Healthy Heart Remedy Checklist
Heart attacks are one of the leading causes of death in America. With most of us suffering from various kinds of health conditions and adding a lot of extra stress to the heart through our lack of activity and poor eating habits, it is no wonder that many of us are just ticking time bombs before we are able to experience a heart attack ourselves. This checklist will run you through the simplified steps and strategies to finally see results and keep your heart strong.
Chapter 1: What is a Heart Attack or Myocardial Infarction?
Heart attack occurs when there's death or necrosis of a segment of heart muscle due to the loss of blood supply. The blood supply is usually lost due to blocked coronary artery, one that provides blood to the heart muscle by blood clots.
Symptoms of a Heart Attack or MI
The symptoms of a heart attack can vary widely. For instance, you may have only minor chest pain while some else has excruciating pain.
Some typical heart attack symptoms for men and women are:
● Feeling of heaviness, pain, pressure, and even discomfort inside of the chest, below the breastbone, or in the arm.
● Discomfort that radiates to the back, arm, throat, or jaw.
● Feeling indigestion, fullness, and even a choking feeling. It may feel like heartburn sometimes.
● Dizziness, vomiting, nausea, and sweating.
● Extreme shortness of breath, anxiety, or weakness.
● Collapse or lose consciousness.
How to Diagnose a Heart Attack or MI?
There are thousands of people every year who fall prey to heart attacks without even realizing that they have it in the first place. They act as if nothing has happened because most who had early stages of heart attacks are asymptomatic until the crisis happens.
In any case, if you find yourself suffering from any heart attack symptoms, you must get emergency treatment immediately. The speed of treatment is of utmost importance when dealing with episodes of heart attacks. In fact, the faster the emergency treatment, the higher the chance of survival.
When you're having an attack, bear in mind to seek help from others. Do not attempt to drive or walk yourself to the hospital when you're in excruciating pain as you'll only exacerbate the symptoms and inviting further complications. Get someone to call for an ambulance and seek prompt medical attention. Every second counts and by seeking early medical care, you can prevent further injuries to your heart tissues and even stay alive!
What your Medical Professional Will Do
Your health professional will usually ask you a series of questions such as your age and sex; your eating habits and your physical history. They will take your vital signs such as weight, blood pressure, temperature and may do a test to determine your body fat ratio.
Chapter 2: Complications of a Heart Attack
Heart Failure
Heart failure occurs when your heart is unable to pump enough blood around your body to meet all your bodily needs. Heart failure can cause many complications to all the body organs and parts. Areas such as the brain, lungs, kidneys, skin and nervous system can be affected. The veins in the arms and hands, legs and feet, abdomen and neck can also be affected, often becomes swollen. Heart failure can also cause shortness of breath, especially when you’re doing physical work.
Valvular Heart Disease
This condition is where the valves in your heart that control the free flow of blood are not working properly. The valves of the heart ensure that your blood freely flows in a forward direction and cannot leak backward. The way in which a healthy heart operates is the same for everyone.
Valvular stenosis occurs when one or more valves are narrowed, stiffened, thickened or blocked. It can lead to the heart pump insufficiency, and there'll be a lack of blood on different body parts. All four of the heart valves can develop stenosis.
The other common type is valvular insufficiency. This happens when a heart valve does not seal or close properly, allowing some blood to be forced or leak back into the chamber. If this condition worsens, it forces the heart to work harder to supply the needed blood to the body.
Cardiogenic Shock
Cardiogenic shock occurs whenever there’s sudden failure of pump action of the heart in supplying enough oxygen-rich blood to the organs of your body. Statistics show that about 50% of people who develop this condition will survive if immediate help is available. Only about 7 to 8% of people who experience a heart attack will have a cardiogenic shock. When people die from heart attacks, it is usually due to the cardiogenic shock, not the actual heart attack.
Vasodilatory Shock
Vasodilatory shock is when the blood vessels relax abruptly, causing blood pressure to become so low that there is not enough pressure to pump the blood to areas that need it. This can be caused by a bacterial infection in the bloodstream or a severe allergic reaction to certain substances. This can also occur when the nervous system is damaged.
They only a few minutes before the lack of oxygen starts to do damage that is usually not repairable. If it is not treated quickly, it is likely to cause permanent organ damage or death. If you know or think that a person is in shock, call an ambulance so they can get treatment quickly.
Pulmonary Embolism
Pulmonary embolism is a blockage in the pulmonary arteries in your lungs. Usually, a pulmonary embolism is caused when blood clots from the legs and sometimes other areas of the body (deep vein thrombosis)travel to the lungs.
A pulmonary embolism can reduce or block the blood flow to the lungs, becoming a life-threatening condition. With prompt and expert treatment, the chances of this condition resulting in death are greatly reduced. One of the best ways to prevent a pulmonary embolism is to take adequate measures to prevent blood clots in your legs. If blood clots are formed, quickly eradicate them.
