Local News Update
Featuring : Ask Lexi
Dear Lexi,
I'd really love to be able to decrease my chances of having a heart attack and was wondering what the best ways were? - Anon
Dear Anon,
That's a great question! I can tell you there are a ton of ways that you can do to decrease your chance of having a heart attack. Starting out would be to change your eating habits. What's best is food that is low in fat, cholesterol, and high in fiber. There should also be various fruits and vegetables, and limited sodium that you should eat. Exercising will also benefit you greatly. It's best if you exercise for at least 30 minutes, four times a week. It has also known that if you take one children's aspirin tablet per day, the Aspirin will help thin your blood and reduce the production of getting a blood clot. I hope this has helped, and if you have anymore questions make sure to ask!
Dear Lexi,
I have recently got diabetes and I do have an occuring vessel problem in my heart. I was wondering what other risk factors take play into possibly having a heart attack? - Louis
Dear Louis
I'm so sorry to hear about your vessel problem. Some other factors that could cause a heart attack are being obese and having a lot of stress in your life. Having a lot more weight on your body puts a strain on your heart which will increase the risk of you having a heart attack. Stress including anger in your life raise your blood pressure a lot and your heart rate. Obesity and stress also go together in giving you high blood pressure. Sadly, if you have these factors combined the risk is higher than just having one factor. There could also be the case of your parents having some type coronary artery disease. Smoking also greatly increases the chance to have a heart attack and also develop coronary artery disease. Smoking can also increase your chance of dying to only have an hour to get better when an attack has occurred. Onto high cholesterol, it doesn't dissolve in your normal blood flow. It moves through your system with carries that are called lipoproteins. When too much cholesterol is present there is a start of it dropping out of the blood flow and stick to your arteries. The more that gets stuck will increase your chances of having a heart attack. I hope this has helped you, and if you have any further questions please let me know.
Dear Lexi,
I've recently had a heart attack, and thankfully I am okay at the moment. I'd really like to know some of the treatment options I have to prevent me from having another heart attack. - Meredith
Dear Meradith,
I'm glad to hear that you are doing okay at the moment! For treatments, there are a ton. You can get anything from tranquillizers to just regular pain medicine. My first suggestion is thrombolytics. This is a drug that has chemicals which will dissolve blood clots. A lot of the times tPa is used which is very much like this drug. It's known to increase the chance of survival after a couple hours of having a heart attack. You could also take blood thinners which are called anticoagulants. You could also just use plain Aspirin which will work as well. If you'd rather not take a pill you could take a tablet called Nitroglycerin. This will treat any pain that you are having if any. Back to the tranquilizers these are mainly for helping with distress. A lot of patients do have stress and these will help a bit with more of the emotional side of things. To give the heart a chance to heal a bit, there are beta-blockers. These will slow down your heart rate, and can possibly prevent developing an irregular heart beat. To help the blood vessels to open up you can use Vasodilators. They help the blood flow to go where it needs to easier.