Health …
I
f you’re a woman, you might not experience the acute chest pain normally associated with
a heart attack. “Getting immediate, appropriate care from your closest emergency room is the single most important thing you can do to lessen the damage of a heart attack,” says Dr Paul Timp, a GP at Mediclinic Morningside. But women sometimes experience atypical symptoms – and either ignore the issue or attribute a heart attack to heartburn or anxiety. “Heart attack symptoms may show up in different ways and can depend on a number of factors, such as whether you’re a man or a woman, what type of heart disease
WHY WOMEN MIGHT NOT KNOW THEY’RE HAVING A HEART ATTACK emergency in which the supply of
HOW DO YOU KNOW (FOR SURE) IF YOU’VE HAD A HEART ATTACK?
blood to the heart becomes blocked,
Once you’re in the emergency
often as the result of a blood clot.
room at the hospital, doctors
Other terms used for a heart attack
will run an electrocardiogram
include myocardial infarction,
(ECG). This test records the
cardiac infarction, and coronary
electrical activity of your heart
thrombosis. An infarction is when
via electrodes attached to
the blood supply to an area is cut
your skin. Because an injured
stroke, Dr Timp recommends
off, and the tissue in that area dies.
heart muscle doesn’t conduct
an annual fasting lipogram to
A heart attack is often confused
electrical impulses normally,
you have and how old you are,” Dr Timp adds. According to the Heart and Stroke Foundation South Africa, in some cases, mostly women or people with diabetes, a heart attack can occur without any of the classic Hollywood chest pain. If you are over 40 or have a family history of heart attack or
WHAT IS A HEART ATTACK? A heart attack is a medical
the ECG may show that a heart
measure the exact amount of
with cardiac arrest. While they
different types of cholesterol (and
are both medical emergencies, a
not just the total amount) you
heart attack is the blockage of an
have. A lipogram measures your
artery leading to the heart, and a
total cholesterol, high-density
cardiac arrest involves the heart
heart proteins leak into your
lipoprotein (HDL), low-density
stopping the pumping of blood
blood after a heart attack, a
lipoprotein (LDL) and triglyceride
around the body. Although a heart
blood test will determine the
levels. In general, high levels of
attack can lead to cardiac arrest,
presence of these enzymes. •
HDL and low levels of LDL help
not everyone who suffers a heart
reduce the risk of heart disease.
attack will experience cardiac arrest or need CPR.
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attack has occurred or is in progress. In addition, because certain
This article first appeared on www.mediclinicinfohub.co.za
