart attack. Several factors may lead to a blockage in the coronary arteries.
Swollen Feet Ankles And Legs
During a heart attack, the blood flow slows down and begins to back up in the veins in your legs due to gravity. Therefore, swollen feet, ankles, and even legs can be a sure sign of a heart attack, especially if you dont normally have that issue. If it is uncommon that your feet and ankles are swollen, we suggest getting them checked out as that can be a sign of several other dangerous conditions.
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What To Do When They Happen
If you or someone youâre with has chest discomfort or other heart attack symptoms, call 911 right away. While your first impulse may be to drive yourself or the heart attack victim to the hospital, itâs better to get an ambulance. Emergency medical services personnel can start treatment on the way to the hospital. Theyâre also trained to revive a person if their heart stops.
If you can’t reach EMS, drive the person to the hospital. If youâre the one with the symptoms, donât drive yourself to the hospital unless you have no other choice.
Many people delay treatment because they doubt they are having a heart attack. They don’t want to bother or worry their friends and family.
Itâs always better to be safe than sorry.
What Are The Warning Signs Of A Heart Attack
There are several different warning signs of a heart attack, and they are not always sudden or severe. Whether or not your chest pain symptoms include mild to severe pain, they should be considered heart-related until proven otherwise.
People having a heart attack may have just one of these symptoms, or a combination of several. They can come on suddenly or develop over a few minutes and get progressively worse. Symptoms usually last for at least 10 minutes.
Warning signs could include:
- discomfort or pain in the centre of your chest a heaviness, tightness or pressure, like something heavy sitting on your chest, or a belt tightening around your chest, or a bad case of indigestion
- discomfort in your arms, shoulder, neck, jaw or back
- other problems such as:
- feeling dizzy or light-headed
Heart attacks are more common in older people than in younger people, but they can occur in people of any age.
The pain you have may not sound like that described above, but its still important to see a doctor. Remember, all chest pain should be checked out by a doctor as soon as possible.
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Risk Of A Repeat Heart Attack
Once you’ve had a heart attack, you’re at higher risk for another one. Knowing the difference between angina and a heart attack is important. Angina is chest pain that occurs in people who have ischemic heart disease.
The pain from angina usually occurs after physical exertion and goes away in a few minutes when you rest or take medicine as directed.
The pain from a heart attack usually is more severe than the pain from angina. Heart attack pain doesn’t go away when you rest or take medicine.
If you don’t know whether your chest pain is angina or a heart attack, call 911.
The symptoms of a second heart attack may not be the same as those of a first heart attack. Don’t take a chance if you’re in doubt. Always call 911 right away if you or someone else has heart attack symptoms.
Unfortunately, most heart attack victims wait 2 hours or more after their symptoms start before they seek medical help. This delay can result in lasting heart damage or death.
Surprising Signs You May Be Having A Heart Attack
Luis Astudillo, M.D. contributes to topics such as Cardiology.
When people have heart attacks in movies, they usually clutch their chests dramatically, break out in a cold sweat and drop to the floor. In real life, some people experience heart attacks this way, but there are many other less obvious symptoms which may indicate that someone is having a heart attack.
Its important to know all of the signs including subtler ones to ensure that you get the emergency care that you need.
Many people who have heart attacks dont have classic symptoms, so they may think that theyre experiencing indigestion, fatigue or muscle soreness from physical exertion, says Luis Astudillo, M.D., a cardiologist at Palisades Medical Center. Women and older adults in particular may not exhibit the typical signs that many people would immediately recognize.
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What Can Be Expected After Treatment
Your chances of recovering from a heart attack depend on how much damage there is to your heart and how quickly you receive emergency care. The sooner you receive treatment, the more likely you are to survive. However, if theres substantial damage to your heart muscle, your heart may be unable to pump an adequate amount of blood throughout your body. This can lead to heart failure.
Heart damage also increases your risk of developing abnormal heart rhythms, or arrhythmias. Your risk of having another heart attack will be higher as well.
