According to Dr. Mark Perlroth, he is a professor of medicine in Stanford University, heart attack tries to mimic several health condition like indigestion, its really essential that you know of their differences, most especially with another type of condition.

Here are the guidelines which might help in making the decision as well as make the correct steps when situation arises:

Cause of Chest Pains

Here are the conditions that can cause chest pains:

• Pain in the muscle or chest wall coming from injuries or exercises can be worsened if the area that sores had been pressed by the finger.

• The pain attacks are commonly accompanied by anxiety, palpitation of the heart and shortened breathing.

• Indigestion, its accompanied usually by belching, burping, nausea, sour tastes in your mouth and heartburn.

• Infection in the respiratory system had been worsened of breathing deeply and coughing.
Symptoms of heart attack

Here are some of the signs of patients with heart attack condition. However, not every warning sign indicated here are seen on patients in every attack. You need to seek medical care for the symptoms that can occur:

• Discomfort of the chest with fainting, nausea, lightheadedness, sweating as well as shortened breathing.

• The uncomfortable pain, pressure, fullness in the chest’s center, which may last for several minutes then go away then, returns again.

• Spreading of pain towards the neck, arms and shoulders.
Prepare Yourself

Take this emergency precaution ahead if ever a family member or you have heart condition or maybe in danger of heart attack:

• Know the hospitals that are close to your place, which provides 24 hours cardiac treatment. Tell your family members as well as friends their locations.

• Post the telephone numbers for emergency rescues near your house phone or you can save them in your cellular phone.

• Suggest to your friends and family members to make a call to emergency numbers if the chest pains do last for several minutes already.
What you need to do:

When you’re suspecting that a person already is experiencing heart attack:

• Make this person chew & then swallow 2 aspirin, but if you’re knowledgeable s/he is allergic, then don’t. Researches recently do show that taking aspirin do increase the blood flow as well as limits the risks of dying to fifty percent. It can decrease the threats of lasting damages with little risks, even if that person isn’t suffering of heart attack.

• Additionally, this person must take nitroglycerin tablets, when available, in order to reduce their risks of death or heart damages. It helps in increasing blood flows to the heart and it’ll lower discomfort and pain.

• Call up the local number for an emergency service. Tell that dispatcher your location and a person is in need of emergency help because of heart attack situation. Do not hang your phone unless you are told.

The disease of the heart is very common, however knowledge wise there’s little of it. Do not wait that you’ll be in an emergency room due to cardiac arrest before you’ll start learning about it.

The disease in the cardiovascular system or the heart had been a condition affecting your heart as well as its blood vessel too. According to the WHO organization, it’s already a global outbreak that affects lots of people both in the first world and third world countries. Just in Philippines, its already # 1 cause of death; recently their Department of Health surveys are showing that the disease is accounting in almost 3rd in every death locally speaking. It means that you’ll likely die with this heart condition.

Are you at risk of heart disease?

Even if you have or haven’t got a cardiovascular disease, its important to understand the risks involved there. There are some factors that are changeable, some can’t be. Among these risks factor, which aren’t changeable are:

• Age – mostly death of patients who have cardiovascular diseases are commonly on the age of 65+.
• Sex – there are more men who develop this disease than the women, they usually attack at an early age.
• Heredity – children can inherit this disease from their parents. You’ll be at risk.

What is the risk factor that’s changeable?

Cardiovascular diseases was popularly called as lifestyle disease, what does it mean? It simply means that major factors on cardiovascular diseases are controllable and it can be changed if you change your style on life.

Some of the most modifiable or controllable factors are:

• Alcohol or stress – in drinking lots of alcohol can cause heart failure and hypertension and it might lead on becoming obese. The stress makes you smoke and eat a lot too.

• Diabetes – according to experts, cardiovascular disease are the usual complication on people with diabetes.

• High blood cholesterols – people with cholesterol counts of 240 mg/dL or plus are considered at risk of cardiovascular disease.