Arrhythmias
Arrhythmia is the term given to a condition where the rhythm of your heartbeat changes. This can happen when your heart rhythm is too slow, too fast or if it has an irregular rhythm. Sometimes an arrhythmia can cause your heart to just stop beating, which is called “sudden cardiac arrest” or SCA. If it is not treated immediately, it can cause a loss of consciousness and death of a person.
Broken Heart Syndrome
This condition is commonly triggered by emotional stress and heartaches from loss of loved ones, falling out of love, being rejected, frequent anxiety and so on. Thus, it is named as Broken heart syndrome. The most common signs of broken heart syndrome are chest pains and shortness of breath; sometimes it is accompanied by cardiogenic shock or arrhythmias.
Myocardial Aneurysm
An aneurysm occurs due to weakened blood vessel, causing it to swell and fill with blood. Often these are formed after a heart attack. They often occur around the base of your septum, or in the aorta. This can cause a constriction of the blood flow to the body, resulting in heart disease. Eventually, aneurysms will be lined with scar tissue, which usually stops them from rupturing.
Some aneurysms are congenital while others are caused by a heart attack. The blood clots formed around them can block the blood vessels, resulting in restricted movement and tissue death in a limb, a stroke, ventricular aneurysm or arrhythmia.
Chapter 3: Emergency Care
Often times, there won’t be obvious signs of pre-heart attack. This disease is usually asymptomatic until the later stage. Early signs of Heart Attack include feeling pain or discomfort on his or her chest and shoulders, tiredness, lack of energy, breathing difficulty, and so on.
Complaints might differ for each person, but when heart attack actually happens, one would experience sharp pain on his or her left chest for at least 15 minutes.Men and women have different symptoms. For instance, women usually do not experience any chest pain; their common symptoms are fatigue, disturbed sleep patterns, shortness of breath, indigestion and anxiety issues.
If you think you have heart attack, call emergency services right away. Do not wait, as every minute counts. A patient’s chances of full recovery can be drastically reduced by the delay of treatment.
Call emergency services and talk a trained operator to assist you.
The 6 Signs of Heart Attack
So how do you determine whether a person is suffering from a heart attack? Here are the six signs of heart attack that you can take note of.
Heart Attack signs
1: Chest Pain or Discomfort
2: Discomfort or Pain in Other Parts of The Body
3: Shortness of breath
4: Nausea, Sweating or Clamminess
5: A general feeling of extreme fatigue or weakness
Early Warning Signs of a Heart Attack
Heart attacks usually give a bit of a warning before they happen (except with Heartbreak Attack). Often this can happen days or in some cases months before an attack is imminent, and the heart muscle becomes damaged.
• High Blood Pressure is a sign of possible heart disease
• Chronic Heartburn can be an indication of heart problems
• Reduced cardiovascular fitness and shortness of breath
• High blood LDL cholesterol levels
• The feeling of being unwell or run-down, before a heart attack
• There are reports showing that a lot of people feel a sense of impending death before experiencing a heart attack. This is quite common and may have something to do with depression, which is also a strong indicator of heart problems.
• Abdominal pain and indigestion are common signs of heart attack, especially for people over 55.
Chapter 4: Risk Factors for Heart Disease
One of the best ways for you to ensure that you aren’t going to suffer from heart disease or heart attacks is to understand some of the risk factors for heart disease. There are many risk factors that you do not have any control over such your family history and age. But there are certain factors that you have full control of in order to prevent heart problems or a heart attack. For example,to reduce the risk of heart attack, you can change your diet, lifestyle and attitude.
• Genetic or Family History
• Obesity and its Effects
• Poor Diet, The wrong foods, Clogged Heart Vessels
• Smoking
• Drinking
• High Cholesterol
Chapter 5 Lifestyle Choices for a Strong, Healthy Heart
It’s always better to live a healthy life, full of vitality, youth, and vibrancy than to live a sick life that constantly relies on health support. Our environment plays a significant role in our heart health. So if your living condition is not conducive to your health, such as living in a heavily polluted area with poor hygiene and health facilities, the best option is to relocate to somewhere else.
• Diet: The Importance of a Healthy Diet
• Exercise - The Best Heart Exercises
• Stress Reduction
• Environmental Conditions, Clean Air and Water
Chapter 6: Remedies for a Healthy Heart
Many natural remedies use a variety of herbs and supplements to help treat as well as prevent heart disease. Atherosclerosis the hardening of the arteries is a common cause of heart disease. This disease is found mainly in the western world. On the other hand, atherosclerosis is relatively rare in the third world countries due to the difference in lifestyles, access to traditional diets and herb remedies. Most importantly, they’re free from chemicals and toxins from the processed foods that can jeopardize the heart’s health.
• Fish Oil and other Supplements
• Vitamins and their Importance
• Enzymes in Foods
• Antioxidants
• Factory Farming VS Organic Foods
• Detox - the real story
• Meditative Cures, Reflexology and Mindfulness
• Super Foods for Heart Health
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