4 tips about heart attacks

A heart attack is a frightening experience but these tips will help you face such a situation with control.

Roughly 70,000 Canadians will have a heart attack this year — and about a third of them will die from it.

Thanks to improved emergency-care strategies, however, over 90 percent of those who make it to the hospital in time for treatment will survive.

Coronary arteries nourish your heart muscle with plenty of oxygen and nutrients to keep it pumping day and night. But if one of these arteries becomes blocked — usually it’s the result of a blood clot forming at a site where the artery has become narrowed by plaque — the heart muscle is deprived of blood and may begin to die.

This tissue death is called a myocardial infarction (MI), or, more commonly, a heart attack. Unless the blockage in your artery is cleared and blood flow is restored, your heart muscle cannot survive without a steady flow of blood for more than about three hours.

The affected section will die, becoming useless scar tissue and permanently impairing your heart’s ability to pump effectively.

This can be fatal if a large enough portion of the heart is destroyed. For this reason, it is crucial to get medical care as quickly as possible at the first sign of a heart attack.

Literally, every minute counts. Most people are familiar with classic heart attack symptoms — crushing chest pain or shooting pains radiating along the upper left arm — but a heart attack can manifest itself in a variety of ways.

Women, for example, tend to have more subtle symptoms, which may delay getting timely treatment. So be on the lookout for any of the following:

• Uncomfortable pressure, pain or tightness in the chest that lasts for more than 10 minutes pain in the shoulders, jaw, neck and arms (especially the left arm).
• Chest pain (whether severe or mild) accompanied by light-headedness, cold sweat, shortness of breath, nausea or unusual feelings of dread or impending doom.

Call 911 immediately to get medical help and quick transport to the hospital emergency room.
Chew an aspirin to reduce the severity of the attack; take nitroglycerin for chest pain (angina).

ER doctors will administer thrombolytic drugs to dissolve artery-blocking clots and minimize tissue damage.

• Act quickly. Don't ignore your symptoms. About half of all heart attack patients wait too long — at least two hours — before getting help. Not waiting can make the difference between life and death.
• Plan ahead. Identify the hospitals or medical centres nearest your home or office that are best equipped to deal with cardiac emergencies, especially if you are at high risk for a heart attack.
• Plot out the route in advance. Make sure that you and your spouse (or someone close to you) know the fastest way to the best medical facility.
• Quit smoking. Cutting out tobacco, studies show, can reduce your risk of a heart attack by 50 percent to 70 percent.
• Get moving. Regular aerobic exercise nearly halves your risk of a heart attack (a 45 percent reduction), yet more than 60 percent of North Americans are sedentary.
• Ask your doctor about getting your C-reactive protein (CRP) level measured as part of your routine blood work. Experts are finding that a high CRP indicates above-average inflammation, a scenario that raises your heart attack risk.

These 4 steps will help you deal calmly and effectively with a heart attack. For further support, The Heart and Stroke Foundation of Canada provides information and public education programs on all aspects of heart disease.