• High blood pressure – people with hypertension raise your hearts workload, it cause your heart to become stiffer, larger and thicker. If it happens the blood flows to the brain, eyes, kidneys and heart, thus lead to stroke, blindness, heart attack and kidney failure.

• Obesity – like that of hypertension added weight of body makes the heart works harder, raising the level of cholesterol and blood pressure, thus, and making you affected to another type of diseases including diabetes.

• Physical inactiveness – are you sitting almost all day with your work? The lifestyle is sedentary, making you very lazy in exercising? Just take note: the sedentary type of lifestyle can put you at risk of cardiovascular diseases.

• Smoking – people who are frequently or addicted to smoking are prone to cardiovascular diseases and die on a sudden death, like cardiac arrest. Although, nonsmokers are also at risk. Being exposed to those who doesn’t smoke.

Grains, legumes, vegetables and fruits are lower in fats and it got no cholesterols. Mostly, they’re an excellent source of fibers, vitamins and complex type of carbohydrates. Eating foods which are high of fibers and complex carbohydrate like oat bran and pectin, if its eaten in high amounts with low diets of saturated fats can lower the total cholesterols and the LDL cholesterols. You need to eat at least 25-30 g in dietary fibers every day.

Guidelines for healthier eating

Foods with high levels of saturated fats like coconut and monounsaturated fats like avocado and olives needs to be used sparingly in order for you to keep away from getting lots of calories from fats.

The legumes or vegetable grain if cooked and turned to become processed foods, cholesterol or saturated fat are added. For example, an egg yolk can be added in pasta or bread.

The preserved, processed and canned vegetables might be having additional sodium. With some individuals, lots of sodium or salt intake leads to a higher blood pressure. There are companies who likes to process canned vegetables but with lesser salt. There are companies who don’t add salts in their products. Might as well look on this labels in markets or just buy fresh vegetables.

Seeds and nuts seems to have higher calories and fats, however most fats are monounsaturated and/or polyunsaturated like almonds, walnuts, pecans. Lots of varieties including macadamia nut have high saturated fats; you need to check up on it. Seeds and nuts do not have cholesterols and they’re excellent source of proteins.

Cook With Oils and Fats

Safflower, corn, canola, olive, soybeans, sunflower and sesame oils have lower amount of saturated fatty acid. Those oils are good for limited usage in dressings or cooking. Peanut oils have more amounts of saturated fatty acid. You shouldn’t use this as cooking oil. You might as well use this as a flavoring. Vegetable oils are hydrogenated; it can be used in shortenings. Hydrogenation might compensate the advantages given by monounsaturated or polyunsaturated vegetable oils.

Fibers, Oat Bran and Cholesterol

Mostly, people do consume about 50% of fibers needed on a daily basis. Dietary type of fiber, this is the term being used for a material, which is a part of a plant that cannot be digested.

They have been classified as insoluble or soluble. If you regularly eat this in your dietary intake with low cholesterol and saturated fats, it will help to lower your blood cholesterol, it reduce your risk of having heart diseases. Higher amount of fibers in your diet helps in lowering risks of getting diabetes, rectal and colon cancer. Eating foods with high amounts of insoluble and soluble fibers helps your health a lot. Whole grain foods, vegetables, fruits, legumes and beans are excellent sources of fibers.

Keep reading on the labels on processed foods, most especially in commercial products like wheat or oat bran. Lots of this processed goods contains little amount of bran or they might have high concentration of saturated fats, and sodium.

Cardiopulmonary Resuscitation (CPR) is the reestablishing of heart and lung action after cardiac arrest or apparent sudden death resulting from electric shock, drowning, respiratory arrest, and other causes. The two major components of CPR are artificial ventilation and closed chest cardiac massage.

Each year millions of people die suddenly from heart attack, poisoning, drowning, and other causes. Many of these lives could be saved by administering cardiopulmonary resuscitation (CPR), which restores the circulation of oxygen-rich blood to the brain. CPR involves two main steps: chest compression and mouth-to-mouth ventilation.

