What Is A Heart Attack
Explaining Why So Many Cases Of Cardiac Arrest Strike In The Morning
Note to journalists: Please report that this research was presented at a meeting of the American Chemical Society.
A press conference on this topic will be held Sunday, Sept. 8, at 8 a.m. in the ACS Press Center, Room 211, in the Indiana Convention Center. Reporters can attend in person or access live audio and video of the event and ask questions at www.ustream.tv/channel/acslive.
INDIANAPOLIS, Sept. 8, 2013 Evidence from people with heart disease strongly supports the existence of the molecular link first discovered in laboratory mice between the bodys natural circadian rhythms and cardiac arrest or sudden cardiac death the No. 1 cause of death in heart attacks, a scientist said here today.
The research, which offers the most focused explanation ever for SCDs predilection for the morning hours, was part of the 246th National Meeting & Exposition of the American Chemical Society , the worlds largest scientific society. The meeting, which features almost 7,000 reports on discoveries in science and other topics, continues through Thursday in the Indiana Convention Center and downtown hotels.
One of the deepest mysteries about SCD has been its timing. Health experts have known for more than 30 years that the erratic heartbeat responsible for SCD strikes most often at certain times of the day. The peak risk hours range from 6 a.m. to 10 a.m., with a smaller peak in the late afternoon.
Which Season Has The Most Heart Attacks
Several studies have demonstrated that there is seasonal variation in heart attacks.
They are most likely to occur in the winter, and least likely to occur in the summer. This is not just true for heart attacks, but also other cardiovascular events. Several explanations have been proposed. Winter is associated with infections and derangements in cholesterol levels. The lower temperatures cause increased stress on the walls of the heart and reduced flow to the arteries that supply the heart. Winter is also associated with psychological stress, depression and decreased activity. In fact, researchers have shown people are most likely to die from heart disease over the Christmas and New Years period.
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Why Most Heart Attacks Occur In The Morning
Heart complications have become highly prevalent in recent years. Of these complications, heart attacks are the most common and, in many people, they occur in the early morning hours. New research, published in the Blood November issue, reveals the role of the bodys circadian rhythms in morning heart attacks and ischemic strokes. The research was conducted by Oregon Health and Science University and Brigham and Womens Hospital.
Causes of increased cardiovascular complications in the morning could either be linked to the bodys clockwork or physical activities associated with morning hours. The research set out to find which the culprit was. Twelve healthy adult participants were monitored continuously for two weeks at the Brigham and Womens Hospital.
The participants were assigned to a protocol that was designed to separate behavioral and environmental aspects from the natural circadian rhythm of the body.
The researchers monitored the level of plasminogen activator inhibitor-1, or PAI-1, in the body. PAI-1 is known for its inhibition of the breakdown of dangerous blood clots in the body. It is, therefore, a major contributor to heart attacks and strokes. The higher the level of PAI-1, the higher the risk of cardiovascular complications.
Abrupt Changes In Blood Pressure
Blood pressure follows a daily pattern. It is normally lower at night while you are sleeping and starts to rise a few hours before waking up. This rise in BP continues during the day, usually peaking in the middle of the afternoon. By late afternoon or evening, your BP would begin to drop again.
Must read Hypertension: Beware of this silent killer.
In the morning, the body releases certain hormones such as adrenaline and noradrenaline. These hormones give you energy boosts but can also raise your BP. This morning increase in BP is usually seen between 6 am and noon.
Hence, when you first wake up in the morning, blood pressure increases due to the bodys normal circadian rhythm. One of them is a morning surge in BP , which results in an increased risk of damage to the brain, heart, and kidneys.
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In the nutshell
Events like stroke or Heart Attack, or Cardiac arrest can happen to anybody anywhere at any time. Its good that everyone is familiar with heart attack signs, stroke, and cardiac arrest.
Also, it is surely found that blood pressure plays a critical role in all these events. Get some natural ideas to manage blood pressure here.
Finally, making basic lifestyle changes is the most effective way to prevent cardiac arrest or heart attack or stroke events.
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Sitting Posture In Toilet
The cardiac events that occur during defecation are, in many cases, the result of using the sitting posture for waste elimination. Intensive and repeated Valsalva Manoeuvres are needed for emptying the bowels in a sitting position. In fact, VM was found to be a triggering event.
We, humans, are optimally designed to poop in the squatting position. However, with globalization came the toilets that required people to sit comfortably rather than squat.
For many years, experts have started pointing out the western toilet positions harms on our digestive system. Using a sitting toilet triggers the risk more than a squatting toilet as it requires more strain.
