OUR HEALTH SHOULD ALWAYS COMES FIRST
Honestly I am a bit worried about my health lately that is why I decided to write about health and most specifically about illnesses that involve the heart, how to avoid it, and the first aid, things to do in case of an emergency like during instances of mild heart attack or stroke.
According to the World Health Organization, heart disease topped the global risk of mortality followed by tobacco use, high blood glucose, physical inactivity, and obesity.
This is the reason why I am inspired to tackle heart problem as it is the number one cause of death not only in the Philippines but around the world. In that way, we will be able to learn things about it, how to deal with it, how to avoid it and how to help others who would be affected by such common disease.
The importance of knowing the signs and symptoms of a heart attack is that we can act fast, and we should bear in mind that the chances of survival is higher when emergency treatment begins quickly.
Since I am not an expert or doesn’t belong to the medical world, although I am a frustrated doctor and I work in a Pharmacy for more than 6 years before so at least I am a bit familiar with medicines and a little about first aid, but still I need to research in order to share relevant things on here that would be helpful for everyone.
If it’s not for us directly, it could be helpful to people around us especially those who are already in their prime time who is the one most vulnerable with a mild heart attack or stroke.
Although I cannot say that younger ones are 100% exempted, or free from getting this disease but there are indeed possibilities.
I knew some who are in their late 30’s who suffered from a mild heart attack too. So this issue and being knowledgeable about it or at least the basics could be beneficial to everyone.
I was detected to have elevated blood pressure before I went on vacation late November last year and I was prescribed an anti-hypertensive medicine to be taken regularly that means as a maintenance.
And yes I did took that medicine until mid-January this year. And then I stop. The reason was I haven’t had time to pay a visit to the hospital or to my doctor although I am planning.
I don’t know if I’m right, I hope Doc @hafiz34 could advise, since I am not feeling well lately I tried to look for my old meds and found one for antihypertensive so I started to take one tablet this morning. It is like taking medicine without prescription although it was prescribed to me before.
Anyway, I would like to start with first aid, what we could do to help people who will experience mild heart attack right in front of us.
In life, there are moments when we are faced with an emergency that requires on-the-spot action. In such situations, it is best to arm ourselves with basic first aid knowledge which, in most cases, can spell the difference between life and death.
Before doing anything, we need to be aware with the basic first aid steps. First is we need to assess if the scene is safe before intervention.
This is important like when you see someone who seem to suffer heart attack but the house where that person located is under fire, so before extending immediate help or first aid you must ensure your safety also.
Next is upon ensuring that the area is safe, that’s the time you will intervene. The very first thing to do is to stabilize the patient’s position while calling for help.
Although if you know what to do, you can perform first aid with utmost care, for whatever you will do could jeopardize the safety of the patient, I mean the patient’s survival will be within your hands.
Lastly and the most important basic thing to do is not to do harm, I mean if you don’t have any idea on what to do, the best thing to do is to keep calling for help.
WHAT TO DO WHEN SOMEONE EXPERIENCE HEART ATTACK
The first thing to do is to ask someone to call for help immediately, or call the emergency hotline.
Now, this may be a bit technical that needs an expert but can be done while waiting for the certified rescue/emergency team.
To check if the patient is still breathing, if yes then you should place him or her in a recovery position.
If the person is not breathing, you should perform CPR.
How to do CPR?
I know my co-#steemit achievers @deeday31 and @meetmysuperego knows how to perform CPR very well being a registered nurse by profession, but I will just share here the basic.
Here's the simple instruction on how to do it, it may look simple but doing it may save life.
- Place the palm of your hand flat on the patient’s chest just over the lower part of the breast bone.
- Use the heel of your other hand to perform a pumping motion.
- In between compressions, you have to give two breaths into the person’s mouth.
- Pinch the patient’s nose and blow into his/her mouth steadily.
Now before going into the symptoms and the causes of heart attack, let me share to you the basics about Heart disease, the number cause of death in the world.
What is Heart Disease?
According to Mayo Clinic, Heart disease describes a range of conditions that affect your heart. This include blood vessel diseases, such as coronary artery disease; heart rhythm problems (arrhythmias); and heart defects you're born with (congenital heart defects), among others. These conditions involved narrowed or clogged blood vessels, which can lead to a heart attack or stroke - Source
Here’s few of the symptoms of heart attack such that if we observe those we should seek professional assistance immediately.
A. Chest Pain
If you feel prolonged pain or a certain pressure in your chest, it’s is advisable to call emergency right away. Although if the pain last only for seconds, it may not be a symptom, but since we really don’t know if the pain that we felt is associated with heart attack or not, it’s better to consult our doctor and be given medical advice.
