Sudden Heart Attack - Gradual Healing and Prevention

Heart disease is the number one killer in the United States. Nearly 1 million people have a heart attack each year and about half of them will die. Most of the deaths are caused by people not realizing that they are having a heart attack. When most people think of a heart attack they think of the Hollywood version, where someone suddenly clutches their chest and falls to the floor. Everyone scurries about, knowing that it is a heart attack. Some heart attacks do happen that way. This is known as a sudden heart attack. More often though, a heart attack happens more slowly with pain building over the course of several hours, and not necessarily starting in the chest.

Sudden heart attack is usually the result of a small piece of plaque breaking off and forming a blockage, which results in muscle death within the heart. This sudden onset can be the result of a stressful event, an impact or just simply bad timing. There is no defining incident that causes the blockage to occur, it just does. This type of heart attack is not always easily predicted, as the piece of plaque that causes the cardiac arrest can be so small as to have gone undetected through a whole battery of tests.

In stark comparison to a sudden heart attack, most heart attacks begin with a slow, dull pain in the chest that may come and go in waves. The pain may persist for a long period of time and be accompanied by other symptoms such as shortness of breath, nausea and cold sweats. The real danger is in the fact that most people that are having a heart attack do not realize that is what is happening. Heart attack symptoms are often written off as just being really bad heart burn or indigestion. Unfortunately, this delay in seeking treatment is what often causes people their lives.

Regardless of whether it is a sudden heart attack or a slow heart attack, the reality is that a heart attack is a serious condition. The key to surviving a heart attack is to early detection and treatment. Everyone should visit a doctor and have their risk assessed. In order to lower your risk of heart attack you should attempt to maintain a healthy weight and eat a healthy, well balanced diet. It can be the difference between a heart attack for you and heart ache for your loved ones.

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