Have you ever performed CPR on yourself?

Let’s say it’s 6.15 pm and you’re going home (alone of course), after an unusually hard day on the job. You’re really tired, upset and frustrated.

Suddenly you start experiencing severe pain in your chest that starts to radiate out into your arm and up into your jaw. You are only about five miles from the hospital nearest your home. Unfortunately you don’t know if you’ll be able to make it that far. You have been trained in CPR (Cardiopulmonary Resuscitation), but the guy that taught the course did not tell you how to perform it on yourself.

How to Survive a Heart Attack When Alone?

Since many people are alone when they suffer a heart attack, without help, the person whose heart is beating improperly and who begins to feel faint, has only about 10 seconds left before losing consciousness.
However, these victims can help themselves by coughing repeatedly and very vigorously. A deep breath should be taken before each cough, and the cough must be deep and prolonged, as when producing sputum from deep inside the chest.

A breath and a cough must be repeated about every two seconds without let-up until help arrives, or until the heart is felt to be beating normally again.

Deep breaths get oxygen into the lungs and coughing movements squeeze the heart and keep the blood circulating. The squeezing pressure on the heart also helps it regain normal rhythm. In this way, heart attack victims can get to a hospital. Tell as many other people as possible about this. It could save their lives!

This may however seem a bit fictitious that how can a person who just got a sudden heart attack be able to gather such guts and presence of mind to operate on himself and saves his life, rather than panicking and giving out a loud cry and falling down unconscious. Well my friends, it may seem to be a rather difficult task to achieve but as we all know that in this world, nothing is impossible. There may be half chances to everything, and the one who grabs on to these and turns them to his own favor is the real man. They say that a man’s time of life and death are given by his destiny, but it is also said that a real man writes his own destiny. So by this positive attitude we take off here, and make a pledge to spread this message to as many live souls as we can. A cardiologist says if everyone who reads this article sends it to 10 people, you can be sure that we’ll save at least one life!

Learning to tell the difference between heartburn and something more serious may be a matter of life and death. Here’s what you need to know.

What is heartburn?

Heartburn isn’t a disease. It’s a symptom. You’ll notice a burning sensation in your chest that may start in your upper abdomen and radiate all the way to your neck. Sometimes, stomach acid that backs up into the esophagus can leave a sour taste in your mouth – especially when you’re lying down.

Normally, digestive acid in your stomach is kept from backing up into your esophagus by the lower esophageal sphincter. This ring of muscle functions as a valve, which opens only as you swallow. But sometimes the valve relaxes or weakens, allowing stomach acid to flow back into your esophagus.

Pressure on the sphincter muscle from excess weight, overeating or lying down too soon after a meal may cause it to open slightly. Certain foods, as well as overindulgence in alcohol or caffeine, can relax the sphincter or increase production of stomach acid.

Frequent, persistent heartburn may indicate a more serious condition known as gastroesophageal reflux disease, or GERD – the chronic regurgitation of acid from your stomach into your lower esophagus. Long-term GERD can lead to Barrett’s esophagus, a condition in which the color and composition of the cells lining the lower esophagus change because of repeated exposure to stomach acid. Barrett’s esophagus is a risk factor for esophageal cancer.

Can other digestive symptoms cause chest pain?

Heartburn isn’t the only digestive symptom that can cause chest pain. A muscle spasm in your esophagus may have the same effect. The pain of a gallbladder attack also can spread to your chest. You may notice nausea and an intense, steady ache in the upper middle or upper right abdomen – especially after a fatty meal. The pain may shift to your shoulders, neck or arms.

How would you know if it’s your heart?

It can be difficult or even impossible to tell what’s causing chest pain. Be on the lookout for these heart-related warning signs:
• Sudden pressure, tightening, squeezing or crushing pain in the center of the chest that lasts more than a few minutes
• Pain spreading to the back, neck, jaw, shoulders or arms – especially the left arm
• Chest discomfort accompanied by shortness of breath, sweating, dizziness or nausea
• Pressure or tightness in the chest during physical activity or when you’re under emotional stress

When should you get medical help?

