What is a Heart Attack?

What is a Heart Attack?

Have you ever asked yourself the question what is a heart attack? We all know that it can be deadly and that you need immediate attention if you are having one. However, many people do not know exactly what is going on with the heart during a heart attack. Unfortunately, if more people knew exactly what a heart attack was, as well as the warning signs, then there would not be so many heart attack related deaths.

A heart attack is when the blood flow to part of the heart muscle becomes blocked. When the blood flow becomes blocked it must be restored quickly or the part of the heart that is deprived of blood can die. If you think that you, or someone around you, is having a heart attack then it is important to seek out help immediately. If treatment for a heart attack is started within one hour of when the symptoms start then there is a better chance of the treatment working. Since the heart is the muscle that supplies the rest of your body with oxygen rich blood it is crucial that it is functioning properly. Even a few moments without blood flow to the rest of the body can cause major damage to other organs.

Every year over a million people in the United States have heart attacks. Most of the heart attacks can be attributed to the lifestyle of the person. For instance things such as smoking cigarettes, a lot of stress and a poor diet can contribute to the likelihood that a heart attack will occur. The above mentioned factors can put unnecessary strain on the heart muscle thus causing you to have a heart attack. It is important to call an ambulance if you feel like you are having a heart attack. Since the symptoms can come on suddenly it is best to not wait around before getting help. If you wait too long it may be too late.

Over half of the people who suffer a heart attack die. This is because they did not recognize the warning signs and seek out immediate help. Many people could make a full recover from a heart attack if they would just act a little bit quicker. When the heart is involved it is important to know the details. Being able to answer the question what is a heart attack will ensure that you know what is going on if you begin to feel symptomatic.

Experiencing Heart Symptoms? Read This for Tips

Experiencing Heart Symptoms? Read This for Tips

Heart attack symptoms or also known as a myocardial infarction is the death of heart muscle from the sudden blockage of a coronary artery by a blood clot. Coronary arteries are blood vessels that supply the heart muscle with blood and oxygen. Blockage of a coronary artery deprives the heart muscle of blood and oxygen thus causing injury to the heart muscle.

This injury to the heart muscle causes chest pain and chest pressure sensation and if the blood flow is not restored to the heart muscle within 20 to 40 minutes irreversible death of the heart muscle will begin to occur. Muscle continues to die for six to eight hours at which time the heart attack usually is “complete.” The dead heart muscle is eventually replaced by scar tissue.

Heart Symptoms Causes:

Atherosclerosis is process by which plaques of cholesterol are deposited in the walls of arteries. Cholesterol plaques cause hardening of the arterial walls and narrowing of the inner channel of the artery.

Arteries that are narrowed by atherosclerosis cannot deliver enough blood to maintain normal function of the parts of the body they supply. Atherosclerosis of the arteries that furnish blood to the brain can lead to vascular dementia or stroke.

Atherosclerosis can remain silent in a lot of people for years or decades. It can begin as early as the teenage years but symptoms or health problems usually do not arise until later in adulthood when the arterial narrowing becomes severe.

Smoking cigarettes, high blood pressure, elevated cholesterol, and diabetes mellitus can accelerate atherosclerosis and lead to the earlier onset of symptoms and complications, particularly in those people who have a family history of early atherosclerosis.

Coronary atherosclerosis is the atherosclerosis that causes hardening and narrowing of the coronary arteries. Diseases caused by the reduced blood supply to the heart muscle from coronary atherosclerosis are called coronary heart diseases (CHD).

Coronary heart diseases include heart attacks, sudden unexpected death, chest pain (angina), abnormal heart rhythms, and heart failure due to weakening of the heart muscle.

Conclusion:

At the first sign of heart attack symptoms acting fast can save lives and limit damage to the heart. Treatment is most effective when started within 1 hour of the beginning of symptoms. If you think you or someone may be having a heart attack it is advice to call your emergency numbers within a few minutes or 5 at the most of the start of symptoms.

In case the symptoms stop completely in less than 5 minutes still call your doctor. Take a nitroglycerin pill if your doctor has prescribed this type of medicine.

If you’re looking for a natural solution to prevent heart attack and stroke, the we recommend you to check EDTA Oral Chelation Therapy, which has proven to be very effective in removing arterial plaque that accumulated on your arteries wall.

Heart Attack Causes

Heart Attack Causes

There are few different things that heart attack causes have in common. The primary one, however, is that all these causes put unnecessary strain and stress on the body and the heart. In order to limit your potential for a heart attack it is important to know what the causes are. If you know what causes a heart attack you can develop a plan to eliminate these causes from your life. It may be difficult to eliminate all of the heart attack causes from your life because there are factors at work that you have no control over, such as genetics. However, there are some causes that you can strive to minimize or even eliminate.

