What Happens If You Are Having a Heart Attack?

When thinking about heart disease, they think about clogged arteries and junk food. However, heart disease can have other faces as well.

One very common type of heart disease is atrial fibrillation. This rhythmic disturbance is not life threatening, but it can be very frustrating for patients.

Do you have atrial fibrillation? If so, learn all you can about this disease so that you know how to best treat it.

When a person has atrial fibrillation, their ventricles are impulsed irregularly by the atria of the heart. This causes the heart to beat faster than normal and irregularly, with no coordination between the atria and ventricles.

This is caused in some cases by things such as cardiac surgery, alcohol consumption, coronary artery disease, and other types of heart disease. In most patients, unfortunately, this is not the case, and there are no known reasons for the irregularly beating heart. The term for this is idiopathic.

Because the causes are unknown, some people do not even realize that they have atrial fibrillation. Symptoms are easily misdiagnosed and can include being able to feel your heart beating, becoming tired easily, shortness of breath, and light-headedness. Usually these symptoms do not affect a person enough to disrupt daily life.

For some people, it becomes a huge problem. If the heart jumps into this irregular beating pattern for a long period of time, blood clots can form. Blood clots that break off and travel through the blood vessels can cause a person to have a stroke.

Treating atrial fibrillation is tricky, because of the risk of stroke. For most people, medications will help can the heart beating normally. If it begins beating too quickly or irregularly for a long period of time, a doctor can administer a slight electrical shock to a patient in a hospital setting to get the heart back on track.

This is relatively safe and can save a person's life. However, it is not convenient. The drugs used to stop the irregular beating are extremely toxic and usually cannot fully help a person maintain a regular heartbeat.

Therefore, most people simple choose to live with the atrial fibrillation. Medications can help control the symptoms, and doctors can suggest steps for preventing stroke.

Scientists are doing research on atrial fibrillation every day. Although we do not yet have a great method of treating and curing it, the future looks bright.

If you want to know more about this condition and how it can be prevented and treated, talk to a medical professional today.

Heart disease is a common problem in America and around the world. There are many reasons why your heart may not be working correctly.

Some people are simply born with irregularities and genetic predisposition. Others don't get enough exercise. Still other people eat unhealthy foods that clog their arteries.

No matter what the reason behind your heart problems, it is simply important to catch these diseases before more serious things, like heart attacks, can occur. One way in which doctors test the strength of your heart is with a stress test.

When you are at rest, your heart may not exhibit signs to doctors that there are any problems. A stress test puts you under stress and you heart has to perform at a higher standard. Abnormalities are then exhibited more readily.

The stress test is used to first identify a problem and then to rate that problem's severity. Stress tests are performed under close supervision by a medical professional, so they are quite safe, and they are the best way in many cases to test is anything is wrong with your heart.

To perform the stress test, a doctor first hooks his or her patient up to a ECG machine and blood pressure cuff. Sometimes, a device is attached to your finger as well to test for oxygen levels in the blood.

You are monitored at rest for a number of minutes so that a doctor can see what is normal for your body. Remember, everyone is slightly different. By seeing what is normal in you, your doctor can notice even the smallest differences.

After obtaining a base for the test, the patient is asked to begin doing low levels of action. Usually, you are asked to either walk on a treadmill or pedal and stationary bike slowly. Every three minutes, the level of exercise is raised, while your doctor watches how your body reacts.

This continues until the patient is either too tired to go on or has symptoms like chest pain that prevent the test from going any farther. Sometimes, however, the ECG machine will show that there is a problem with the heart even before this fatigued level is reached.

Stress test are usually used to indicate coronary artery disease, but may be used for other types of heart disease as well. They are not by any means 100% accurate, but are used to rule out heart disease if a patient is having problems.

If you are experiencing symptoms of heart disease, ask your doctor is a stress test might help you diagnose the problem.

Pacemakers are probably not something that you have given a lot of thought to, especially if you have never had to use one, or you have never known anyone who has had to have a pacemaker installed in their body.

However, a pacemaker is something that a lot of people might need during their lives, and it can be something that can mean the difference between life and death for many people, so it is something that you should know a little bit about.

Most people who have never heard of a pacemaker, or who have heard of one but haven't heard what it does, might be wondering what exactly a pacemaker is. A pacemaker is something that is inserted into your body and acts kind of like a shield for your heart. It monitors the rate that your heart is beating at, and whether or not it is beating regularly.

If your heart is not working correctly, the pacemaker will give it a small jolt of electricity, which will kind of shock it back into beating correctly.

Because of what a pacemaker is, it is something that must be surgically inserted into a person, and it is probably something that will stay with them for the rest of their lives. It doesn't have to do anything if your heart is working correctly, so it doesn't do anything at all unless your hear begins to beat erratically, or stops beating.

In these cases, you will receive a jolt of electricity, which should get your heart beating on its own and correctly again.

There are many people who might need a pacemaker during their lives. If a person has a weak heart, or one that has been damaged by a disease or a heart attack, a pacemaker might make sure that they are getting the best chance at living their lives fully.

Because it acts like a doctor and is constantly monitoring your heart, you are going to know that something is always going to be making sure that your heart is beating right, and if it does not beat correctly, it will be fixed. A pacemaker can usually be put into someone with only minimal surgery, and it does its job well for several years before it stops working.

If you think that a pacemaker might be a good idea for you, you should check with your doctor to make sure that it is something that is a good idea before you decide to have one in your body.

