Heart Attack

Diagnosis

Your doctor may perform several tests to determine if you are having a heart attack. If you are having chest pains, your doctor will perform an electrocardiogram (ECG). This test keeps track of the electrical activity in your heartbeat, and will alert your doctor of specific changes that occur only when you experience a heart attack. You health professional may also do a blood test that measures certain cardiac enzymes (released by dying heart cells) that are detectable a few hours after a heart attack occurs. The levels of these enzymes (known as cardiac markers) can help your doctor determine if a heart attack is present (if the ECG did not already do this). Your doctor may order other tests, such as an ultrasound to examine the heart (echocardiogram) or nuclear imaging, if the results of an ECG and other tests do not clearly show whether or not you are having a heart attack. If you have had a heart attack, you may have low blood pressure or an increased heart rate, so your doctor will also listen to your heart and lungs to check for any complications.

Prevention and Screening

Forming good habits early in life is the best way to prevent a heart attack. Control your weight and adopt healthy eating habits. Plaque buildup usually begins in the late teens, meaning all adults have a certain amount of it. It takes a long time for the buildup to develop, which means you have many years to form the kinds of healthy lifestyle habits that will prevent the buildup from becoming heavy.

Avoid red meat, fried foods, high-fat dairy products and high-fat processed foods. Avoid the skin of chicken, and eat eggs only occasionally, as they are both high in cholesterol. Learn to substitute other types of snacks on the run, such as low-fat yogurt and fruit, for greasy fast food. The earlier you adopt good habits, the easier it will be to reach for something healthy when you need a quick bite, as opposed to stopping for a hotdog or a hamburger at lunch when you are in a hurry.

The diet and exercise habits that you form over the long term will have the greatest effect on lowering your risk for heart attack. Your health care professional can help to provide you with a sensible eating and exercise plan

Changing your diet to include more fruits, vegetables, and fish, developing an exercise program, and quitting smoking can decrease your risk of a heart attack. Try to eat two to three servings of fruit and three to five servings of vegetables a day. Eating fish twice a week is also recommended. Losing even 10 to 20 pounds can help cut heart risks if you are overweight. Regular, vigorous exercise can help prevent coronary artery disease, but even moderate routines are helpful and can lower cholesterol, blood pressure, weight and blood sugar levels. If you are a smoker, you can dramatically and quickly lower your risk of suffering from a heart attack by stopping today.

While drinking moderate amounts of alcohol (one drink per day for women and two for men) may lower your coronary heart disease risk, doctors do not recommend that you start drinking or increase the amount of alcohol you normally consume. Studies have shown that people who drink moderate amounts of alcohol have a lower risk of heart disease than nondrinkers; however, too much alcohol can increase blood pressure and cause other problems.

Have your blood pressure and cholesterol levels checked. An easy blood pressure check can alert you to potential problems, and your doctor can order a simple blood test to check your cholesterol levels. If your blood pressure or cholesterol levels are high, you and your doctor can decide on a plan to bring the numbers down to within normal range. Your doctor will want to see blood pressure readings below 135/85 mm Hg. Your levels of “good” cholesterol (HDL) and your levels of “bad” cholesterol (LDL) are important to consider, in addition to your total cholesterol level, which doctors recommend to be less than 200 mg/DL.