12 Early Warning Signs Of A Heart Attack
Posted: Wednesday, February 03, 2010
by Olufemi Ladeinde
Rencare Limited
Every six minutes, someone dies from a heart attack. Current statistics show that around 2.5 million people in the UK are living with coronary heart disease and every year about 146,000 people suffer a heart attack. 33% of the people who have a heart attack die even before reaching the hospital. Heart disease is also the number one cause of death in the United States, killing more than 630,000 people a year.
A heart attack occurs when the blood supply to the heart muscle is suddenly blocked. If a large amount of the heart muscle is injured because of this, it can weaken the heart's function as a pump, ultimately leading to heart failure and possibly death.
What then are the symptoms of a heart attack? The common symptoms include:
1. Crushing central chest pain or pressure
2. Shortness of breath or excessive sweating
3. Tightness in the chest
4. Sudden unexplained increase in heart beat
5. Sudden dizziness or brief loss of consciousness
6. Indigestion or gas-like pain
7. Dizziness, nausea or vomiting
8. Unexplained weakness or fatigue
9. Discomfort or pain between shoulder blades
10. Recurring chest discomfort
11. Anxiety or a sense of impending doom.
12. Chest pain spreading to the shoulders, neck or arm. The pain may be mild to intense. It may feel like pressure, tightness, burning, or heavy weight. It may be located in the chest, upper abdomen, neck, jaw, or inside the arms or shoulders.
Not all these signs occur in every case. Remember also that these symptoms may go away and return. If you notice one or more of these signs in yourself or another person, don't hesitate. Call 999 immediately and get to a hospital emergency department. It's important to repeat that a person experiencing these symptoms should never drive themselves to a hospital. A person should never self diagnose themselves either. Doing this can put their lives in danger and waste valuable time. Hospitals use state of the art instruments and tools designed specially to support the diagnosis of a heart attack so one should never self-diagnose.
One of the best ways to prevent heart disease is to exercise, shed excessive weight, avoid smoking and/or excessive alcohol, maintain a healthy blood pressure, control diabetes and reduce your cholesterol level.
Please make sure you don’t decimate your cholesterol. If your cholesterol level is too low, it may be as dangerous, if not more, than having it too high. Increasing your fibre intake may be one of the best ways of controlling cholesterol as the fibre prevents the re-absorption of cholesterol from the intestine. The liver would produce more if needed.
Finally, be watchful. Eat a healthy diet supported with colourful fruits and vegetable and work your body. You are not meant to be a couch potato.
This Article has been viewed 691 times. (Not updated in real-time.)
Top-level comments on this article: (1 total)Excellent - I just put asprin in both of our hiking packs - sometimes we are about 2 hours from anywhere or anyone - the asprin might help,eh? Thanks for sharing your insights in this informative article! Marijo
We want your comments! If you can read this, you don't have javascript enabled, so you can't use this comment system. Please enable javascript.