You can download my free ebook here: ABC of Heart Disease from my Scribd account

I received this as an email and although it is online in a few places, I still thought this was Important enough to add to this page ...
I was aware that female heart attacks are different, but this is the best description I've ever read.

Women and heart attacks (Myocardial infarction). Did you know that women rarely have the same dramatic symptoms that men have when experiencing heart attack.. you know, the sudden stabbing pain in the chest, the cold sweat, grabbing the chest & dropping to the floor that we see in the movies. Here is the story of one woman's experience with a heart attack.

'I had a heart attack at about 10:30 PM... with NO prior exertion, NO prior emotional trauma that one would suspect might have brought it on.

I was sitting all snugly & warm on a cold evening, with my purring cat in my lap, reading an interesting story my friend had sent me, and actually thinking, 'A-A-h, this is the life, all cozy and warm in my soft, cushy Lazy Boy with my feet propped up.

A moment later, I felt that awful sensation of indigestion, when you've been in a hurry and grabbed a bite of sandwich and washed it down with a dash of water, and that hurried bite seems to feel like you've swallowed a golf ball going down the esophagus in slow motion and it is most uncomfortable.

You realize you shouldn't have gulped it down so fast and needed to chew it more thoroughly and this time drink a glass of water to hasten its progress down to the stomach.

This was my initial sensation... the only trouble was that I hadn't taken a bite of anything since about 5:00 p.m.

After it seemed to subside, the next sensation was like little squeezing motions that seemed to be racing up my SPINE (hind-sight, it was probably my aorta spasms), gaining speed as they continued racing up and under my sternum (breast bone, where one presses rhythmically when administering CPR).

This fascinating process continued on into my throat and branched out into both jaws. 'AHA!! NOW I stopped puzzling about what was happening -- we all have read and/or heard about pain in the jaws being one of the signals of an MI happening, haven't we?

I said aloud to myself and the cat, Dear God, I think I'm having a heart attack!

I lowered the foot rest dumping the cat from my lap, started to take a step and fell on the floor instead. I thought to myself, If this is a heart attack, I shouldn't be walking into the next room where the phone is or anywhere else... but, on the other hand, if I don't, nobody will know that I need help, and if I wait any longer I may not be able to get up in a moment.

I pulled myself up with the arms of the chair, walked slowly into the next room and dialed the Paramedics... I told her I thought I was having a heart attack due to the pressure building under the sternum and radiating into my jaws. I didn't feel hysterical or afraid, just stating the facts.

She said she was sending the Paramedics over immediately, asked if the front door was near to me, and if so, to un-bolt the door and then lie down on the floor where they could see me when they came in.

I unlocked the door and then laid down on the floor as instructed and lost consciousness, as I don't remember the medics coming in, their examination, lifting me onto a gurney or getting me into their ambulance, or hearing the call they made to St. Jude ER on the way, but I did briefly awaken when we arrived and saw that the radiologist was already there in his surgical blues and cap, helping the medics pull my stretcher out of the ambulance.

He was bending over me asking questions (probably something like 'Have you taken any medications?' but I couldn't make my mind interpret what he was saying, or form an answer, and nodded off again, not waking up until the Cardiologist and partner had already threaded the teeny angiogram balloon up my femoral artery into the aorta and into my heart where they installed 2 side by side stints to hold open my right coronary artery.

I know it sounds like all my thinking and actions at home must have taken at least 20-30 minutes before calling the paramedics, but actually it took perhaps 4-5 minutes before the call, and both the fire station and St Jude are only minutes away from my home, and my Cardiologist was already to go to the OR in his scrubs and get going on restarting my heart (which had stopped somewhere between my arrival and the procedure) and installing the stints.

Why have I written all of this to you with so much detail? Because I want all of you who are so important in my life to know what I learned first hand.

1. Be aware that something very different is happening in your body, not the usual men's symptoms but inexplicable things happening (until my sternum and jaws got into the act).

It is said that many more women than men die of their first (and last) MI because they didn't know they were having one and commonly mistake it as indigestion, take some Maalox or other anti-heartburn preparation and go to bed, hoping they'll feel better in the morning when they wake up... which doesn't happen.

My female friends, your symptoms might not be exactly like mine, so I advise you to call the Paramedics if ANYTHING is unpleasantly happening that you've not felt before.

It is better to have a 'false alarm' visitation than to risk your life guessing what it might be!

2. /Note that I said*'Call the Paramedics*.'
And if you can take an aspirin. Ladies, TIME IS OF THE ESSENCE!

Do NOT try to drive yourself to the ER - you are a hazard to others on the road.

Do NOT have your panicked husband who will be speeding and looking anxiously at what's happening with you instead of the road.

Do NOT call your doctor -- he doesn't know where you live and if it's at night you won't reach him anyway, and if it's daytime, his assistants (or answering service) will tell you to call the Paramedics.

He doesn't carry the equipment in his car that you need to be saved! The Paramedics do, principally OXYGEN that you need ASAP. Your Dr will be notified later.

3. Don't assume it couldn't be a heart attack because you have a normal cholesterol count.
Research has discovered that a cholesterol elevated reading is rarely the cause of an MI (unless it's unbelievably high and/or accompanied by high blood pressure).

MIs are usually caused by long-term stress and inflammation in the body, which dumps all sorts of deadly hormones into your system to sludge things up in there.

Pain in the jaw can wake you from a sound sleep. Let's be careful and be aware.

The more we know the better chance we could survive.

You can get comprehensive information about heart health, blood pressure, cholesterol and cardiovascular problems here: A to Z of coronary Heart Disease

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