HEART ATTACK (2)

How do I know if I'm having a heart attack?

A person having a heart attack(myocardial infarction) may experience severe central chest pain often described as squeezing or pressure which may radiate to the shoulders, neck or jaw, with or without headache, dizziness, breathlessness, sweating, vomiting or fainting. The pain lasts longer than a few minutes and is not relieved by nitroglycerin (a drug that widens the coronary arteries, prescribed for patients with angina).Unfortunately however, some people,  will not experience any symptoms at all. This is called silent infarction and is more common in diabetics. If not immediately treated, the heart muscle fibers affected will undergo irreversible damage/infarction/death within 4-5 minutes, lose their functionality and be replaced by scar tissue in a few weeks. Depending on the size of the area affected, this damage may lead to heart failure, arrhythmias, heart rupture, cardiac arrest or death.    A heart attack can occur suddenly but many patients have warning signs days or weeks before the actual event. These warning signs may be in form of recurrent chest pain which is precipitated by exertion and relieved by rest, or increasing frequency and severity of chest pain in people who have already been diagnosed with ischemic heart disease. If medical intervention is sought early, the process can be halted or reversed with appropriate therapy.

In what ways may you be increasing your risk for ischemic disease?

Although there are some predisposing factors which are not modifiable or controllable such as male gender, age(˃40) and heredity (family history of IHD), most of the risk factors for IHD are modifiable. Interestingly, modifying these risk factors simply implies adopting a healthy lifestyle i.e. engaging in regular physical exercises, eating a healthy balanced diet low in saturated fat, avoiding smoking and maintaining optimal body weight. Also, screening for hypertension, diabetes and hypercholesterolemia and controlling them if present will significantly reduce the risk of IHD. Thus, you may be increasing your own risk for heart disease by living a physically inactive life, living on junk foods high in saturated fats and carbohydrate, smoking and not having regular medical checkups.

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