Symptoms of a Heart Attack Video

Many people fear that after a heart attack, life will never be the same; they'll suffer heart failure and have to live the rest of their lives in fear. Nothing could be further from the truth. New treatments and medical therapies are helping heart...
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Female Speaker: Would you know, if you were having a heart attack often many people do not recognize the symptoms of a heart attack especially women. Richard Stein: Very often women will have heart attacks that we call silent hearts attacks at home but in fact they are not silent they just presenting some different neither, neither the women nor her physician where the fact that it could be a heart attack. Female Speaker: Some of the warning signs for a heart attack are similar in men and women. Such as pain in the chest, arms, back, neck or jaw, additional warning signs are called sweats, nausea, light-headedness and shortness of breath. The symptoms in women can be confusing which is why heart disease some times goes undetected in women. Symptoms that are more prevalent in women than in men are shortness of breath, nausea and vomiting. A normal heart pumps blood regularly through the body, coronary arteries bring blood to the heart. When plat collects in the arteries then the arteries narrow, the plat can break off creating a blood clot which decreases the blood flow to the heart causing a heart attack. It is important to seek medical attention immediately if you think you are having a heart attack. Barry Ramo: If you think you are having a heart attack, there are several things that you need to do, number one is you need to take an aspirin right away if you are not taking it already. Number two if the discomfort last for more than 15 minutes I would get on the phone and call 911, so that you can get to a hospital as quickly as possible. Richard Stein: If you get to an emergency room quickly, we can actually open up that coronary artery, reproduce blood and save a lot of the heart that would have otherwise been lost. And that is buying good years added on to your life. Female Speaker: After a heart attack, some patients are giving as stent, a small device that keeps the artery from re-narrowing. The odds of the artery re-narrowing after the stent are as high as 30%. One way to keep the artery from re-narrowing is to use a stent that releases a drug into the artery. Stents may not always be an option for some patients because their arteries are two small or too damaged. If the stent is not an option patients are advised to do have a bypass surgery. There are 750,000 bypass surgeries performed in the United States every year. After the patient is given his stent or had bypass surgery, the reheard process begins. During rehabilitation, the patient learns about nutrition, weight management, and emotional support. The patient is also carefully watched while exercising to measure the level of exertions. Patients may also be given medication to control cholesterol levels, lower blood pressure or to limit blood clotting. Richard Lueker: These are the doors that heart disease came into you in your life, was elevated blood pressures, smoking, stress, cholesterol etc. You can close those doors, so that it does not keep coming in. Female Speaker: Patients can live healthy lives after their heart attacks, if they eat nutritiously, exercise regularly, quit smoking if they were smokers and get their blood pressure and bad cholesterol levels under control.

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