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.

Heart attack symptoms in women over 40

Cardiovascular diseases and especially ischemic cardiomyopathy and heart attack are some
of the causes of mortality and morbidity in both women and men, but heart attack symptoms
in women over 40 may differ from those of men.
Of certain statistical date cardiovascular disease is the first cause of the mortality in women.
Risk factors for heart attack
There are several risk factors that cause different heart attack symptoms in women over 40 :

• Obesity, high blood pressure and hypercholesterolemia (increasing the percentage of fat
  in the blood) especially triglycerides.
• Another risk factor is use of oral contraceptives and
  menopause.
• A small percentage of patients who use oral contraceptives appear hypertension
  unrelated to dose contraceptive. However, patients with controlled hypertension may use
  oral contraceptives, but under supervision. If the consumption of oral contraceptives added
  smoking the risk of heart attack increase. If we compare mortality rates of cardiovascular
  disease in men and women over 40 will see a significant increase in mortality after
  menopause.

Heart attack symptoms in women over 40

Today, there are several features of heart attack symptoms in women over 40. The main heart
attack symptoms in women over 40 is not chest pain, but dyspnea which represent shortness
of breath. This symptoms may appear a few hours, days or months before heart attack
symptoms. Most minim discomfort may be an atypical sign or a symptom for heart attack.
One of these is atypical chest pain for which women do not go to the doctor only if the is
persistent and upset the patient. Sometimes heart attack symptoms in women over 40 may be
the absence of pain. Absence of pain can be attributed to nervous or mental disorders. But,
heart attack symptoms in women over 40 like atypical chest pain have a worse prognostic
then men.
Unusual fatigue is another heart attack symptoms in women over 40. This fatigue can be felt
as a state of drowsiness. Patients may not take into account this symptom believing that it is
simply missing out of sleep, an infection with a virus or adverse effect of another drug and not
present at the doctor. Patients may be associated nausea, sweating and chills.
Pain in the calf may be a sign for deep vein thrombosis which may eventually lead to heart
attack. This is another heart attack symptoms in women over 40 which occurs predominantly
in patients with hormone therapy, smokers, who just had surgery or in patients who have
been on a plane flight. If pain is sudden or gradual, patients should consult their doctor
immediately.
Other symptoms or signs for heart attack may be serious and can lead to death of patients if they are not recognized in time.
So how do you know if you have a heart attack?

At the early signs or symptoms, the patients must go to the doctor because they can be heart attack symptoms in women over 40 and their persistence can lead to death.