Many people whove had heart attacks experience anxiety and depression. Its important to speak with your doctor about your concerns during recovery. It may also be beneficial to join a support group or to speak with a counselor about what youre going through.
Most people are able to resume their normal activities after a heart attack. However, youll need to ease back into any intense physical activity. Your doctor will help you develop a specific plan for recovery. You may be required to take medications or undergo a cardiac rehabilitation program. This type of program can help you slowly regain your strength, teach you about healthy lifestyle changes, and guide you through treatment.
Symptoms Mistaken For Other Ailments
Unfortunately, nausea and vomiting are symptoms of other conditions, such as the flu, food poisoning, extreme stress or anxiety, some forms of cancer, eating disorders, and even some medication side effects.
But in most of those cases, you can pinpoint the cause of your gastrointestinal distress. Or you can often eliminate potential causes based on other symptoms youre experiencing. Youll usually feel different during a heart attack than you will with a bad case of the flu, for example.
Lightheadedness is another one of those symptoms that can often occur during a heart attack, but can also be a sign of many other health problems, such as low blood glucose or low blood pressure. If you experience lightheadedness along with more traditional heart attack symptoms, consider it one more sign confirming a possible heart attack.
Other symptoms of a heart attack you may not readily associate with a coronary event include rapid or irregular heartbeats. These tend to come on before the onset of chest pain and other symptoms. Many heart attack patients also get a vague feeling of doom. They describe feeling anxious, that something is wrong, but they cant explain why.
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Heart Attack: Main Symptoms
Chest discomfort in some form is typical during a heart attack. But its not always a sudden sharp pain, as its often portrayed in movies and on television. Many patients have described the sensation not as chest pain, but as chest pressure.
And while we tend to associate heart attack pain with pressure or tightness in the center of the chest or just left of center, its possible to feel discomfort on the right side of the chest or across the chest from armpit to armpit.
The discomfort may start in the chest and spread to other parts of the body. And keep in mind that every heart attack is different. One person may have excruciating pain, while someone else may have only mild pressureso slight that he or she may not even think to call 911.
Less Common Signs Of Heart Attack
There are other very typical symptoms of a heart attack that have nothing to do with chest pain or pressure. These are signs that may or may not appear with chest discomfort: a significant shortness of breath, for example, or nauseaboth common in heart attack patients.
Shortness of breath, also called dyspnea, is often felt before any chest pain. You may find yourself unable to take a deep breath, or you may feel like you cant catch your breath. You may pant or take rapid breaths, trying to fill your lungs.
Some heart attack patients feel nausea more than any other single symptom. If there are no other noticeable symptoms, you may mistakenly ascribe your upset stomach to the flu or ordinary indigestion.
You may also feel pain in your neck, jaw, or back. Women especially are vulnerable to pain and pressure in these areas.
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Classic Signs Of A Heart Attack
These are the most commonly expected symptoms of heart attack. If you suddenly experience these symptoms, call 911 or get to your nearest emergency room immediately:
- chest pain, pressure or discomfort that lasts for several minutes or disappears, then returns
- pain or discomfort that affects either or both arms
- back, neck or jaw discomfort
- stomach pain or discomfort
- feeling fatigued
- sweating
If you notice any or all of these symptoms, call 911 and seek emergency medical care immediately, even if you arent experiencing chest pain.
What Are Cardiovascular Diseases
Cardiovascular diseases are a group of disorders of the heart and blood vessels. They include:
- coronary heart disease a disease of the blood vessels supplying the heart muscle
- cerebrovascular disease a disease of the blood vessels supplying the brain
- peripheral arterial disease a disease of blood vessels supplying the arms and legs
- rheumatic heart disease damage to the heart muscle and heart valves from rheumatic fever, caused by streptococcal bacteria
- congenital heart disease birth defects that affect the normal development and functioning of the heart caused by malformations of the heart structure from birth and
- deep vein thrombosis and pulmonary embolism blood clots in the leg veins, which can dislodge and move to the heart and lungs.
