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Posts Tagged ‘heart attack’

Diabetes and insulin resistance

Heart attacks heart represent 60% and stroke by 25% of deaths in people with diabetes. A 1998 study reported that patients with type 2 diabetes and no history of heart disease have the same risk of a heart attack at age seven than non-diabetics with heart disease.

Insulin resistance in the long run, even without type 2 diabetes, appears to have significant harmful effects on the heart. This condition occurs when insulin levels are normal to high, but the body is unable to use insulin to regulate blood sugar metabolism and keep it for energy. In such cases, the body compensates for this by increasing insulin levels (hyperinsulinemia), which in turn increases triglycerides and lowers HDL cholesterol. Normally, insulin stimulates the release of two substances, endothelin and nitric oxide, which are important to keep open the arteries elastic. Insulin resistance can cause an imbalance in these substances. [For more information, see chapter egalenia encyclopedia on Diabetes: Type I and Diabetes: Type II]. Read the rest of this entry »

Sedentary people are at least twice as likely to suffer a stroke compared to those who exercise regularly. Moderate aerobic exercise practiced regularly benefits the heart in different ways.

For example, brisk walking has the following advantages:

- Low heart rate and blood pressure
- Improved cholesterol
- Lowers blood sugar levels
- Open the blood vessels and, in combination with a healthy diet can improve blood clotting factors.
- Reduces stress and improves mood. Read the rest of this entry »

High blood pressure, or hypertension, has proven to be a cause of coronary heart disease for a long time. Blood pressure is classified as:

- Optimum (below 120/80 mm Hg).
- Normal (between 120/80 and 130/85 mm Hg).
- Normal-high (between 130/85 and 139/89). (Some studies indicate that high-normal places the patient at an increased risk of cardiac events and stroke, although others suggest that the risk exists mainly in diabetics).
- Hypertension, or high blood pressure (140/90). Read the rest of this entry »

Snuff

Smokers between thirty and forty years have a heart attack rate five times greater than nonsmokers of the same age group. Cigarette smoking may be directly responsible for at least 20% of all deaths annually, or about 120,000 deaths annually. Cigar smoking can increase the risk of early death from heart disease, although the evidence is more conclusive for cigarettes.

Cholesterol and other lipids

A number of studies have now shown that reducing LDL (bad cholesterol) and total cholesterol levels and increase HDL levels (the so-called good cholesterol) improves survival and prevents heart attacks. Depending on risk factors, people should try to reach the following levels of cholesterol: Read the rest of this entry »

The presence of more than one risk factor can be very dangerous, because each one of them can greatly increase the effect of another. This phenomenon, called synergism, all of them all, and much more dangerous than the sum of the parts. The main risk factors are as follows.

Sex

Coronary heart disease is more common in middle-aged men. Women spend on average ten to fifteen years longer than men, suffer from heart disease, but as they age women reach men. In fact, women are more likely to have angina than men. As regards age, survival rates for heart attacks are similar in men and women, but young women are at increased risk of death from stroke than men the same age. The reasons for this are not clear. Read the rest of this entry »

Heart attacks can be fatal immediately, may progress to chronic disease, or may be resolved completely. The rate of hospitalization for first myocardial infarction has not changed significantly in recent years.

On the positive side, however, improved treatments significantly decreased the mortality and hospital readmission.
High-risk individuals. A heart attack is always more severe in some people:

- Elderly (particularly those who are thin)
- People with risk factors or history of myocardial
- People with heart failure
- People with diabetes
- People on dialysis for some time Read the rest of this entry »

Any unusual chest pain or angina symptoms do not disappear when taking medication is a warning sign to go to hospital.

Common symptoms of myocardial infarction. Some signs to which we must pay attention are the following:

- Sometimes a month before the episode of heart attack, the patient may experience mild chest pain, unexplained fatigue and malaise, and depression.
- Just before a heart attack, many patients experience chest pain, usually precipitated by exercise or stress that continues even after taking medication or rest.
- Many patients experience pain from a heart attack like a crushing weight against his chest, accompanied by profuse sweating. The pain may radiate to the shoulder and arm, neck or jaw, and even, though less frequent on the right arm. The arm can even be numb. Read the rest of this entry »

Angina

Angina is the primary symptom of coronary artery disease and, in severe cases of myocardial infarction. Usually you experience chest pain. It is often referred to as stable angina (predictable) or unstable (less predictable and a sign of a more serious situation). Angina itself is not a disease. There is much evidence that, indeed, the onset of angina within 48 hours before myocardial infarction may be protective, possibly by conditioning the heart to resist damage resulting from the attack.

Angina may be experienced in different ways and can be mild, moderate or severe:

- It is defined as an oppressive feeling but mild, it may seem to an object that presses on the chest.
- The pain often radiates to the neck, jaw or to the shoulder and arm.
- More rare is that patients explain burning sensation in the chest, stinging, or pain extending into the right arm or back.
Sometimes the patient experiences shortness of breath, fatigue, or palpitations instead of pain.
- The intensity of pain is not always related to the severity of the medical problem. Some people may feel severe pain due to weak ischemia, while others may experience only mild discomfort from severe ischemia.
- Some people have also reported increased sensitivity to heat the skin with the onset of angina.
- Angina can also be precipitated by large meals that require an immediate demand for more oxygen to the heart. Read the rest of this entry »

What is a myocardial infarction (heart attack) and what causes it?

The heart is the organ of the body that works harder. Throughout life, is responsible for continually pump oxygen-rich blood and vital nutrients through a network of blood to all organs and tissues of the body. It has its own arterial system, known as coronary arteries, which carry oxygen-rich blood to the heart muscle (myocardium). If the blood flow to the myocardium is interrupted, an injury occurs known as heart attack, or in other words, a myocardial infarction, popularly known as heart attack or heart attack.

Coronary heart disease

The most common cause of myocardial infarction due to coronary artery disease. To carry out the arduous task of pumping blood, the heart muscle needs a plentiful supply of oxygen-rich blood, which comes from the network of coronary arteries. Coronary heart disease is the end result of a complex process called atherosclerosis (commonly called “hardening of the arteries”). There are different stages in this process, and some of them are not known at all: Read the rest of this entry »

If the coronary artery is completely blocked, the heart area that is provided by that particular vessel will be starved of oxygen and will eventually die. This blockagemay is caused by a clot, a condition often referred to as a coronary thrombosis.

The development of advanced cardiac care in hospital and good post-hospital care means that heart attack patients have a good chance to make a full recovery. This is important information to remember when you are reassuring to someone who has a heart attack.

Signs and symptoms of heart attack

These signs and symptoms are usually identical to those of angina – in fact, the patient may initially the attack of angina sufferer who becomes a heart attack.

Read the rest of this entry »