The Basics of Heart Attack

Preventing Heart Attack
Making healthy lifestyle choices and getting treatment for medical conditions that raise your risk can help prevent heart attack. These include the following:

• Eat a healthy diet that’s low in saturated fat, trans-fat, cholesterol, and salt.

• Reduce weight if you're overweight or obese.

• Quit smoking, and avoid inhaling other people’s tobacco smoke.

• Be physically active. Ask your doctor how much and what kinds of physical activity are safe for you.

• Get treatment for medical conditions that raise your risk for heart attack, like high blood cholesterol, high blood pressure, or diabetes (high blood sugar).

• Gain knowledge about this disease. Talk with your doctor about its symptoms, when you should call an ambulance, and steps you can take while waiting for medical help to arrive.

Coronary artery disease, also called coronary heart disease, is a condition in which your coronary arteries (the arteries that supply heart muscle with oxygen-rich blood) narrow due to a gradual build-up of plaque (fatty material) on their inside walls.

Eventually, an area of plaque can rupture, causing a blood clot to form on the surface of the plaque. This clot can block the coronary artery, starving your heart of blood and oxygen and in turn, causing damage to a section of heart muscle--this is heart attack.

It is also called acute coronary syndrome, myocardial infarction, or coronary thrombosis. Damage increases the longer an artery stays blocked, and once that section of heart muscle dies, the result is permanent damage.

A heart attack is a medical emergency. The sooner you get emergency help, the less damage there will be to the heart. Acting fast can save life.

Warning Signs of Heart Attack
You should know the warning signs, so that you can get help right away. The warning signs of a heart attack aren’t the same for everyone. Not all heart attacks begin with a sudden, crushing pain. Many heart attacks start slowly as mild pain or discomfort. Some people don’t have symptoms at all (this is called a silent heart attack).

Here are some of the signs that can mean a heart attack is happening.

• The most common symptom of heart attack is chest pain or discomfort. Most heart attacks involve discomfort in the center of the chest that lasts for more than a few minutes, or goes away and comes back. The discomfort can feel like uncomfortable pressure, squeezing, fullness, or pain. It can be mild or severe. The pain or discomfort can sometimes feel like indigestion or heartburn.

• Discomfort in other areas of the upper body. Symptoms can include pain or discomfort in one or both arms, the back, neck, jaw, or stomach.

• Shortness of breath can occur with or without chest discomfort.

• Nausea, vomiting, light-headedness, fainting, or breaking out in a sweat.

Sometimes the signs and symptoms of a heart attack happen suddenly, but they can also develop slowly, over hours, days, and even weeks before a heart attack occurs.

Not everyone having a heart attack experiences the typical symptoms. If you’ve already had a heart attack, your symptoms may not be the same for another attack.

Act as Fast as Possible
Immediately call ambulance or medical emergency service for help, if you think you or someone else may be having a heart attack.

Don’t drive yourself or anyone else to the hospital, unless you have absolutely no other option. Instead, immediately call an ambulance, so that the medical personnel can begin life-saving treatment on the way to the emergency room in the hospital.