Is Diarrhea A Symptom Of Heart Attack
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Heart Disease And The Digestive System
Heart disease is still the leading cause of death in seniors, and a number of studies have shown that theres a strong correlation between the health of your heart and the health of your digestive system. That means that even though we often focus on heart health, its just as important that you know how to take care of your digestive system if you want to optimize your overall well-being.
When Should I See My Doctor
If calling triple zero does not work on your mobile, try calling 112. Early treatment could save a life.
See your doctor regularly to manage your general health, test for heart disease risk factors and help you take steps to prevent a heart attack.
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Are There Complications Of A Heart Attack
Complications following a heart attack can include:
- Arrhythmia your heart may develop an irregular heartbeat following a heart attack due to damaged heart muscles disrupting electrical signals.
- Heart failure your heart may have ongoing difficulty pumping enough blood, due to its muscles being too weak or stiff.
- Cardiogenic shock where your whole body goes into shock from extensive heart muscle damage.
- Heart rupture this is a rare but serious complication in which the hearts muscles, walls or valves split apart.
These can be dangerous if untreated, but your healthcare team will help to manage them if they occur.
What Is A Heart Attack
To work properly, your heart needs a continuous supply of oxygen-rich blood. It normally receives this from blood vessels called coronary arteries. When a coronary artery suddenly becomes completely blocked, oxygen cant get to your heart muscle which causes a heart attack .
Heart attack is a medical emergency: without oxygen, the muscle begins to die and your heart can become permanently damaged.
Heart attacks can be fatal every day, 21 Australians die from heart attack. One patient is admitted to hospital due to heart attack every 9 minutes.
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You Feel Dizzy Or Lightheaded
A lot of things can make you lose your balance or feel faint for a moment. Maybe you didnât have enough to eat or drink, or you stood up too fast.
But if you suddenly feel unsteady and you also have chest discomfort or shortness of breath, call a doctor right away.
“It could mean your blood pressure has dropped because your heart isn’t able to pump the way it should,” Bufalino says.
Cardiac Arrest Vs Heart Attack
Sometimes there is confusion between the terms “cardiac arrest” and “heart attack.” A heart attack, or myocardial infarction, is damage to the heart muscle that occurs due to reduced blood flow to the heart muscle, depriving the heart muscle of the oxygen it needs to function properly.
Cardiac arrest means that the heart stops beating and death is imminent. A heart attack, if severe, can lead to cardiac arrest, and this is what occurs when a heart attack is fatal. However, other conditions, such as serious arrhythmias or shock, can also cause cardiac arrest.
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Indigestion Nausea And Vomiting
Often people begin experiencing mild indigestion and other gastrointestinal problems before a heart attack. Because heart attacks usually occur in older people who typically have more indigestion problems, these symptoms can get dismissed as heartburn or another food-related complication.
If you normally have an iron stomach, indigestion or heartburn could be a signal that something else is going on.
What Is Heart Disease
Heart disease is a term that describes a group of medical conditions involving disease of the heart or blood vessels. The Mayo Clinic identifies the following conditions as heart disease:
- coronary artery disease
- arrhythmia, such as atrial fibrillation
- congenital heart defects
Other diseases of the heart include:
- heart infections
- cardiomegaly
- cardiomyopathy
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What Are The Symptoms Of Different Types Of Heart Disease
Chest pain from the heart muscle because it doesnt have adequate oxygen and nutrient-rich arterial blood flow, also called angina, is a common symptom of heart disease. Angina causes you to feel discomfort in your chest. Some people experience tightness or a squeezing sensation around their breastbone. The pain may radiate to the neck, down the shoulder and arms or upper abdomen, or into the upper back.
If youre very tired or have difficulty catching your breath after minor exertion, you may have symptoms of heart disease. These symptoms typically ease with rest.
Women often experience different symptoms than men. For example, women may have:
- lightheadedness
- fainting episodes
Women may not recognize the symptoms of heart disease. This is because their symptoms may also occur with other illnesses. Women also tend to have other risk factors, such as depression, stress, and menopause.
When To Go To The Hospital
It cannot be stressed enough that any type of chest pain or discomfort with or without other possible symptoms of a heart attack should be treated as a medical emergency. The same goes for milder symptoms that don’t seem to have another cause or that seem odd or bring on a feeling of panic or anxiety.
Always listen to your intuition about any symptoms you may be feeling and head straight to the emergency department of the closest hospital, or call 911.
Anyone who has one or more risk factors for CAD needs to pay close attention to any sudden, unusual or unexplained symptoms involving the upper half of the body.
