What Is A Heart Attack?

Let me talk about and answer  - What Is A Heart Attack?

Before you learn how to prevent a heart attack, you need to and the question “What Is A Heart Attack” and how it happens. I’m sorry if this is boring, or you’ve heard all this before, but it is important to give a bit of background.

Your heart is the most sophisticated and powerful pump ever. It pushes the blood through the veins with such power that if arteries were to be severed suddenly, the blood would spurt out about six to seven feet. The power of the heart’s pumping comes from the myocardial muscles. Like all muscles these too need plenty of oxygen to function well.

For various reasons, oxygen does not reach parts of the heart in the required amount. The oxygen cutoff happens when a coronary artery (the blood vessels that bring oxygen to the heart), thickens with a buildup of plaque.

This plaque (like the one on your teeth, which you know and understand better) is the result of cholesterol and fat build-up on the walls of the arteries. The process by which plaque builds up is known as atherosclerosis. (go to http://www.heartattackprofessor.com and check out the video on the front page, or go to http://www.heartattackprofessor.com/helpful-videos.html to see what happens)

When the plaque is very thick sometimes a small section of this plaque ruptures or completely breaks. When this happens in the spot of the rupture a blood clot and blockage is formed. This cuts off the circulation and starves the heart of oxygen past the point of the blockage. In medical terms, the death or damage of heart tissue is known as ischemia. When this happens it causes acute pain, damage, or even death to some of the muscles of the heart. This is when a heart attack occurs.

A heart attack is also known as myocardial infarction or a coronary thrombosis.

Hopefully, that gives you a basic answer to “What Is A Heart Attack”

No Warning - Unfortunately, normally, there is no warning; no alarm is sounded by your body before a heart attack happens. The narrowing of your arteries happens ever so gradually that often the heart attack seems unexpected.

The damaged muscle could need several months to heal depending upon the healing rate of your body; as it heals, a scar tissue would form over the place where muscles were damaged or died. This would make the heart a little less efficient than it had been prior to the heart attack.

 The Recovery Process – The Preliminaries - The recovery process is often extremely slow. You will need to make some changes in your lifestyle as mentioned. At the same time, you need to take it easy for a while and put on hold any type of mental stress. Most heart attack survivors would be advised by their doctor to introduce physical exercise into their lives at this stage.

However, this should not be too strenuous.

In the first few weeks after a heart attack you could also be advised to watch out for fatigue and take rest immediately when that happens. At such times, a short power nap is recommended.

Most people can return to their work place in about three to four months from the day they were discharged from the hospital. The recovery period can be anything from two weeks to six months. Your doctor would be able to tell you when the time is right for you to get back to the grind.

With me, and I know you will say ‘Paul, you are nothing but a madman’ it was 10 days.

In the meantime, you need to make adequate preparation to fight off the immediate repercussions of the heart attack.

Depression or depressive thoughts - During the post heart attack period, you could and possibly will experience major bouts of depressive thoughts.

You could go through a wide range of emotions during the recovery period. You could be:

· scared,

· angry,

· desperate to be in control again,

· feeling worthless or weak.

All these feelings would eat into your tolerance levels, patience, and overall make you irritated and upset.

If you feel overwhelmed by such feelings, ensure that you seek help. People who are supported by adequate healthcare and counseling and gain the knowledge of how to help themselves, recover faster and better.

If you find that panic and anxiety is taking over, there are a couple of options.

One of the world’s leading products to help get yourself back on track is the anti-anxiety product ‘Panic Away’. The testimonials for this product are very good, and this is for one reason only, and that is, it’s effective. If you wish to visit the official web page of Panic Away, please click here http://www.heartattackprofessor.com/heart-attack-and-anxiety.html and read my article on this important area of concern. There is a link to the official Panic Away website on that page.

Or you can visit this page in this Blog where I talk about Panic Away as well

Another thing you can do is seek and take the support of your family and friends. Remember, they are as worried about your health as you are; sometimes they would be affected by this situation much more than they show it. Before your episode they were as much in the dark about what is a heart attack as you are.

A word of advice: it is normal that your family might be terrified for your life. Be particularly sensitive to the teenagers in your family who could often take blame for your heart attack upon themselves and suffer from guilt pangs. Talk about your fears, anger, what you feel in general, particularly your depression – and air all the thoughts that smolder within you. When you do this, invite all your family members into the discussion and help them heal emotionally along with you.

For a man (at the risk of sounding sexist) who is a provider in the house this can be a difficult process to open up emotionally, but remember, your family and friends are your salvation. They want to help. They can now answer what is a heart attack and provide support.

For a woman, you may think that you are letting your family down, that you might not be there to be a mother to them and that may in all probability scare you. All these feelings are normal, and believe me you will begin to feel better.

Reading these Blog Posts is a great start as it shows that there are people in the world to whom this has happened to and they have regained normality. Like me. You will be an expert when someone asks “What Is A Heart Attack”?

If I can, so can you.

If you don’t have a family around you or you live on your own you can try joining some of the Heart Attack Support Forums that are abundant on the net. Simply Google “heart attack support forums” and search through the many results that you will get. You will be amazed at the people that are on there and what support they are prepared to give.

A good example is http://www.dailystrength.org/c/Heart-Attack/support-group – there are some exceptionally supportive people in there, and you would be amazed at how some of the people who post in this group have overcome massive odds.

They certainly understand what is a heart attack and what you have to do to lead a normal life again.

 

Tagged as: Cardiovascular Disorders, Conditions and Diseases, Heart Attack, Heart disease, Muscle, Myocardial infarction, What Is A Heart Attack