TIM RUSSERT THINGS TO LOWER THE CHANCE OF SUDDEN CARDIAC ARREST AND A HEART ATTACK

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True or False? A heart attack and cardiac arrest are the same thing?

I have been reading an article about the sudden cardiac arrest of the much loved Tim Russert. 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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What Happened to Russert The science of sudden cardiac arrest

WHICH FOODS HAVE GOOD FATS WHICH HAVE BAD FATS AND FOODS THAT CONTAIN TRANS FATS AND SATURATED FATS THAT ARE BAD FOR THE HEART

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"Among the more healthful fat options are using vegetables oils (some are better than others) and tub margarine in place of butter and switching to nonfat or low-fat dairy products. Avocados, fish, nuts (almonds) and seeds are other good sources of better fats". Among the foods with bad fats are whole-milk dairy products and butter, and french fries, fried chicken and other deep-fat-fried foods, especially those prepared at restaurants and fast-food establishments".



I and the American Heart Association as well as doctors and nutritionists have repeatedly expounded on the importance of watching what kind of fats you eat. You need to be aware of which are good fats and which are bad fats. Why watch the fats you eat? Because some fats, the bad fats such as trans fats and saturated fats increase heart disease and chances of a heart attack while other fats protect your heart. You can't rely on restaurants and food manufacturers to use only good fats in their products (Sorry Dorothy you're not in Kansas anymore)because sometimes visions of profits "cloud" their decision making.

Omega 3 and the Heart



Although some restaurant chains are now making a real effort to get rid of "bad" fats such as trans fats. Trans fats lead to higher bad LDL cholesterol which is associated with increased chances of a heart attack. McDonald's, for example, has made it policy to eliminate trans fats. Trans fats are a kind of fat which though they can occur naturally are more often a problem because they are produced as a result of frying or cooking.



I am amazed to discover when I read food labels on certain cookies that they still contain trans fat even now after all the bad publicity about how trans fats lead to higher bad cholesterol! The Food and Drug Administration allows companies to list zero trans fat on product labels if the food contains less than 0.5 grams of trans fat per serving. If the label lists partially hydrogenated oil, then there's probably some trans fat present".




Sally Squires in her excellent column in the Washington Post writes that "Fewer than half of Americans know that consuming "better" fats can help reduce their risk of heart disease. These better fats include delicious olive oil, rich in what chemists dub mono-unsaturated fat. Soybean oil,a polyunsaturated fat, is also heart-healthy. Both earn the distinction of being "better," because they help lower blood levels of the most dangerous cholesterol, low-density lipoprotein (LDL). The higher LDL rises, the more likely your risk of suffering a heart attack, thus the more apt your doctor is to prescribe a cholesterol-lowering statin drug (in addition to having you make diet and exercise changes)".



"To help clear up the fat confusion, the American Heart Association has just unveiled the Better Fats Sisters, part of a national public health campaign called Face the Fats. The Sisters arrive a year after the Heart Association introduced the Bad Fat Brothers -- Trans and Sat -- to urge cutting down on artery-clogging trans fat and saturated fat. Among the foods with bad fats are whole-milk dairy products and butter, and french fries, fried chicken and other deep-fat-fried foods, especially those prepared at restaurants and fast-food establishments".



"Among the more healthful fat options are using vegetables oils (some are better than others) and tub margarine in place of butter and switching to nonfat or low-fat dairy products. Avocados, fish, nuts (almonds) and seeds are other good sources of better fats". On average, American adults consume approximately 2.2 percent of total calories from trans fat(i.e bad fat) a day at least double the amount advised, according to the AHA. In processed foods, trans fat is now being replaced by coconut, palm and other saturated fats. The shift means that Americans are now sometimes swapping one bad fat for another and eating four to five times as much saturated fat per day as recommended, according to the AHA".

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