MORE ABOUT TIM RUSSERT PREDICTING HEART ATTACKS AND THINGS TO LOWER THE CHANCES OF SUDDEN CARDIAC ARREST AND A HEART ATTACK
Some have suggested that the widespread use of cholesterol lowering medication, blood pressure control,aspirin and other measures have led to fewer heart attacks
True or False? A heart attack and cardiac arrest are the same thing?
I saw another article about heart attacks, about predicting who will have a heart attack and steps to try and prevent a heart attack. The article drew an analogy between the famous runner Jim Fixx and Tim Russert. Both were relatively young men. The article pointed out "Just over a year ago, a team led by researchers at the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention reported that the death rate from heart disease in the USA has dropped by 50% from 1980 to 2000, thanks to improvements in medical treatment and a reduction in risk factors".
"The researchers credited those advances — including intensive cholesterol lowering (with drugs like the statins) and blood pressure control for heart attack patients and a drop in smoking rates — with saving an estimated 341,000 lives that would have been lost to heart disease if conditions in 1980 had persisted".
As I pointed out previously in healty medical Blog, the Heart Association writes "The American Heart Association recommends aspirin use for patients who've had a myocardial infarction (heart attack), unstable angina, ischemic stroke (caused by blood clot) or transient ischemic attacks (TIAs or "little strokes"), if not contraindicated.(An example of a contraindication might be easy bleeding) This recommendation is based on sound evidence from clinical trials showing that aspirin helps prevent the recurrence of such events as heart attack, hospitalization for recurrent angina, second strokes, etc. (secondary prevention). Studies show aspirin also helps prevent these events from occurring in people at high risk (primary prevention)".
This tragedy has once again raised the public awareness of the danger of heart problems. As the article points out "What is clear is that there are ways to lower one's risk of sudden cardiac death and heart problems: eat healthy, exercise, don't smoke, and take aspirin and or statins. Statins are the medications that lower cholesterol. High cholesterol is positively correlated with coronary artery disease. The trouble, though, is that patients often don't think they're at serious risk until they are actually experiencing an attack".
Cardiac arrest is not synonymous with a heart attack. A heart attack refers to myocardial infarction. The heart muscle (myocardium) pumps oxygenated blood to supply the body's needs. But the heart is a muscle and the heart muscle itself needs oxygenated blood. That oxygenated blood is supplied to the heart by the coronary arteries which envelop the heart. When the blood supply to some part of the heart is cut off completely enough to damage the heart muscle as by a blockage or blockages in the coronary artery, that is a heart attack, a myocardial infarction.
A cardiac arrest refers to a situation where the heart's ability to pump is so compromised that the blood flow to the body is interrupted. This can happen with a severe electrical disturbance in the heart as ventricular fibrillation or severe blood loss or a massive heart attack that damages so much heart muscle that the heart can't pump properly. It is in cases of sudden cardiac arrest where cpr and automatic defibrillators may save a life.
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