Do You Know About Silent Heart Attacks?

The first and only symptom of a silent heart attack could be sudden death! A study found that death rates from silent heart attacks were the same as those from non-silent heart attacks. Silent heart attack symptoms are not distinctive as heart attacks go – a silent heart attack is very hard to find and are normally detected long after the event through a careful study of medical history, ECG (electrocardiogram; measures heart activity) and testing blood for cardiac enzymes. Other ways of sensing include a stress test or a blood test that detects certain hormones in the blood. Since the patient is not aware of the attack and significant, valuable time is wasted, the heart becomes permanently damaged. These attacks are disturbing in that seeking and acquiring quick treatment after an attack is necessary for both convalescence and survival. People most susceptible to silent heart attacks are those that have had a prior heart attack, individuals who have diabetes, men and women over the age of Sixty-five and those prone to strokes. There is more exploring to be done to determine individuals taking medication on a steady basis may also experience a silent heart attack. Twice as many people die from a silent heart attack as compared to those that experienced a myocardial infarction (MI) with chest pain.

The most crucial discussion for a silent heart attack is restoring the blood flow to the heart. These silent attacks lack the majority of the usual symptoms of a standard heart attack but can still be detected through ordinary signs such as discomfort in your chest, arms or jaw that seem to go away after resting, fatigue or extreme tiredness, nausea, sweating(particularly cold sweat), breathlessness and dizziness. An interesting statistic is that 25-30% of all heart attacks are silent.

It is believed that women have silent attacks a little more often than men. They can include soreness in your chest, arms or jaw that seem to go away after resting, shortness of breath and tiring. In a significant number of women with diabetics and the over-65, a heart attack comes without any symptoms. But silent heart attack symptoms may not include chest pain. Common silent heart attack symptoms include chest discomfort, or pains in the arm and/or jaw that go away after you rest, getting tired easily, and experiencing shortness of breath. One odd symptom that is not reported often or fully explained in regular and silent heart attacks is a feel of imminent doom. If you feel you have had a silent heart attack, you may want to take a non-acetaminophen aspirin as studies have shown doing so may help prevent heart damage that can occur from a silent heart attack.

Women

Even though women account for literally half of all heart attack deaths they are less likely than men to weigh they are having a heart attack. They also are more probable to hold up seeking emergency treatment Women with the highest calcium scores were especially at risk. Women are inclined to have their heart attacks after onset of menopause. One study found that about 5 percent of women considered at low risk for heart disease still face potential cardiovascular problems because of calcium buildup in their arteries. Symptoms in women are often mis-diagnosed. Women tend to have cardiovascular events later in life than do men and they are more often fatal or debilitating. Women who use combined oral contraceptive pills have a modestly increased risk of myocardial infarction, especially in the presence of other risk factors, such as smoking. Women, aged adults, and people with diabetes may have symptoms different from chest pain. The bottom line – women should give up smoking, take steps to lower high blood pressure and high cholesterol levels and control their blood sugar if they have diabetes. Women may experience atypical symptoms such as a pain between the shoulder blades rather than crushing chest pain. They also experience these atypical symptoms more often than their male and younger counterparts. As with men, women’s most common heart attack symptom is chest pain or discomfort. But women are slightly more likely than men to experience some of the other common symptoms, particularly shortness of breath, nausea/vomiting, and back or jaw pain.

Major Risk Factors

– Diabetes

– High Blood Pressure

– Hypercholesterolemia

– Positive family history of heart attack and stroke

– Smoking

– Obesity – if your waistline is more than Forty inches for men and 35 inches for women, then you have “central obesity.”

The risks are often underestimated because women develop heart disease later than men – often at age 65. Studies are showing that younger women are developing heart disease sooner than originally thought. One study stated that women still face in all probability cardiovascular problems because of Ca buildup in their arteries. There is consideration for routine scrutiny of coronary artery calcium to approximate heart risk for women. While there are no known measures to reduce coronary artery calcium, women can trim their risk for heart disease by measuring calcium which can show they might genuinely be at higher risk. After this finding, they can advance from preventive measures. The current state of affairs is that there are no known ways to trim back the calcium. Women have to offset it with lifestyle changes that reduce risk factors such as cholesterol.

Necrosis of a region of the heart muscle caused by an interruption in the supply of blood to the heart, normally as a event of stoppage of a coronary artery resulting from coronary artery disease. The most common cause is a blood clot (thrombus) that lodges in an area of a coronary artery thickened with cholesterol-containing plaque due to atherosclerosis. It is caused by a severely narrowed or completely blocked coronary arterial blood vessel that keeps oxygen and nutrients from reaching heart muscle.

Restoring blood flow can be accomplished by dissolving clots found in the artery (thrombolysis) or by pushing the arterial blood vessel open using a balloon (angioplasty). Since there is no consciousness of coronary artery blocks, the cause of the heart attack, the person continues with the habitual life style that played a major part in the creating of those blocks. Silent heart attacks are only the most extreme case of a still more prevalent condition called “silent ischemia” — a chronic shortage of oxygen- and nutrient-bearing blood to a portion of the heart. Although chest pain is normally the number One indicator, extreme shortness of breath would commonly take second place. The patient has to find and use the credible, proven data that can prevent and even reverse advanced coronary artery blocks. The most sure approach to build up your cardiac health (even with advanced coronary artery blockage) is the acceptance of a habitual and healthy exercise plan. A test for coronary artery Ca is easily done and life style changes can be commenced immediately.

Damaged

In the case of a silent heart attack, the patient is not aware of the infarction and because valuable time is wasted, the heart becomes permanently damaged. Finding out that your heart is badly damaged because you did not act right after a silent attack can be devastating. Your doctor can conduct test that enables looking for damaged areas of the heart and problems with the heart’s pumping action. This indicates the healthy and damaged areas of the heart.

Additional information on silent heart attacks can be found at The Healthy Place

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