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Surprising Heart Attack Symptoms Women Should Never Ignore
01/29/2019
Heart disease remains the number-one cause of death for women, according to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention . In fact, according to a 2017 study conducted by the University of Leeds and the Karolinska Institute in Sweden and published in the Journal of the American Heart Association , women are much more likely to die following a heart attack than men are. The reason? Women are more likely to dismiss their symptoms or wait too long to report them.
Why do female heart attack symptoms so often get disregarded? Well, for one, they aren’t as easy to recognize. Heart attack symptoms in a woman can look and feel very different from the better-known symptoms that tend to affect men. In contrast to the big, loud physical indicators in males, female heart attack symptoms tend to be more nuanced and manifest in concert. That is why women should never ignore these unusual symptoms, especially if they experience more than one at the same time:
Other Upper Body Pain And Discomfort
Pain the one or both arms may begin as a tingling and progress to severe pain. You may also be aware of a pain in the neck on either or both sides and possibly jaw pain. More women than men report experiencing pain in the jaw and teeth.
Stomach discomfort, indigestion, nausea, and even diarrhea often are present before a heart attack, especially in women. Because stomach problems can be attributed to many other causes, they often go unnoticed until it is too late. You may experience a severe ache in the upper back and not feel any pain in the chest prior to a heart attack. Mayo Clinic cardiologists report that while men feel pain in their left arm prior to a heart attack, women may feel it in one or both arms at the same time.
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What You Should Do During A Heart Attack
If you think you are having a heart attack, you or someone nearby should call emergency services immediately. Its unsafe to drive yourself to the hospital during a heart attack, so call an ambulance. While you may feel awake and alert enough to drive, the chest pain could get so severe that you may have trouble breathing or difficulty thinking clearly.
How Are Heart Attacks Diagnosed
If you think you might be having a heart attack, you need to head to a hospital straight away. There, a doctor will assess your symptoms and check your vital signs blood pressure, pulse and temperature.
There are several tests that help indicate if youve had a heart attack, and whether damage was caused, such as:
- electrocardiogram electrical leads are placed on your chest, arms and legs to record the electrical signals travelling through your heart muscle
- CT scan or MRI scan
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Heart Failure Signs And Symptoms
By themselves, any one sign of heart failure may not be cause for alarm. But if you have more than one of these symptoms, even if you haven’t been diagnosed with any heart problems, report them to a healthcare professional and ask for an evaluation of your heart. Congestive heart failure is a type of heart failure which requires seeking timely medical attention, although sometimes the two terms are used interchangeably.
This table lists the most common signs and symptoms, explains why they occur and describes how to recognize them.
Medications For Heart Failure
Certain medications can help treat heart failure and its underlying cause:
- Aldosterone blockers block the effects of the hormone aldosterone, encouraging the body to release sodium and water. They also help prevent scarring in the heart.
- Angiotensin receptor-neprilysin inhibitor : Treatment with sacubitril-valsartan reduces excess fluid in the body and relaxes blood vessels. This makes it easier for your heart to pump blood. Alternatives to ARNIs include angiotensin-converting enzyme inhibitors andangiotensin receptor blockers .
- Beta blockers make the heart beat more slowly and with less force. They also help keep heart rhythm regular.
- Sodium-glucose transport protein 2 inhibitors are diabetes drugs that have recently been found to be very beneficial in heart failure. They help remove glucose via the kidneys into the urine.
Other medications can relieve the heart failure symptoms:
- Diuretics reduce the amount of fluid in the body.
- Vasodilators dilate the blood vessels and reduce the hearts workload.
- Digoxin helps the heart beat stronger with a more regular rhythm.
- Anti-arrhythmics control arrhythmia and maintain normal heart rhythm.
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Is A Cardiac Arrest The Same Thing As A Heart Attack
A cardiac arrest and a heart attack are both medical emergencies. However, they are not the same thing, and sometimes a heart attack can progress into a cardiac arrest.
During a cardiac arrest, the electrical system that controls your heart rate and rhythm stops working, and the heart stops beating.
When someone has a cardiac arrest, they experience different symptoms and receive different treatments to someone who has a heart attack.
Someone having a cardiac arrest will collapse and have no pulse. They may not breathe properly, or maybe not at all, and they will lose consciousness.
If someone has a cardiac arrest, they need help immediately. Call 000 for an ambulance. While waiting for the ambulance to arrive, begin chest compressions , or use a device called a defibrillator, if available. Once the person gets to hospital, a medical team will treat them.
