What causes a heart attack?

robbie

What causes a heart attack?


A “heart attack” in medical terms is the sudden blockage of heart arteries causing damage to the heart muscle. Heart attacks are the most common heart disease and could cause death. To have a heart attack there need to be two basic components: cholesterol collections in the walls of the heart arteries and a stress environment that causes damage to the artery wall and release of these collections into the blood. Once this happens, the body reacts by forming clots to contain the damage – just like if you cut your hand in the kitchen - but a clot in a heart artery will block off the blood flow to the muscle and cause damage to the cells.


Typical “stress environments” would be emotional situations, serious illnesses such as pneumonia, running after a bus, or even during a marathon.

robbie

What’s the difference between a heart attack and a cardiac arrest?


“Cardiac arrest” is where the heart stops beating effectively and cannot supply blood to the vital organs. It can be the most devastating result of a heart attack. Other conditions can cause cardiac arrest too, such as a serious loss of blood, compression of the heart by outside factors and heart rhythm abnormalities.

robbie

Are there signs of a heart attack or heart diseases?


The classical symptoms are chest tightness or pains on the left side which go to the left arm and up the neck into the jaw.


Though things are rarely “classical” in life. Some patients describe a decrease in their exercise capacity, shortness of breath when they exert themselves, heavy or irregular heartbeats or pain in their upper abdomen.

robbie

Do our emotions affect the onset of heart diseases?


The heart and the mind are intricately connected by nerves and hormones. When one is stressed or unhappy, stress hormones such as adrenaline and steroid cortisol are released. These stimulate the heart and other systems (preparing to fight-or-flight) and destabilise the normally silent cholesterol collections in the artery wall, leading to a heart attack.

robbie

Do men or women at a higher risk of getting heart disease?


Men have a higher risk of developing heart artery disease throughout their lives; women are relatively protected by their hormones until menopause, after which their risk increases rapidly. Other heart diseases follow different gender patterns depending on the specific disease.


How to prevent heart disease?
The classical risk factors for heart disease are:


Age, genetics, smoking, diabetes, high cholesterol, high blood pressure. The last three can be treated – we call them “modifiable”. Increasing age and a tendency to get heart disease at a young age in close blood relatives should inform the vigour with which doctors search for and treat the modifiable risk factors.


Generally a moderate lifestyle in terms of diet, exercise, sleep and emotional stimulation minimises the risk of heart disease, though this is a crude way to find those who are likely to have hidden heart problems. A thoughtful doctor would tease out unusual risk factors that put a patient at high risk and initiate appropriate mitigating measures.