Prevention is better than cure. Let us not wait for what we felt to become complicated, any unusual feeling we have with regards to our health we should find time to visit a doctor.
I remember one colleague of mine who happened to be a steemian too, who suffered mild heart attack few months ago.
We were there but I was so confused and a bit afraid, don’t really know what to do. I had a lot of things in mind, like he might be suffering from hyperacidity because he also vomit. I didn’t suspect it’s his heart that has a problem during that time since he is an active person who do regularly exercise and play tennis almost every week.
So when we brought him to the hospital, that’s the time we know that he indeed had a mild heart attack and need to stay in the ICU.
The good thing was he was able to triumph it all, thanks God he survived.
B. Shortness of breath or breathlessness
Another symptom of heart attack is breathlessness or experts call it dyspnea, this is a common indica a or of heart attack.
When the heart fails to pump blood through the body regularly or normally, short of breath happens. During this time, there will be a problem with the supply of oxygen and nutrients to all other organs in the body, thus complications are deemed to happen if not being treated immediately.
C. Other signs or symptoms include:
• Numbness in your legs or arms, pain in the neck which I used to feel lately although when I consult the doctor about it, the pain is not because of heart disease but due to arthritis in my neck part though didn’t really understand her explanation well. I was wondering since my Uric Acid is normal also.
• Intense sweating or exhaustion, the feeling of being tired always may be a sign that your heart is not functioning well and that you should consult your doctor immediately.
• Pain in the back maybe a sign so with pain in the upper abdomen.
So those are the basic sign and symptoms that we should not take for granted, and be responsible to do the right thing if experienced.
Another important thing that I learned from my research and would really want to share here to you is that if your pain comes and go this is usually a sign of something more serious and when you experience a “traveling” type of pain, you better pay a quick visit to your doctor.
Heart attack can occur in young people. So no matter what your age, you should not neglect the warning signs of heart attack.
Medication
There are numerous drugs and surgeries that are used to treat heart ailments, and these include Aspirin. Aspirin will help reduces blood clotting thereby helps maintain blood flow. My colleague who survived a mild heart attack is now taking aspirin every day for life.
Lastly I would suggest that we should bring with us aspirin at all times just in case we need it, at least the time spent to go to the drug store to buy and coming back would be saved.
Please check some essential facts about cardiovascular health below:
Source
Be well everyone!
To vote his witness, simply visit https://steemit.com/~witnesses and type in "steemgigs" into the first search box for witnesses or simply click Here to do it on one click!
Fantastic work fro you,i had to read from beginning to the end,you are blessed
Thank you for reading we need to know those basics in order for us to stay away from trouble, I mean if we know what to do things could be better.
I totally agree with you,thank you for such an amazing work,you might be saving a life.
Amping dha sir...inom na daan tablets
Thank you jean later this week papaheck up na ulit ako.
We need exercise and proper diet for our great health. I guess this is the best way I can help my self for those health problem even we are in fatigue on our everyday work, half hour daily is not enough for daily routine excesses but it will help us a lot.
I will do my best to do exercise, perhaps a 30min-1hour brisk walk every other day...
A well informed post, no doubt.
Suddenly stopping anti-hypertensive medications without any indication is really really bad practice and it might be harmful to the patient. I have few patients who have made those like pain-killers. They somehow came to know that HTN might present with headache or disturbed sleep. So whenever they have a headache or insomnia, they are taking a pressure tablet!!!!!! when symptoms are gone, not taking any medicine. Not even checking the pressure!!
By the way, when you are taking a pressure medicine and afterward the pressure is well controlled, it means that your body is controlling the pressure with the help of the medicine. Well controlled pressure with a medicine means you have to continue in the same way, it doesn't mean that you can stop the medicine. If you stop it suddenly, there might be "rebound hypertension", which is worse than previous hypertension. Your body may fail to cope the sudden rise of blood pressure and leads to accidents like stroke or heart attack.
So, if you are not feeling well, without any further delay, see a doctor.
Oh my God thank you very much for this clarification Doc @hafiz34, I know I've done wrong with managing my medications yes I will schedule a visit to my doctor shortly.
I really thought that if my BP is at normal level I don't need the med anymore now I will do my best to take and maintain taking anti-hypertensive medicine.
Thanks again!
Sometimes, blood pressure might go up for some temporary causes like excessive stress or exertion and in those cases drugs (if needed initially to control the Blood pressure) can be stopped after normalization of blood pressure. But you must check several times your blood pressure after stopping the medicine. If blood pressure again rise after stopping the drug, you have to start again and better to continue with lowest possible dose. But if the blood pressure is due to recognizable risk factor (like high blood cholesterol) you must not stop the medicine after normalization of blood pressure as the drug is playing a major part in controlling it. Without it body may fail to keep it under control.