What to expect from a heart attack

A heart attack is life-threatening and can be a frightening experience. Dr Smriti Saraf, consultant cardiologist, provides essential information and advice about what can happen, what to do and ways to lessen the risk.

What happens when you have a heart attack?

A heart attack occurs when a blood clot blocks one or more of your heart arteries, resulting in reduced blood flow to the heart muscle, resulting in damage. The damage can be permanent or reversible, depending on how timely you call for help and receive treatment.

Does chest pain occur when you have a heart attack?

The symptoms of a heart attack vary. You may feel tightness, heaviness or pain in your chest. This may spread to your arms, neck, jaw, back or stomach. For some people, the pain or tightness is severe, while other people just feel a discomfort in the chest. Some diabetic people may not experience any pain at all due to nerve dysfunction.

What other symptoms occur in a heart attack?

Chest pain is the most common symptom, and you may also become sweaty, feel light-headed or dizzy, or experience shortness of breath. Other heart-attack symptoms can be vomiting or feeling nauseous. Some patients can also blackout during a massive heart attack.

Why could a heart attack happen to me?

Most heart attacks are caused by blockage of the heart arteries. Coronary artery disease (CAD) is when your coronary arteries (the arteries that supply your heart muscle with oxygen-rich blood) become narrowed by a gradual build-up of fatty material within their walls.

The most common risk factors that increase your risk of a heart attack are diabetes, high blood pressure, being overweight and having high cholesterol levels. Regular exercise and healthy dietary habits can lower your risk of heart attack, by keeping your heart healthy, and free of fatty plaques.

If I have heart attack, what should I do?

If you suspect you’re having a heart attack, call for help immediately. Call 999, and take aspirin 300 mg straight away. Aspirin helps in thinning your blood and dissolving the blood clot, and can significantly reduce the risk of death by upto 25%.

Make sure you know the signs and symptoms of a heart attack and don't delay getting help. Time is muscle. Only around half of heart-attack survivors have acknowledged seeking medical help in a timely manner.

What are the long-term effects of a heart attack?

A heart attack does not always cause permanent damage to your heart muscle. The damage can be reversible if the blockage is unblocked by a procedure called primary angioplasty in a timely manner. The faster this treatment is provided, the more muscle it is possible to save.
 

If a heart attack damages a significant amount of your heart muscle, this can affect your heart's pumping action and make you breathless and cause fluid accumulation in the legs and lungs. The term used to describe this is heart failure. Medications are available to help relieve these symptoms , but this can take time and have an effect on your quality of life.  

How to reduce the risk of a heart attack

A healthy lifestyle, which includes a balanced diet and taking regular exercise, can prevent you from developing coronary heart disease and having a heart attack.

If you have had a heart attack you can significantly lessen the risk of having another one and future heart problems too, by keeping your heart healthy and taking your medication regularly.

If you're over 40 you should speak to your doctor or nurse about undergoing a heart-health check to assess your risk of having a heart attack in the next 10 years.

What else could my chest pain be?

Chest pain may not always occur because of a heart attack. It could also be due to indigestion or gastroesophageal reflux, musculoskeletal pain, blood clot in the lungs also called pulmonary embolism or inflammation of the lining of the heart ( pericarditis) or heart muscle (myocarditis).

Learn more about how Dr Saraf can assist you regarding your heart-health concerns by getting in touch here.