Large number of people dies from the consequences of a heart attack just because they don’t recognize the symptoms and ignore the importance of rapid and adequate professional help. If the help is provided at time, and the help is done thoroughly, the heart attack could be stopped from further damage to the organism.
What is a heart attack?
Heart attack (myocardial infarction) occurs due to a sudden interruption of blood flow through the blood vessels that supply the heart muscle with oxygen and essential nutrients for its proper function.
The main reason for this blockage are deposits of fat, LDL and tiny blood clots that pile in the blood vessels. Due to the interruption of blood flow, heart muscle begins to partially shut down and lower its function. A heart the organ that nature created to act as a pump loses part of its basic function and thus disturbs the overall circulation in the human body. The entire organism is than out of its equilibrium, and such condition leads to numerous complications.
How to recognize the symptoms
Symptoms of the heart attack usually are typical in most cases. However, one should not forget that can be non-specific. Sometimes, unfortunately, heart attack might avoid clear symptoms. Painless myocardial infarction, or so called silent infarcts are very common conditions in people with diabetes or certain neurological diseases.
Sometimes the symptoms can be what we refer as common, and those are very irregular heartbeat or palpitations, dizziness, dyspnea, and the like. These symptoms should always be interpreted seriously.
Other symptoms that are closely correlated to heart attack are the uncomfortable pressure in the chest, a sharp, clutching pain in the middle of the chest that lasts more than a few minutes, the spread of pain in the neck and jaw area, to the left shoulder or left arm, sudden dizziness, feeling of nausea in my stomach, vomiting and profuse cold sweats, followed by the anxiety and fear of patients.
What to do in case of these symptoms?
Statistics show that more than 50% of people who suffer a heart attack waiting more than two hours before they seek medical care. This is wrong. The symptoms require urgent call of ER, providing a clear and brief description of symptoms and absolutely treatment as adviced during the call. While waiting for the professional help prepare, if possible, all previous medical records, if any.
For patients who have cardiac abnormalities, especially if they have already suffered a heart attack, it is important to take your prescribed medication, especially nitroglycerin (no more than three pills in intervals of 5 minutes).
In case there is no option to call ER, the patient should be transported to the nearest health center.
Remember that a rapid reaction is always advisable, and the sooner you react, the lethal outcome or serious consequences could be avoided.
In order to decrease the chances of having heart attack, we advice you some of the following
- eat healthy,
- control your heart rate regularly,
- quit smoking (if you are a smoker, and avoid passive smoking if you are a non-smoker),
- avoid the stress,
- control your blood pressure
- regulate the cholesterol
- take an Aspirin after lunch
- get enough sleep
- exercise regularly