Myocardial infarction or heart attack (medically
referred to as myocardial infarction) is still an acutely dangerous and
life-threatening disease despite numerous scientific research gains. Usually,
the first two hours of treatment are critical to the patient's life and death. The
cause is the dying of the tissue in a part of the heart muscle due to a
disturbed blood circulation.
This circulatory disorder is usually
longer than 20 min. In retrospect, most patients who have suffered a heart
attack have several symptoms: a strong, stabbing chest pain that often lasts
longer than 20 minutes and radiates into the upper abdomen, back, and neck up
to the chin. It also affects the lower jaw, shoulders and arms. This
can cause nausea, sweating and vomiting. But there are also cases with
little or no pain.
Despite
numerous medical treatment and therapy advances and the latest scientific
findings, heart attack is still one of the leading causes of death in
industrialized nations. Best: Active prevention with exercise in the fresh
air, healthy lifestyle and especially a low-fat and low-sugar diet.
Stress
makes you sick and increases your heart attack risk. But there are other
factors that make cardiovascular disease likely.
Risk factor number one is without
question smoking. If you want to significantly reduce your risk of heart
attack, you should do everything you can to stop using nicotine as quickly as
possible: just a few months after the last cigarette, the risk drops
significantly. Other major illnesses are overweight and lack of
exercise. Here, too, a responsible lifestyle helps to remedy the
situation: healthy nutrition and sufficient exercise also significantly reduce the
risk of heart attack.
Anyone
who suffers from high blood pressure or diabetes should be treated
regularly. From the 35th Age regular routine examinations at the doctor
are anyway urgently recommended to anyone.
How
do you recognize a heart attack? When is it time to call an
ambulance? Signs of a heart attack are especially severe, lasting more
than five minutes of chest pain.
The pain can radiate into the arms,
neck, jaw or upper abdomen. Also, a strong pressure or tightness in the
chest - and associated anxiety - can be signs of a heart attack. Often
nausea and cold sweat are added. Those affected usually feel dizzy and
generally weak. Particularly painful are chest pain, which occurs at
night, at rest or under very low stress.
FACTS
FROM THE RESEARCH
Proved: Wine reduces
infarct risk!
An
analysis of 13 studies with a total of 210 000 participants has now revealed:
Those who drink moderately wine, reduces his risk of cardiovascular disease by
30 percent. The reason: The alcohol consumption increases the
"good" HDL cholesterol and can keep the blood vessel calcification in
check. Whether red wine or white wine, is irrelevant.
Attention: It
should not be more than a small glass of wine (150 milliliters) per day.Even
beer can obviously protect. However, one is uncertain about the optimal
amount.
Women should not smoke!
New studies show that smokers have a
significant additional heart attack risk. So far, scientists had assumed
that women are protected from entering the menopause by the female sex
hormones. That's not correct.
Plain: Non-smokers get their
first infarction on average at the age of 80.7 years, smokers but already 13.7
years earlier.
Climbing stairs protects your heart!
A study presented at the congress
shows that climbing stairs regularly instead of taking the elevator reduces the
size of the hip, lowers blood pressure and reduces the level of harmful
cholesterol (LDL cholesterol).
The result: risk factors that
can lead to arteriosclerosis (calcification of the blood vessels) and thus to
cardiovascular problems are reduced.
New test facilitates early detection!
With the Troponin test (a blood test),
it is possible to show within the first hour after a heart attack whether
cardiac muscle cells have actually been damaged to any appreciable extent. Because
the sooner you know whether a coronary artery has been blocked by a clot, the
sooner the blood clot can be dissolved again.
If this happens within 60
minutes, the heart can almost regain its normal function.
A mini-ultrasound device helps in an emergency!
Brand new: an ultrasound device that
is so small that it fits in the hand (slightly larger than a cell phone) and
works without a cable. It is particularly suitable for emergency
diagnostics. With the help of this new echo cardiograph, the emergency
physician can immediately determine if there is heart failure or if an
infarction has just occurred.
When do I have to go to the doctor?
Anyone who feels a strong pressure
behind the breastbone for more than 15 to 20 minutes without physical exertion
- possibly even with radiation in the neck or arms - should immediately go to
the doctor! If the same symptoms occur after physical exertion, but then
disappear again, you should also be examined immediately. The coronary
arteries could be severely calcified (angina pectoris). If you wait too
long with your doctor's visit, you may have a heart attack or stroke.
Immediate action is then absolutely necessary. Important:
In women, the signs of a heart attack are often less clear, sometimes only
dizziness, nausea or shortness of breath occur.
Treatment
for myocardial infarction
Proper treatment for a heart attack can save lives. The
trigger for the infarction is usually a blood clot that clogs one of the
coronary arteries. As a result, part of the heart muscle tissue dies from
oxygen deficiency.
If
a heart attack is suspected, contact an emergency doctor immediately so that
the person affected can be taken to the hospital as soon as possible. For
the treatment of a heart attack, there are two options: First, the drug
therapy, in which the blood clot is dissolved. In the other treatment
method, the closed vessel is expanded with a catheter. Most important for
the successful treatment of a heart attack is that it happens quickly.
Mostly during the first hour ("golden hour") it is
decided whether the tissue can die off.
Prevent
myocardial infarction
In industrialized countries, people's leading cause of death is
still the heart attack.Basically everyone can meet. Nevertheless, the
topic seems to be far less present in the media and thus in the minds of many
people than it should be.
That's
amazing, because learning more about heart attack in time can save lives. Above
all, because everyone has it in their hands, by targeted prevention to reduce
the personal heart attack risk significantly. Measures such as regular
medical control, abstinence from nicotine and conscious phases of relaxation in
everyday life not only lead to a significant reduction in risk - they also
increase the overall quality of life.
Learning more about heart attack, ideally, is the first step
towards a more conscious, healthy life.
0 comments