|
HowToPreventHeartDisease.com |
||||||||||||||||||||||||
 |
 |
|
||||||||||||||||||||||
|
Can Heart Attack Occur Silently? Myocardial infarction, or more commonly known as heart attack, is the number one killer globally. It is the most severe form of acute coronary syndrome, in which a coronary artery suddenly becomes blocked with a blood clot that is usually caused by a sudden rupture of a plaque. During heart attack, a portion of the heart muscle becomes deprived of oxygen and nutrients. The muscle gets damaged and can eventually die and be converted to scar tissue. Typical symptoms that a heart attack victim have may include severe crushing chest pain and pressure; sudden shortness of breath; cold sweating. But sometimes a heart attack can actually happen without one knowing it. It is called a silent heart attack, or medically referred to as silent ischemia (lack of oxygen) to the heart muscle. It is also known as silent myocardial infarction. As recent research suggested, nearly half of all heart attacks are silent. A study published November 10, 2015 in the ‘Journal of the American Medical Association’ looked at almost 2,000 people aged between 45 and 84 (half of whom were men) who were free of cardiovascular disease. After 10 years, 8 percent of these participants were found to have myocardial scars, which are evidence of a heart attack. The researchers were surprised to find out that 80 percent of these people were unaware of their condition. The prevalence of myocardial scars was 5 times higher in men than in women. Nevertheless, some studies did report that silent heart attacks are more common in women than in men.
Victims of silent heart attack either may
experience no symptoms at all or have subtle symptoms that might be mistaken for
a less critical condition. They may feel a discomfort in the back, arms, jaw or
chest. Or they may feel lightheaded or experience dizziness, or fainting.
Occasionally, they may feel discomfort in the center of the chest and not a
sharp pain on the left side of the chest. Such discomfort may last several
minutes or go away and comes back. It can feel like an uncomfortable pressure,
squeezing, or pain. They may also feel short of breath before or after the chest
discomfort. Victims may have prolonged and excessive fatigue that is
unexplained. Some patients may experience what they believe is heartburn or have
symptoms that mimic stomach problems like nausea, vomiting, or overall
gastrointestinal (GI) upset, especially in women.
Several reasons exist to explain why silent heart attack may happen. First of all, some people simply have high pain thresholds or a very high tolerance for pain, and simply do not notice symptoms that would be hard for others to ignore. For people who have medical conditions, particularly diabetes, the nerves that carry pain impulses might be affected so the symptoms of angina or a heart attack are blunted. Particularly in women, cardiac ischemia simply does not produce chest pain, or other typical symptoms of angina. Instead, they may experience shortness of breath, transient weakness, or other non-specific symptoms that most people would not immediately relate to their heart. Meanwhile, there are people who are simply good at ignoring the signs and symptoms of a heart attack, especially when these symptoms are relatively non-dramatic, and could treat them these symptoms as being due to a cold, heartburn or something they ate.
Risk factors for a silent heart attack are
indifferent from those for a recognized heart attack, which include high blood
pressure, high cholesterol, smoking, family history of heart disease, obesity
and age. In reality, a silent heart attack can be as dangerous as its more
obvious counterpart. This is because the event often leaves scarring and damage
to the heart, and it puts the person at greater risk of other heart problems.
Since the person is unaware of his or her condition and does not seek treatment,
the impact could potentially be greater. In fact, people who have an silent
heart attack and do not get treatment have a 3 times greater risk of dying from
coronary artery disease.
|
||||||||||||||||||||||||
 |
 |
|||||||||||||||||||||||
Copyright
2007-2012 © HowToPreventHeartDisease.com . All Rights Reserved.d........ |
||||||||||||||||||||||||