Various studies have pointed out how western toilets cause constipation, hemorrhoids, Inflammatory Bowel Disease , appendicitis, and even heart attacks or cardiovascular events like cardiac arrest .
How Did The Researchers Interpret The Results
The researchers say that the amount of damage caused by heart attacks, as measured by their enzyme levels, was significantly larger in patients who had a heart attack between 6am and noon, than at other times of the day.
They say that, although the reason is not fully understood, it may be due to natural changes in the body during the 24-hour period, so that at certain times there is less cardioprotection. For example, circadian variations in heart rate, blood pressure and coronary flow may all be involved.
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Whats The Most Likely Day Of The Week To Have A Heart Attack
Researchers have shown that people are clearly more likely to have a heart attack on a Monday. In fact the same goes for sudden cardiac death from life threatening heart rhythm problems, and death from other heart diseases. These findings are mainly true for the working population and hold true for men and women however, this may not be true outside of the West. There is some evidence that in the Middle East the peak incidence of heart attacks is on Fridays, and in Japan it is during the weekend. This supports an explanation that relates to the working week and related stressors. Its possible that increased stress hormones triggered by the return to work can make heart plaques unstable and lead to a heart attack. There is no clear proof of that however.
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:
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The Wrong Sequence Of Bath
While bathing or showering, do not wet the head and hair first. This is the wrong sequence. writes a professor at UiTM National Sports Board.
Sequenced bathing is essential to avoid such incidences. Start with wetting your legs and up to your head gently. Know further about sequenced bathing in detail.
Stress Is Likely A Major Factor
Dr. Chugh and his team studied data available from the Oregon Sudden Unexpected Death Study, which began in 2002.
For the analysis, the investigators looked at the data collected from emergency medical reports in 20042014. During this time, 1,535 adults had sudden cardiac arrests and died as a result.
Of these people, note the authors, only 13.9 percent died between 12 a.m. and 6 a.m. Contrary to older research and an ensuing widespread belief, the study found no evidence of a higher prevalence of sudden cardiac arrests on Mondays.
While there are likely several reasons to explain why more cardiac arrests happen outside of previously identified peak times, stress is likely a major factor, explains Dr. Chugh.
Because sudden cardiac arrest is usually fatal, we have to prevent it before it strikes, he adds.
We now live in a fast-paced, always on era that causes increased psychosocial stress and possibly, an increase in the likelihood of sudden cardiac arrest.
Dr. Sumeet Chugh
Dr. Chugh also shares some directions for future research, explaining, Our next steps are to conclusively determine the underlying reasons behind this shift, then identify public health implications as a result.
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Why Daylight Saving Time Could Increase Your Heart Attack Risk
The number of heart attacks rises the Monday after daylight saving time, a Michigan Medicine study found. Interrupted sleep may be the culprit.
Heart attacks occur most often on Monday mornings. And on one particular Monday, the risk may be further elevated.
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Research shows a 24 percent jump in the number of heart attacks occurring the Monday after we spring forward for daylight saving time compared with other Mondays throughout the year.
That lost hour of sleep may play a bigger, perhaps more dangerous role in our bodys natural rhythm, according to a 2014 study led by the University of Michigan Frankel Cardiovascular Center.
Although researchers cant say precisely what is driving this rise in heart attacks, they have a theory.
The reason more heart attacks happen on Monday mornings could be attributed to several factors, including the stress of starting a new workweek and inherent changes in our sleep-wake cycle. Previous studies have linked poor or insufficient sleep with heart disease.
With daylight saving time, all of this is compounded by one less hour of sleep.
What Is Cardiac Arrest
Cardiac arrest is a heart condition where your heart stops beating. When this happens, your essential organs are no longer receiving oxygen-filled blood, putting your life in imminent danger.
Some people use the terms cardiac arrest, heart attack, and heart failure interchangeably. But each of these conditions is slightly different, although they can be related to each other.
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Symptoms Of A Heart Attack
Heart attack symptoms vary from person to person. They can include:
- pain or discomfort in your chest that happens suddenly and doesn’t go away
- pain that spreads to your left or right arm, or to your neck, jaw, back or stomach. For some people the pain or tightness is severe, while for others its uncomfortable. It may feel like heaviness, or a burning pain similar to indigestion
- feeling sick, sweaty, light-headed or short of breath.
Its possible to have a heart attack without experiencing all these symptoms, and its important to remember everyone experiences pain differently. This is common in the elderly or people with diabetes, as the condition can cause nerve damage which affects how you feel pain.