Occasional bouts of heartburn are common. If you have persistent heartburn or take antacids daily, consult your doctor. Your heartburn may be a symptom of GERD.

If the heartburn seems worse or different from normal – especially if it occurs during physical activity or is accompanied by shortness of breath, sweating, dizziness, nausea or pain radiating into your shoulder and arm – get emergency help immediately. These signs and symptoms may indicate a heart attack. In addition, seek medical attention immediately if you experience new chest discomfort and you have had a heart attack before, have heart disease or diabetes, smoke, are overweight or have high cholesterol. Proper diagnosis and prompt treatment may save your life.

Ques: Do low hemoglobin count and low white blood cells lead to heart problems in any way?

Ans: Not really. But it is good to have normal hemoglobin intensity to increase the capacity of your exercise.

Ques: Sometimes, due to the frantic schedule we can not exercise. Therefore, does walking while doing everyday chores at home or climbing stairs in the house and office substitutes for exercise?

Ans: Certainly. Avoid continuous sitting for over half an hour. Moreover, the act of getting off the chair and sitting to another chair helps a lot.

Ques: Is there a connection between blood sugar and heart problems?

Ans: Yes. There is a strong relationship because diabetics are more exposed to heart attacks comparing to non-diabetics.

Ques: What are the issues one needs to take good care after a heart surgery?

Ans: Diet, drugs on time, exercise, control cholesterol, weight, blood pressure. .

Ques: Are people who work on night shifts more susceptible to heart disease comparing to day shift workers?

Ans: Not at all…

Ques: What are the contemporary anti-hypertensive drugs?

Ans: Your doctor may choose hundreds of drugs and exercise combination to meet your problem, but my recommendation is to avoid the drugs as much as you can and go for natural methods of controlling blood pressure such as walking, planned dieting to reduce weight and modifying attitudes towards lifestyles.

Ques: Does Dispirin or other headache pills increase heart attacks risks?

Ans: Absolutely not.

Ques: Why the heart attack rate is more in men compared to women?

Ans: Nature provides protection to women till their age of 45.

Ques: How can a person keep his or her heart in a healthy condition?

Ans : Avoid junk food and eat a healthy diet, exercise everyday, stop smoking and, go for regular health checkups (recommended once in every six months) if you are more than 30 years old.

Ques: Many of us are leading irregular lifestyle without an organized routine and many times we have to work late nights in office. What is the affect on our heart and what precautions would you like to recommend?

Ans: When you are young, you are protected against all these irregularities by nature. However, as you grow older, you must respect the biological clock.

Ques: Will taking anti-hypertensive drugs have some short or long term complications?

Ans : Yes, most drugs have a number of side effects. However, recent anti-hypertensive drugs are tremendously safe.

Ques: Will consuming more tea or coffee lead to heart attacks?

Ans : Absolutely, No.

Ques: Are patients of asthma more prone to heart disease?

Ans : No.

Ques: How would you classify junk food?

Ans: Fried food like McDonalds, Kentucky, masala dosas and even samosas.

Ques: You mentioned that third world inhabitants are three times more vulnerable with heat attacks. What is the key reason for this, since Europeans and Americans are also eating a lot of junk food?

Ans: Each race is vulnerable to some illness and unfortunately, third world residents are susceptible for the most expensive disease.

Ques: Does consuming bananas help decrease hypertension?

Ans: No.

Ques: Can a person get some self-help during a heart attack? We have received a lot of forward mails on this issue.

Ans: Yes. Lie down at ease and put an aspirin tablet of any type under the tongue and ask the person who is closest to you to take you to the adjacent coronary care unit with no further delay and do not kill time for the ambulance because there is a thousand reasons out the road that the ambulance will not come on time.

• In case you exercise regularly and if you are into cardiovascular exercises and while doing it you don’t experience any kind of discomfort or excessive sweating then it shows that you have a healthy heart.

