Heart Attacks
By Sam Schwarz
What is a Heart Attack
A heart attack is when your heart muscle starts to die, and thats why people will chest pain. It starts when the heart muscle doesn't get enough blood. This is from a clot or blockage of the coronary artery. The coronary artery is the artery that brings blood to the heart muscle. This can cause heart failure and can be deadly or can cause severe damage.
Signs and Symptoms
If you are having a heart attack you can have many different signs your having one.
- Chest discomfort
- Shortness of breath
- Nausea
- Light headed
- breaking out in a sweat
- Pain in one or both arms
- Pain in your back
- Pain in Jaw or Stomach
- Vomiting
- Dizziness
How The Body is Affected
- Irregular Heartbeat
- Heart Failure
- Heart Rupture
- Heart Valves Leaking
- Low Blood Pressure
- Swelling of the heart Sac
How it works Normal vs While having Heart Attack
How does this condition arise?
- This can be caused by age usually when the male is 45 and women is 55
- Angina is a illness when not enough of oxygen is reached to the heart. This raises a chance of having a heart attack.
- High Blood cholesterol can cause blood clots creating a heart attack.
- When someone survives a heart attack and lives near a highway they have a 27% of having a second heart attack.
- Diabetes, and also a bad diet is when someone eats large amount of fats have higher chance of getting a blood clot.
- Genes- you can inherit a higher chance of having heart problems by parents, or other family members.
- Heart surgery
- Overweight
- Physical inactivity
- Smoking
- People with HIV positive have a 50% chance of having a heart attack.
- Work stress
- Calcium supplements
Whats the target population?
Heart Attack statistics
How is this condition diagnosed?
When a nurse or doctor thinks that you have a heart attack, they will send you right to the hospital. In the hospital normally three tests are done. ECG, this is a medical device that monitors electrical activity in the heart muscles. Every heart beat our heart produces a small electrical signal. This helps to see how well the heart is functioning, and helps to see if there's damage to the heart muscle. There is also cardiac enzyme test. After a heart attack a few enzymes go into the bloodstream. A blood test can detect the enzymes. The last one is a chest x-ray, this detects is the heart has any swelling.
Treatment for a Heart Attack
A main treatment is using clot buster, also know as Thrombolytic therapy. This treatment helps to dissolve a blood clot, helps for better blood flow, and helps to protect tissues, and organs for damage. People also use Oxygen therapy, Oxygen therapy helps to give your lungs more air, and helps to be more active. Many people take aspirin to help thin their but and helps to prevent further blood clotting. Nitroglycerin helps blood flow and dilating the coronary vessel reduce the hearts workload.
Prognosis
Depending on how bad the heart attack is people can go back to their old lives. My aunt, and uncle both are fine but can't do somethings like lifting heavy things. If someone had a severe heart attack there lives might change. Experts say that after having a heart attack that patients should stay active. This is a main key of recovering after a heart attack because it helps to strengthen the heart muscle and lowers the risk of a second heart attack.
My Connections to
Three of my family members have had a heart attack. I selected this condition because I wanted to learn more about what is happening to my family members. My uncle had his on a bike ride and didn't notice. My aunt had hers when she was going to work and felt pain and didn't know what was wrong. I feel like I want to learn more about what is running in my family.
Work Cited
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