Heart Attack
A heart attack is a life-threatening event in which the supply of blood and oxygen to part of the heart is blocked. Many heart attack victims wait two hours or more after their symptoms begin before they seek medical help. This delay can result in death or lasting heart damage. Quickly seeking treatment for a heart attack may help prevent much or all of the permanent damage a heart attack can cause.
Causes of Heart Attack
The cause of heart attack is a severely narrowed or completely blocked coronary artery that causes a decrease in oxygen and nutrients to heart muscle. Without oxygen and nutrients, heart muscle dies.
In most cases, the underlying cause of a blocked coronary artery is a blood clot in people with coronary artery disease. Less commonly, the underlying cause of a heart attack is a spasm in a coronary artery that completely closes the artery.
What are the Risk factors?
There are a number of factors that increase a person's chance for having a heart attack. These are known as risk factors. While not causes of a heart attack, risk factors play a significant role in the likelihood of someone having one. Commonly, these risk factors are separated into those that can be controlled and those that cannot. The more risk factors you have, the greater your chances are of having a heart attack.
Because heart disease is the most common underlying cause of a heart attack, heart attack and heart disease risk factors are quite similar.
Heart attack risk factors include:
- High Blood Pressure
- High Cholesterol Levels
- Diabetes
- Smoking
- Being Overweight
- Being Physically Inactive
- Age (risk increases for men at age 45 and for women at age 55)
- Family History of heart disease
- Having a personal history of heart disease, including:
Angina
unstable angina
variant angina
A previous heart attack
A surgical procedure like angioplasty or heart bypass to increase blood flow to your heart
Symptoms of Heart Attack
Symptoms vary from person to person. In fact, if you have a second heart attack, your symptoms may not even be the same as they were for the first one. Some people have no symptoms at all. This is called a "silent heart attack."
symptoms of heart attack can include:
- Chest discomfort
- Pain in one or both arms, the left shoulder, neck, jaw, or back
- Shortness of breath
- Cold sweat
- Nausea and vomiting
- Light-headedness or dizziness
- Abnormal heartbeats.
Other vague symptoms may include:
- Unusual tiredness
- Trouble sleeping
- Weakness
- Problems breathing
- Indigestion
- Anxiety
Treatment of Heart Attack
The goals of treatment are to: - Quickly restore blood flow to the heart
- Continuously monitor your vital signs to detect and treat heart attack complications
- Make lifelong changes to reduce the chances of another heart attack.
Depending on the situation, specific treatment for heart attacks can include: - Medications, such as thrombolytic drugs
- Procedures, such as angioplasty or open heart surgery
- cardiac rehabilitation and lifestyle changes.
Delaying treatment can mean lasting damage to your heart or even death. The sooner treatment for a heart attack begins, the better your chances of recovering.
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