MYOCARDIAL INFARCTION: CAUSES, SYMPTOMS, REHABILITATION
Like a stroke, myocardial infarction is a serious, dangerous and common disease. Despite the fact that the death rate from a heart attack is about 5 times lower: 10-12% of the sick against 60% of those with stroke.
At least because, the process of recovery after a heart attack is long, serious and not always 100% successful. Thus, in 2014, only 8% of stroke patients were able to recover and not receive disability. In 2015, this figure, according to the Ministry of health, rose to 60%.
But the question remains open. After all, the remaining 40% also want to fully restore performance and feel the same ease in the performance of everyday Affairs. How can this be achieved?
About rehabilitation, as well as the causes and symptoms of myocardial infarction will talk in today’s article.
Infarction. What is it?
An infarction is the death of an organ as a result of insufficient blood supply. Due to oxygen starvation in the body dies area of living tissues, whereby the body loses a certain area of tissue and perform this area function.
The most famous type of infarction is myocardial infarction. This is the defeat of the heart muscle caused by an acute violation of its blood supply. The cause of the disorder may be atherosclerotic (cholesterol) plaque or, in rare cases, prolonged spasm of the coronary arteries.
In addition to myocardial infarction, there are also white and red infarcts. Red, or hemorrhagic, infarct occurs when the arteries and sometimes veins are blocked. It occurs in the lungs, intestines, ovaries, brain.
White (ischemic) infarct occurs as a result of the complete cessation of the flow of arterial blood in the organs. It occurs in the spleen, liver, brain.
Causes of myocardial infarction.
The main cause of myocardial infarction (in 95-97% of cases) is called atherosclerosis, or simply put, cholesterol plaques that appear in our vessels. But this problem is faced by most Russians, as not all of us are able to deny ourselves a delicious, but excessively fatty foods. Despite the prevalence of the problem, myocardial infarction does not occur in all people who have faced atherosclerosis. The defeat of the heart muscle can provoke a number of factors.
Some of them we cannot influence. For example on:
- Gender – men are much more likely to have a infarcts than women;
- Age – after 50 the risk of heart attack in women increases;
- Heredity – the prerequisites may be coronary artery disease, infarcts, stroke in one of the close relatives: parents, grandparents, brothers, sisters. Especially the probability of occurrence of a infarct if the diseases occurred to them to 55 years.
Some of the causes of myocardial infarction can be affected if we change our habits and lifestyle. Such as:
- increased blood cholesterol – more than 5 mmol/l or more than 200 mg/DL;
- smoking;
- excess body weight;
- sedentary lifestyle;
- increased blood pressure.(more than 140/90 mm Hg.art. at any age);
- frequent stress;
- use of alcohol;
How to prevent infarct?
Knowing the list of reasons why infarct may occur, it is easy to assume that you need to do in order to avoid it. To act in fact need the opposite: to quit, to follow the diet, not abusing alcohol, etc.
No. 1. Adhere to proper nutrition.
To preserve the health of the cardiovascular system and prevent the development of various diseases, give up fatty and harmful foods and switch to a balanced diet.
In it, add a large amount of fruits and vegetables, whole grain bread, products from durum wheat, lean meat, cereals, fish and legumes. Limit your intake of salt, sugar and fat. Also give up alcohol.
It is especially important to follow these recommendations after 40-50 years. During this period, the processes in the body slow down and the risk of heart attack and other diseases of the cardiovascular system increases.
No. 2. Physical exercise.
Physical exercise has a positive impact on the condition of both the cardiovascular system and the whole body. It is not necessary to dramatically change your lifestyle and start “running from infarct”, it is enough to walk five or six kilometers a day or 30 minutes to do simple physical exercises.
No. 3. Monitor your blood pressure.
With the years, we are increasingly plagued by headaches and poor health. Often this is due to high blood pressure. To monitor your condition and monitor the pressure, you can buy a tonometer, but to eradicate the problem, you should again think about your lifestyle.
Proper nutrition, giving up smoking and alcohol, daily exercise, breathing exercises or the purchase of a breathing simulator – all this will have a positive impact on your condition and solve the problem with high blood pressure. This means that it will reduce the risk of a heart attack.
No. 4. Give up smoking
Doctors say that tobacco is harmful to the body in any of its varieties: cigarettes, cigars, pipes, hookahs and chewing mixtures. Therefore, if you have heart problems from tobacco should be abandoned in the first place.
It is proved that the risk of infarct or stroke begins to decrease immediately after the cessation of tobacco use, and a year later may decrease by 50%.
No. 5. Monitor your cholesterol and blood sugar levels.
Elevated levels of cholesterol in the blood can lead to the formation of the already mentioned atherosclerotic plaques and in the future cause myocardial infarction. To avoid this, it is important to monitor your diet and several times a year to check cholesterol levels from a doctor. If the result is dangerously high, a specialist will prescribe you special medications and recommend a hypo cholesterol diet.
Increased blood sugar (diabetes) increases the chance of infarcts. Therefore, if you have already experienced diabetes, be sure to monitor blood pressure and blood glucose levels. This will help to avoid problems with the cardiovascular system as a whole.
Symptoms of infarct.
Unfortunately, prevention cannot always completely prevent a heart attack. Under the influence of severe stress, even people with the right way of life are faced with this unpleasant disease. To minimize the consequences, it is important to call an ambulance in time, and for this you need to memorize the symptoms of myocardial infarction:
- Hard pain behind the sternum, can spread to the left arm, shoulder, left half of the neck and interscapulum space;
- suddenly there was a feeling of fear;
- nitroglycerin does not relieve pain in the heart;
- the attack can occur already at rest, for no apparent reason;
- the pain lasts from 15 minutes to several hours.
Rehabilitation after infarct
After discharge from the hospital, it is very important to follow all the doctor’s instructions in terms of nutrition, physical activity and medication. It is important not to give up medicines if you feel better. All pills should be taken until the doctor reviews your treatment.
As strict should be the attitude to exercise and food. It is important not only your approach, but also the approach of the family. Relatives should not protect the patient from physical therapy.
If excessively to spare the patient, then you run the risk to provide him another heart attack. And it occurs in 20-40% of cases, which is not so little. In addition, relatives should support a person after a heart attack in the diet.
Believe me, the rejection of fatty meat, fast food, an abundance of flour and semi-finished products, will have a positive impact not only on the health of the patient, but also on yourself.
Breathing simulator for prevention and rehabilitation
Breathing simulator “Aironic” is suitable for both prevention of heart attack and rehabilitation after it. Regular classes on the device “Aironic” improve the blood supply to the heart.
This is due to the formation of hypercapnia gas mixture in the main part of the simulator, carbon dioxide relieves vascular spasm and thereby improves the cardiovascular system.
With regular training, a system of collaterals is formed around the heart – small blood vessels that provide alternative blood supply and improve the nutrition of the heart muscle.
Thus, training on the simulator “Aironic” will help speed up the recovery processes of the myocardium, normalize blood flow and relieve the load from the coronary vessels of the heart.
“Aironic” stimulates the processes of self-healing of the body, which accelerates the rehabilitation process, and increases the stability of the heart muscle, reducing the risk of recurrent stroke. You can start training on the simulator in 3 months after a stroke. The effect of training will be noticeable in 3-4 months.
In order to avoid stroke and infarct, you do not need to do anything supernatural. The key to success in proper nutrition, no bad habits and physical activity.
Follow a few of these rules, do not forget to visit a doctor regularly, and you will significantly reduce the risk of these terrible diseases.
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