Heart Attack
By: Hassan Mughal
Tags: Heart Attack Causes, Heart Disease, Heart Attack Symptoms, Heart Attack Treatment, Heart

Introduction to Heart:

Human heart is a muscular organ. it provides blood and nutrients to our body which we need. The main chamber of blood supplying in our heart is left ventricle through a large artery called Aorta. To aorta small arteries are connected called coronary arteries. It supplies oxygenated blood to all body parts. But at the same time it carries deoxygenated blood and pumps it to lungs for filtration. This is called double pump of heart. The blood flows through aorta to provide our body oxygen and nutrients.

How Does Heart Attack Occurs?

An abnormal behavior of heart is called heart attack

During your heart attack. Blood flows through one of your coronary artery may have reduced or completely blocked (Atherosclerosis).

The reducing blood flow may have been caused by a buildup of fatty substance called PLAQUE in your coronary arteries. If this plaque became disrupted a blood clot might have formed. It will lead to a complete blockage stopping blood flow down the artery. The blockage in coronary artery prevents the reaching of nutrients, blood and oxygen supply from heart to all parts of the body. As a result, heart muscle in that area started to die. Damage to the part of your heart muscle is called HEART ATTACK. It’s also known as MAYOCARDIAL INFARCTION or MI.

The Recovery of Blood Blockage in Heart:

The doctors recommend the procedure to help open the blood blockage and the blood flow to the damage area of the heart muscle.

The procedure they recommend may have been a CORONARY ANGIOPLASTY. During the coronary angioplasty a balloon tipped catheter inflates inside your blocked coronary artery to open it. The procedure may have involved STENT to open the blocked coronary artery properly. This is usually a thin metal mash which act as a scaffold. Or you may have had a coronary artery bypass graft (CABG).

CABG is a surgical procedure in which the blocked areas of coronary arteries are bypassed with the veins or other arteries from the body.

Several Medications Prescribed by Health Care:

· Oral antiplatelet therapy helps prevent platelets from sticking together and forming new blood clots.

· You may also receive drugs called Beta blockers that helps lower your heart rate and blood-pressure.

· Drugs such as ACE inhibitors (angiotensin converting enzyme) or ARBs (angiotensin receptor blockers) and calcium channel blockers also work to lower your blood pressure if needed.

And you may have prescribed statins along with the lower fat diet to lower your cholesterol. The drugs work by reducing the amount of cholesterol made in liver.

What Is Myocardial Infarction:

The term myocardial infarction is derived from myocardium (the heart muscle) and infarction (tissue death). It is more commonly known as heart attack. It occurs when blood supply to a part of muscle is interrupted and leads to death of heart muscles. Heart attack may be caused by blood clot in coronary arteries. It is a medical emergency, and the leading cause of death for both men and women all over the world. Severe chest pain is the most common symptom of myocardial infarction and may be in the form of sensation of tightness, pressure, or squeezing. Pain radiates most of often to left arm, but may also radiate to lower jaw, neck, right arm and back. Loss of consciousness and even death can occur in myocardial infarction. Immediate treatment for suspected acute myocardial infarction includes oxygen supply, aspiring, and sublingual tablet of glyceryl trinitrate. Most cases of myocardial infarction are treated with angioplasty (mechanical widening of narrowed of totally obstructed blood vessel) or bypass surgery (surgery in which arteries or veins from elsewhere in the patient’s body are grafted the coronary arteries to improve blood supply to heart muscles).

Warning :

“Angina Pectoris” Means Chest pain. It is not severe as heart attack. The pain may occur in heart and often left in arm and shoulder. It is a warning sign that blood supply to heart muscles is not sufficient, but shortage is not enough to cause tissue death.

Cardiovascular Disorders:

Epidemiological study shows an inverse correlation between garlic consumption and reduced risk of cardiovascular disease progression [180–182]. The wealth of scientific literature supports the proposal that garlic consumption have significant cardio protective effect, which include both animal and human studies. But certain issues regarding the proper use of garlic, i.e. use of different preparations available, dose, duration and interaction with generic drugs should be optimized. Further research should also be carried out to identify specific compounds from garlic or garlic products that are responsible for most of its biological effects.

Aortic stiffening is as much an important risk factor in cardiovascular morbidity and mortality, as it serves as reliable surrogate marker for clinical endpoints like myocardial and cerebrovascular incidents. Elevated aortic stiffness induces high systolic blood pressure, augmented pulse pressure with increased ventricular afterload, reduced sub endocardial blood flow and augmented pulsatile stress in the peripheral arteries [154]. In population, consuming garlic for long period, attenuation of age-related increase in aortic stiffness has been observed. This suggests a protective effect on the elastic properties of the aorta related to aging in human [155]. This study also showed that regular long term garlic powder intake protected endothelial cell from oxidative injury [155].

Woodward PW: Garlic and Friends: The History, Growth and Use of Edible Alliums. Hyland House, Melbourne, Australia. 1996, 2–22.

World Heart Day:

It is held on 29th September,2002. every year throughout the world. Its objective is to help people better understand their personal risks of cardiovascular disorders. The final decades of the twentieth century represented a period of unprecedented success for the cardiovascular biomedical enterprise in advancing the knowledge of cardiovascular disease. Scientific progress in understanding the mechanisms of cardiovascular diseases fueled the proliferation of new methods for prevention and treatment, clinical trials to critically test these interventions, and evidence-based practice guidelines to distill these scientific advances broadly into clinical practice.

Conclusions:

It is important to stay on your medication if you are feeling better.

Do not go off your medication for any reason unless the health care professional that prescribed them tell you to.