What Kind Of Research Was This
The aim of this study was to investigate whether the time of day affected the severity of damage caused by a type of heart attack called ST segment elevation myocardial infarction . This was a retrospectivecross-sectional analysis of 811 STEMI patients admitted to hospital between 2003 and 2009. This type of heart attack is caused by a prolonged blockage of blood supply to the coronary artery and usually causes large areas of damage to the heart muscle.
The researchers point out that the circadian clock is known to influence a number of cardiovascular factors, including blood pressure and heart rate, and that heart attacks peak in incidence during the early morning hours. As yet, little research has been carried out in patients to look at whether the degree of damage caused by a heart attack is affected by the time of day it occurs.
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How Is A Heart Attack Treated
Quick treatment to get the blood flowing to your heart muscle again is important. This can reduce the amount of permanent damage to your heart and save your life.
Many people need to have emergency treatment to restore the blood flow:
- Coronary angioplasty re-opens the blocked coronary artery by inserting one or more stents. This helps keep the narrowed artery open.
- Thrombolysis involves giving you clot-busting medicine to dissolve the blood clot that’s blocking the coronary artery.
- Coronary bypass surgery helps to restore normal blood flow by using a blood vessel from your leg, arm or chest in your heart to bypass the blocked artery.
You might not have these treatments if your doctor decides it’s not safe or necessary.
New Insights Into Why Patients Have A Higher Risk Of Heart Attack In The Morning
- Date:
- Queen Mary University of London
- Summary:
- Heart disease patients have lower levels of an important family of protective molecules in their blood in the morning, which could be increasing risk of blood clots and heart attacks at those times, says early research.
Cardiovascular disease patients have lower levels of an important family of protective molecules in their blood in the morning, which could be increasing their risk of blood clots and heart attacks at those times, according to early research led by Queen Mary University of London.
The discovery of the importance of this compound in the blood could lead to new ways to diagnose, treat and prevent cardiovascular disease.
The body’s clock is set in part by environmental cues including the light-dark cycle and controls many aspects of our body’s daily functions, including sleep, heart rhythm and feeding.
Recent studies have shown that the body’s defence system also responds to this clock and influences our body’s ability to repair itself and respond to injury at different times of the day. And in patients with heart disease, the activation of blood cells in the early hours of the morning is associated with an increased incidence of blood clots, heart attacks and strokes at those times.
The team collected blood from 7 healthy volunteers and 16 patients with cardiovascular disease. This was collected at different times of the day to measure the SPM levels, and note the behaviour of the blood cells.
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What Did The Research Involve
Researchers looked at the data on 811 patients who were admitted to hospital between 2003 and 2009 with a STEMI, as defined in current clinical practice guidelines. They obtained information on the time of onset of symptoms from patients medical histories, the site of the STEMI and the levels of creatine kinase and troponin I , measured on admission and then every four hours. These two enzymes are chemical markers for damage to the heart tissue and higher levels of enzymes indicate greater damage.
The researchers divided the 24-hour clock into four equal periods, in phase with circadian rhythms. These were midnight to 6am, 6am to noon , noon to 6pm and 6pm to midnight. The time of day that patients had a heart attack was categorised into one of these four periods. Standard statistical methods were used to assess whether there was a relationship between peak enzyme levels in the blood and the time heart attacks occurred. The results were also adjusted for other factors that could affect the size of someones heart attack, such as the presence of diabetes, history of hypertension and the time of year it happened.
When Do Most Heart Attacks Occur
From the outside, a heart attack can seem very sudden. But from the inside — like inside an artery — it’s actually pretty predictable.
Clogged arteries, also called coronary artery disease , are the primary cause of heart attacks . Arteries get clogged by something called plaque, a fatty substance that builds up on artery walls. Plaque often builds up when there’s too much fat and cholesterol in the diet — and too much cholesterol in the blood. Essentially, stuff starts sticking to the artery walls of the heart as blood passes through, and eventually a blood clot can form. If it’s big enough, that clot can block the artery entirely.
In a heart attack, oxygen supply to the heart has been cut off, resulting in damage to or death of heart muscle. The heart stops pumping if the blood flow isn’t immediately restored. When it stops pumping, that’s a heart attack. In the United States, about 1.1 million people suffer heart attacks every year, and about half of those heart attacks result in death .
Heart attacks seldom happen without some kind of warning. They can often be explained by medical history, including high cholesterol or high blood pressure, or by a family history of heart disease. But can they also be explained by external circumstances, like time of year or time of day? Are there certain occasions that pose greater risk for people with heart disease?
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