Heart attacks and strokes are usually acute events and are mainly caused by a blockage that prevents blood from flowing to the heart or brain. The most common reason for this is a build-up of fatty deposits on the inner walls of the blood vessels that supply the heart or brain. Strokes can be caused by bleeding from a blood vessel in the brain or from blood clots.
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Quick Action Can Save Your Life: Call 911
If you think you or someone else may be having heart attack symptoms or a heart attack, don’t ignore it or feel embarrassed to call for help. . Acting fast can save your life.
Do not drive to the hospital or let someone else drive you. Call an ambulance so that medical personnel can begin life-saving treatment on the way to the emergency room. Take a nitroglycerin pill if your doctor has prescribed this type of treatment.
Put Time On Your Side
Acting quickly can save lives. If given quickly after symptoms, clot-busting and artery-opening medications can stop a heart attack, and having a catheterization with a stent put in may open a closed blood vessel. The longer you wait for treatment, the more chances of survival go down and damage to the heart goes up.
About half of those who die from heart attacks do so within the first hour after symptoms begin.
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Can Cardiovascular Disease Be Prevented
It may take 10 to15 years from the beginning of a plaque formation in a coronary artery to narrow that artery to constrict blood flow.
The American Heart Association and the American College of Cardiology have developed guidelines so that health-care professionals may counsel and treat their patients to decrease the risk of developing heart disease. New attention is being paid to the role of weight reduction, diet, exercise, and the use of cholesterol-lowering medications called statins.
In the past, the goal for statin drugs like atorvastatin, was to lower the blood cholesterol level to a specific number and statins were prescribed for patients with high cholesterol levels or those who had had heart attacks. The new guidelines recommend that more patients may benefit from these statin drugs. Rather than having specific cholesterol numbers as a goal, the new goal is to lower the blood cholesterol level by 50% in high-risk patients and by 30% to 50% in those who are at lower risk to develop heart disease. You and your doctor should discuss which goals are best for your condition.
Preventing cardiovascular disease is a lifelong commitment to control blood pressure, high cholesterol, quit smoking, and diabetes. Now, new opportunities exist to decrease risk even further with these new guidelines. These are also the steps to take to decrease the risk of stroke and peripheral artery disease.
Which specialties of doctors treat heart disease?
When Should I Call Triple Zero For Chest Pain
You should call triple zero and ask for an ambulance immediately if:
- your chest pain is severe, or worsening, or lasts longer than 10 minutes
- your chest pain feels heavy, crushing or tight
- you have other symptoms, such as breathlessness, nausea, dizziness or a cold sweat
- you also feel pain in your jaw or down your left arm
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How Many People Have Heart Disease And What Is The Prognosis
- An estimated 15.5 million people in the United States have coronary artery disease.
- Each year, 1.5 million patients suffer an acute myocardial infarction and more than 600,000 people die.
- With better understanding of the different signs and symptoms of heart disease, especially the “atypical” symptoms experienced by women and the elderly, the diagnosis of heart disease has improved.
- The prognosis for the patient is better when diagnosis and treatment are initiated early.
- Educating the public about early access to emergency services when a patient develops acute chest pain can help save lives.
- The goal for the treatment of heart disease is to maximize longevity and quality of life.
What Are The First Signs Of A Heart Attack
information that can turn out to be lifesaving in the case of a person that goes through a heart attack.
First of all, you need to know how to identify the signs indicating a heart attack. Luckily, the body gives clear signs that something wrong is about to happen, so we can take action several minutes before the heart attack takes place, if we know how to interpret the signs that precede it.
A person that is the victim of a heart attack may experience shortness of breath, may feel a squeezing pain or uncomfortable pressure in the chest area, and may feel a pain that is not just in the upper abdomen area but also spreads to the limbs and neck as well. Nausea, sweating, dizziness, and lightheadedness, even fainting, can also be signs of a heart attack.
While pain in the chest area can be experienced in many cases, there are situations in which a heart attack will not cause any kind of symptoms. But, regardless of how the heart attack occurs, knowing what to do is essential.
There are different signs for men and women that indicate a heart attack. These are the signs according to the Israeli heart society.
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