HEART ATTACKS / MYOCARDIAL INFACTION – A “Plumbing” Issue
Heart researchers say nine risk factors — ones that you can do something about and account for 90% of all Heart Attacks. Every 37 seconds someone dies from a Heart Attack. About 647,000 Americans die from heart disease each year. 1 of 4 deaths making heart disease and strokes the number 1 cause of deaths worldwide.
Previously, researchers thought that only about half of Heart Attacks were explained by risk factors such as smoking or cholesterol. But now almost all Heart Attacks can be pinpointed to one or more of the following:
– Smoking
– Abnormally high cholesterol
– Eating too many foods rich in fats
– Diabetes
– High blood pressure
– Stress / Extreme Anxiety
– Abdominal obesity
– Sedentary lifestyle, not getting enough exercise
– Eating too few fruits and vegetables
– Alcohol and illicit drug abuse (Opiates)
– Family history of abnormal Heart rhythms (Arrhythmias)
– Previous Heart Attacks
– 90% of all Heart Attacks are survivable. The following are signs of a Heart Attack:
-Discomfort in the chest, with or without pain that lasts for at least a few minutes at a time, pain and discomfort in other parts of the upper body, such as the left arm, jaw, or stomach
– Dizziness or lightheadedness
– Nausea, Heartburn, indigestion
– Shortness of breath
– Cold sweats / excessive sweating
– Bulging neck veins
– Feeling of impending doom
– Previous Heart Attacks cause permanent damage to the Heart muscle thus weakening
the Heart muscle and making for subsequent Heart Attacks likely.
After the first Heart Attack the victim is likely to have another within 3-5 years
– The common age for a woman to experience a Heart Attack is 70 years and for men it’s 65 years of age.
Making it the number 1 cause of deaths for both sexes. The following are signs of a Heart Attack for women:
While women can exhibit the same signs of a Heart Attack as men, typically the signs for a woman are Fatigue, shortness of breath, pain in the back, neck and jaw, a feeling of heartburn and indigestion. All signs however can be less obvious than that of a man. Typically, women wait up to an hour (37 minutes – 1 hour on average) to seek emergency help. Seek help if symptoms persist for more than 10 minutes for both sexes.
Women were associated with a higher risk of dying. Overall, women were nearly twice as likely to die in the hospital compared with men, with in-hospital deaths reported for 12 percent of women and 6 percent of men in the study. Unlike a man’s signs, women’s signs tend to be not so pronounced. But make no mistake, women can exhibit the same signs of that of a man.