Healthy Heart Tips
1. Know the signs of a heart attack. If you experience pressure or pain in your chest, left arm, jaw, or side of head, get yourself to an emergency room. Don’t drive yourself – get a family member or neighbour to take you. If the symptoms persist more than a minute, get someone to call 9-1-1.
Arteries can clog suddenly, when a piece of hardened plaque falls off the artery wall and lodges downstream somewhere. In the first few hours after a heart attack, you’re at high risk of an arrhythmia (irregular heartbeat), so you should be monitored. Arrhythmias happen frequently if the area of ischemia (lacking oxygen) happens to be near certain areas of the heart’s electrical conducting and pacing system.
The sooner after the heart attack that you get to emergency room, the sooner you can be given a “Clot-buster” drug to dissolve blood clots that form. This will limit the damage and improves the odds for a good functional recovery.
2. Know the signs of a stroke, or an impending stroke. As with a heart attack, they can often be clot-busted (again, the sooner the better). Neurologists in the past few years have even started referring to strokes as “brain attacks” to emphasize the need for as rapid a response as possible.
3. Know the signs of an enlarging or leaking abdominal aortic aneurism. If you’re lucky, you’ll have a warning; if not, you could drop dead on the spot. Signs include constant or intermittent pain, usually in the central low back, but possibly a bit to the left or in the flanks. If you suspect an aneurism problem based on all the above, get your butt into the Emergency Room. An aneurism can be diagnosed quickly with an abdominal X-ray and an ultrasound. If it needs surgery, you'd better believe you are much better off (see also: alive) getting it fixed before it ruptures.
4. Know your risk factors for atheroschlerosis and change them! These factors include diabetes, high blood pressure, high cholesterol, smoking, obesity, inactivity, and a positive family history of cardiovascular disease. When we add all these factors together, we can actually give you a score based on your risk level -- the Framingham Score has been standard for a few decades, but a new tool, the Reynolds Score, is emerging as a more sensitive predictor.
If any of these risk factors apply to you, it’s time to make some changes in your life, and fast. You doctor can help.
Learn more about managing your cholesterol and blood pressure and ask your doctor about an exercise electrocardiogram (stress test).