• If your diet comprises of low fat food, fruits, food containing a lot of omega 3 fatty acids then the chances of developing heart disease is quite low.

• If your weight is in accordance with your height and age, your BMI (body mass index) is between 19 to 25 then you are not at risk of heart attack.

• If you don’t have high blood pressure and high cholesterol then again you have a healthy heart.

• This can be determined by regular checkups. It is very essential to go in for regular screening because you can never know when the numbers go up and if you are aware of your numbers then accordingly you can take action.

Prevention is always better than cure, therefore we must be prepared for facing a heart disease and perform accordingly to keep up with a healthy heart through all possible means of precautions.

Ques: Which is the worst and best food for the heart?

Ans: Oil is the worst and the best are fruits and vegetables.

Ques: Which oil is better – sunflower, groundnut or olive?

Ans: All oils are bad.

Ques: What routine checkup one should go through? Do you suggest any specific test?

Ans: Routine blood test to measure if sugar and cholesterol is ok. Check BP and Treadmill test after an echo.

Ques: What are the first aid steps should be taken on a sudden heart attack?

Ans: Help the person to get into a sleeping position, put an aspirin tablet beneath the tongue along with a sorbitrate tablet if possible, and rush him or her to a coronary care unit as the maximum casualty happens within the first hour.

Ques: How do you distinguish between pain arises by a heart attack and that because of gastric trouble?

Ans: Extremely difficult to say without an ECG.

Ques: What is the foremost cause of a steep raise in heart problems amongst youngsters? There are many people of about 30-40 yrs old having heart attacks and severe heart problems.

Ans: Increased consciousness has increased incidents. Also, sedentary lifestyles, junk food, smoking, lack of exercise is the main cause of the increased heart attack ratio of a third world country than Europeans and Americans.

Ques: Is it is possible for a person to have Blood Pressure outside the usual range of 120/80 and up till now be perfectly healthy?

Ans: Yes, of course.

Ques: Marriages within close relations can lead to heart troubles for the child. Is that true?

Ans: Yes, co-sanguinity directs to congenital abnormalities which will affect on developing the child’s intelligence after a certain level.

Keep reading the next phase of healthy heart tips.

Ques: What are the essentials for a layman for taking care of his heart?

Ans:
1. Diet – More of protein, Less of carbohydrate, less oil
2. Exercise – Walk for half an hour, at least five days a week; stay away from lifts and avoid sitting for a long time.
3. Control weight
4. Quit smoking
5. Control blood pressure and sugar

Ques: Eating non-veg food (like fish) is good for the heart?

Ans: No

Ques: How does it happen that an apparently healthy person gets a cardiac arrest without any prior notice?

Ans: This is called silent attack; therefore we recommend every person past the age of 30 to go through routine health checkups.

Ques: Are the heart diseases hereditary?

Ans: Yes

Ques: What are the ways to make heart stressed? What practices should we do to de-stress the heart?

Ans: Change your approach towards life. Do not try to go for perfection in everything in life.

Ques: Is walking better than jogging? Do we need more intensive exercise to maintain a healthy heart?

Ans: Walking is better than jogging because jogging leads to early tiredness and injury to joints.

Ques: You have done many things for the poor and deprived. What has encouraged you to do so?

Ans: Mother Teresa, who was my patient.

Ques: Do you think people with low blood pressure still can suffer heart diseases?

Ans: Extremely rare

Ques: Does cholesterol amasses right from an early age or do people have to worry about this issue only after they are above 30 years old?

Ans: Cholesterol accumulates from childhood.

Ques: How do irregular eating practices affect the heart?

Ans: You tend to eat scrap food when the habits are asymmetrical and your body’s enzyme release abnormally which confuses the digestion process.

Ques: How can I control cholesterol element without using medicines?

Ans: Walk, control diet and eat walnut.

Ques: Can yoga help to prevent heart disease?

Ans: Yoga helps.

Keep reading the 2nd phase of Healthy Heart Tips