One of the most common heart attack causes is stress. If you are a constant worrier who doesn’t get much sleep then you are at a greater risk of having a heart attack. When you are stressed out your body goes into overdrive. This puts unnecessary strain on the heart muscle. Over time, this constant strain on the heart will gradually weaken it. In turn, you may have a heart attack. Good ways to deal with stress include doing something that you enjoy that also has a benefit for the heart. This could include things such as taking a long walk or jumping in the pool to go for a swim. The idea is to take your mind off of what is stressing so that your heart can get a workout in a good way.

Obesity is also one of the major heart attack causes. Becoming obese is directly related to your diet in most cases. If you are putting bad foods into your body you will likely see your weight climb. When this happens you are putting extra pressure on your heart. Your heart must work faster and harder in an effort to carry all of the excess weight around. A poor diet will also contribute to plaque buildup in your arteries. If you have substantial buildup in your arteries then eventually it will stop the blood flow to your heart. Once this happens you will have a heart attack.

Heart attack causes are often things that can be avoided if you decide to take care of yourself both mentally and physically. Making an effort to live more of a stress free lifestyle while also eating healthier can reduce your risk of a heart attack in no time flat.

What Causes Heart Attacks and Heart Failure

Causes of Heart Attacks

We have all heard of heart attacks, this article sheds light on what causes heart attacks. A heart attack has many causes: however one occurs due to lack of oxygen rich blood in the heart coronary arteries are the blood vessels which supply the heart with oxygen and blood, blockage of coronary arteries causes injury to heart muscle.
So what causes heart attacks ?


Atherosclerosis

This is usually a gradual process in which plaques or collections of cholesterol get deposited around artery walls. These plaques harden the artery walls, narrowing the lumen which is the inner channel of the artery. In many people, atherosclerosis can go unnoticed for years, in some cases beginning even from teenage years. The symptoms and health problems do not occur until later on in life when the narrowing of the artery becomes severe. High blood pressure, high cholesterol, cigarette smoking and diabetes are just some of the things which accelerate atherosclerosis, especially in people with a family history of heart attacks.

Artery Spasm

An artery spasm is caused by constrictions of arteries which prevent oxygen rich blood from reaching the heart. The spasms are often caused by blood clots, fatty acid build ups on the artery wall and blood clots caused by plaque. Though spasms, don’t cause heart attacks each time the artery is affected but an artery spasm can cause permanent heart damage.

Drug Use

Drugs which speed up the cardiovascular system have been known to induce heart attacks. Cocaine usage on a regular basis can cause heart attacks due to the high dosage used to achieve the high. methamphetamine's have also been known to cause heart failure.

Causes of Heart Failure

Heart failure usually occurs after other conditions have weakened and damaged the heart. Over time the heart becomes too weak to perform its duty of pumping blood to the body. The ventricles which are the heart’s pumping chambers become stiff and are unable to properly fill in between the beats. The heart muscle weakens to the point that it cannot pump blood effectively throughout the body. Heart failure begins on the left ventricle. Signs of heart failure include: fatigue, chronic coughing, a rapid/ irregular heartbeat, shortness of breath amongst other symptoms.

Heart disease is a term used to cover conditions such as coronary artery disease, congestive heart failure, cardiac arrest, congenital heart diseases and heart attack.The survival rate of cardiac arrest outside hospital is less than 2%. It takes only four to six minutes after a cardiac arrest for a person to experience brain death followed by loss of life.Most heart attacks occur in the morning. Reason being the stress hormones is higher and blood is usually thicker hence harder to pump as one is partially dehydrated.
Heart disease risk factors

Most heart disease risk factors are controllable with simple lifestyle changes. Some of these include: Smoking, unhealthy diets, stress, physical fitness as well as high blood cholesterol and triglyceride levels which is a type of fat found in blood. Uncontrollable risk factors include: a family history of heart disease, age and gender.
Heart problems if left untreated can lead to death.

Having known what causes heart attacks, it is important to consult a doctor in case of any of the above signs.

About Heart Disease

Heart Disease

Most of the people in the world suffer from heart disease. In the past couple of decades the number of heart patients have increased tremendously. Th heart is a part of the cardiovascular system and is the most important part of the human body. It is the heart which supply blood to all parts of body cells. The blood pumped by heart carries oxygen which the cells and required. Before knowing about heart disease one must know how people get heart disease. Heart disease is not like a flu or cold which can transfer from one person to another by touching. Many people does not realize that they suffer heart disease unless any major thing happens. Want to know more about heart disease check put the various types of heart disease like Hypertensive heart disease, Cardiovascular disease, Valvular heart disease, Cardiomyopathy, Inflammatory heart disease, Coronary heart disease and Heart failure.

