What is Heart Attack?
Our heart is a pump. It's a muscular organ about the size of your fist and located slightly left of center in your chest. Your heart is divided into the right and the left side. The division protects oxygen-rich blood from mixing with oxygen-poor blood. Oxygen-poor blood returns to the heart after circulating through your body.
Heart attack usually happens when a blood clot develops in one of the blood vessels that lead to the heart muscle. A person who is having a heart attack usually feels the pain in his/her chest first. A heart attack is a medical emergency that must be quickly addressed by conventional medicine.
About 600,000 people die from heart disease in the United States each year—that’s 1 out of every 4 deaths. Heart disease is the leading cause of death for both men and women. Heart disease is the leading cause of death for people of most ethnicity in the United States, including African Americans, Hispanics, and whites. For American Indians or Alaska Natives and Asians or Pacific Islanders, heart disease is second only to cancer. Below are the percentages of all deaths caused by heart disease in 2008, listed by ethnicity.1
Signs and Symptoms of a Heart Attack
Other common signs and symptoms of a heart attack include new onset of:
- Chest pain or discomfort.
- Nausea and vomiting
- Upper body pain
- Shortness of breath.
- Stomach pain
- Anxiety
- Clammy skin
- Sweating
- Unusual or unexplained fatigue
Causes of Most Heart Attacks
But now they say that the cause of almost all heart attacks can be pinpointed to one or more of the following.
- Smoking
- Abnormal cholesterol
- Diabetes
- High blood pressure
- Stress
- Abdominal obesity
- Sedentary lifestyle
- Eating too few fruits and vegetables
- Abstaining from alcohol
- Painkiller Raises Heart Attack Risk
- Angina
- Heart surgery
- Previous heart attack
Tips for Prevention
You can help prevent heart disease by making healthy choices and managing any medical conditions you may have.
- Exercise regularly
- Manage your diabetes
- Avoid smoking
- Eat a healthy diet
- Limit alcohol use
- Take your medicine
Your overall lifestyle what you eat, how often you exercise and the way you deal with stress plays a role in your recovery from a heart attack. In addition, a healthy lifestyle can help you prevent a heart attack by controlling risk factors that contribute to the narrowing of the coronary arteries that supply blood to your heart. The sooner you get emergency help, the less damage your heart will sustain. If you suspect you're having a heart attack, call for emergency medical help immediately.
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