How Do I Know If My Diarrhea Is Serious
It can be difficult to know when your diarrhea is bad enough that you should make an appointment to see me. Generally speaking, you should make an appointment if:
- you have a high fever for more than a day
- you are passing blood in your stool
- you are dehydrated
- you have severe stomach/abdominal pain
- you have had frequent diarrhea for more than 48 hours
- you have an underlying health condition such as diabetes, heart disease or other serious illness
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Heart Attack Warning: The Sign In Your Stomach That May Signal Your Risk Of The Condition
A heart attack can present symptoms days before a big attack. Whats the sign in the stomach that could indicate you are at risk of the condition taking place?
The British Heart Foundation states: Discomfort or pain in the stomach area can be experienced before and during a heart attack.
The charity compares the sensation to indigestion medically known as dyspepsia.
According to the NHS, indigestion can cause somebody to feel sick.
What Causes Heart Attacks
The most common cause of a heart attack is coronary heart disease. This is where fatty deposits, cholesterol and other substances build up in the walls of the coronary arteries that supply oxygen to the heart. Over time, this build-up hardens into plaque that can break off at any time and cause a blood clot which blocks the artery.
In some cases, heart attacks have another cause:
- Coronary artery spasm is an unusual narrowing of blood vessels that can stop blood flow to the heart.
- Spontaneous coronary artery dissection is a sudden tear in the wall of a coronary artery, which can also affect people who have few risk factors for heart disease.
Certain lifestyle factors are shown to increase your chances of heart disease and having a heart attack.
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Nausea Indigestion Heartburn Or Stomach Pain
Some people have these symptoms during a heart attack. They may even vomit, Chambers says.
Women are more likely to report this type of symptom than men are.
Of course, you can have an upset stomach for many reasons that have nothing to do with your heart. It could just be something you ate, after all. But you need to be aware that it can also happen during a heart attack.
So if you feel this way and youâre at risk for heart problems, let a doctor find out whatâs going on, especially if you also have any of the other symptoms on this list.
Risk Factors Contributing To A Heart Attack
There are a number of risk factors that research has shown can be attributed to the increased incidence of heart attacks, which are the leading cause of death for both men and women. Reducing some of these risks in your life can reduce your chances of having a heart attack.
Some factors such as family history and previous heart attacks have a significant impact on developing heart problems that can lead to a heart attack. It is important to reveal anything that might have an impact on your chances of developing a heart problem that could lead to a heart attack.
Some other significant risk factors include the following:
- Having high blood pressure.
- Excessively high cholesterol levels.
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You Get Exhausted Easily
If you suddenly feel fatigued or winded after doing something you had no problem doing in the past — like climbing the stairs or carrying groceries from the car — make an appointment with your doctor right away.
“These types of significant changes are more important to us than every little ache and pain you might be feeling,” Bufalino says.
Extreme exhaustion or unexplained weakness, sometimes for days at a time, can be a symptom of heart disease, especially for women.
Never Ignore These 11 Heart Symptoms
If something went wrong with your heart, would you know it?
Not all heart problems come with clear warning signs. There is not always an alarming chest clutch followed by a fall to the floor like you see in movies. Some heart symptoms donât even happen in your chest, and itâs not always easy to tell whatâs going on.
“If you’re not sure, get it checked out,” says Charles Chambers, MD, director of the Cardiac Catheterization Laboratory at Penn State Hershey Heart and Vascular Institute.
Thatâs especially true if you are 60 or older, are overweight, or have diabetes, high cholesterol, or high blood pressure, says Vincent Bufalino, MD, an American Heart Association spokesman. “The more risk factors you have,” he says, “the more you should be concerned about anything that might be heart-related.”
Especially watch out for these problems:
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Surgery For Heart Failure
Your doctor may recommend surgery to implant a medical device that helps the heart function more effectively:
- Pacemaker, which maintains a steady heart beat in people with a slow or irregular heartbeat
- Implantable cardioverter defibrillator , which monitors the heart for fast rhythm and delivers an electrical shock to reset normal rhythm
- Left ventricular assist device , which takes over the pumping action of the heart
People with advanced heart failure may be candidates for heart transplantation. A heart transplant replaces the diseased heart with a donated heart from a person who has died.
Little To No Chest Pain
Chest pain is the most common heart attack or pre-heart attack symptom in both women and men. However, for men, the pain is often localized to their left side and the most prominent and severe symptom of a heart attack. Chest pain in a woman can be a subtler signal thats less easy to interpret.
Women might experience chest pain from a heart attack as a fullness or a vice-like squeezing throughout the chest. It also is often not the most prominent symptom, so women should be mindful of the suite of other symptoms that manifest at the same time, with the big one being
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