Hypertensive heart disease is a common type of heart disease that most of the people suffer from. This type of heart disease is caused because of high blood pressure. Cardiovascular disease effect the blood vessels and the heart. This heart disease mostly effect arteries and veins. The men who suffers from this type of heart disease their heart muscles are mostly effected but in women it effects the blood vessels. Valvular heart disease as the name suggests is mostly related to the heart valves. This heart disease effect aortic valve stenosis and mitral; valve polapse. Cardiomyopathy is also the most common type of heart disease. Cardiomyopathy means heart muscle disease. This heart disease effects the function of myocardium. The people who suffer from this kind of heart disease are at a risk of having sudden cardiac death. Inflammatory heart disease is also very dangerous in which the patient suffer from the inflammation of the heart muscle. Accumulation of atheromatous plaque within the walls of the arteries can cause Coronary heart disease. The heart disease which is caused from any functional cardiac disorder can cause heart failure. From all thee one must have got fair idea about heart disease.

Many people fail to realize they have a heart disease until they face some major problem. The symptoms of heart disease are chest pain, stroke and heart attack. If you find these kind of problems it is suggested to consult the doctor immediately. Get yourself diagnosed properly before opting for any medicine. Some of the common test to be done are If it's not an emergency and a doctor suspects the person could have cardiovascular disease, the doctor can do some tests to find out more about how the heart and blood vessels are working. Some of the tests done for heart disease are Electrocardiogram, Carotid, Echocardiogram, Catheterization and Stress test. All these tests are necessary to do if you want to know about the heart disease. Today maximum number of people are getting effected by the heart disease. In order to avoid all complications of heart disease one must also pay attention to their daily diet.

Alcoholic Cardiomyopathy

Alcoholic Cardiomyopathy

Large number of people are falling victim to heart disease. One of the main reasons of the increase in the number of heart patient is the changing lifestyle. Various types of heart disease are effecting people in large number. The symptoms of each type of heart disease is different. One of the most common types of heart disease is Alcoholic Cardiomyopathy. It is a disease of the heart muscle. This is caused when the heart muscle becomes weak. Cardiomyopathy or heart muscle disease is a major public health problem. There are 3 million people in United States currently living with cardiomyopathy. Almost 400,000 people are diagnosed with heart disease each year. This disease has become a prime factor in contributing quarter million deaths in the world. In the past few years the incidence of cardiomyopathy is increasing like anything. Many complications of the disease can be overcome if the patient understand their disease. The patient suffering from Alcoholic Cardiomyopathy must take active participation in treating the disease. The heart muscle become very weak in most cases of alcoholic cardiomyopathy.

There are many disorders which cause numerous types of cardiomyopathy. But whatever may be the type ultimately the same thing happen which is the inefficiency of the heart muscle. It reduces the capacity of the heart to meet the needs of the body. The heart failure happens when the heart can no longer pump enough blood. The cases of Alcoholic Cardiomyopathy is increasing day by day. The main cause of cardiomyopathy is the coronary artery disease. The damage to the heart can be on the region of the heart muscles. One must get themselves diagnosed properly. Go for a proper diet and god exercise which can help the patient to avoid certain complications. As alcoholic cardiomyopathy is caused by excessive consumption of alcohol for long time. It is caused by the direct toxic effects of alcohol. In that case the heart become inefficient and the heart become unable to pump the blood. Not only heart is effected by the Alcoholic Cardiomyopathy but other body parts can also be effected by this. The symptoms of alcoholic cardiomyopathy are decreased alertness or concentration, Shortness of breath, decreased urine output, loss of appetite; ankle, feet, and leg swelling; cough containing mucus, irregular or rapid pulse, breathing difficulty while lying down, overall swelling, weakness, fatigue, faintness, etc. The moment patient is experiencing these symptoms it become necessary to take him to the hospital.

One of the most important treatment for alcoholic cardiomyopathy is to improve the lifestyle and take care of the diet. Stop consuming alcohol. The commonly used medications must be used daily like beta blockers, diuretics and ACE inhibitors. The patient who are suffering from congestive heart failure must o for a surgical insertion. The patients of alcoholic cardiomyopathy must frequently consult the doctor and must continue with the medications. With latest drugs and technology coming up now one can easily diagonise the alcoholic cardiomyopathy.