SolveYourProblem Article Series: Heart Health
I Want A Healthy Heart!

What Are The Effects Of A Heart Attack?

Let’s say you ignore all of the advice, and you continue smoking, overeating, and not getting enough exercise. What may happen to you if you do have a heart attack?

For one thing, many people just don’t survive a heart attack. Only people who get prompt medical attention have a good chance of surviving a heart attack, and a lot of people just don’t recognize the symptoms in time to get help.

If you do survive a heart attack, your life will probably never be the same. You may feel very fatigued for quite awhile after your heart attack. It can cause damage to the heart that might make it hard for you to breathe or perform your normal daily activities well. If the heart attack is rather prolonged, it might even cause damage to the brain if it can’t get enough oxygen.

Once someone has a heart attack, his or her chance of having another heart attack is increased significantly. The risk of death increases with each subsequent heart attack, because the heart is damaged further with each one.

The best thing you can do is to prevent yourself from ever having a heart attack in the first place. Once you develop serious heart disease, it may be very difficult to prevent it from progressing. It’s much better to keep yourself from developing heart disease than to try to keep it from getting worse later.

Surprising Facts: Children and Heart Attacks

It was once thought that heart attacks generally only occurred in people over age 40, but we’re learning that isn’t always true. Recent news stories have revealed the prevalence of heart attacks in children as young as 12 years old may be on the rise.

Heart attacks in children are still extremely rare, but it can occur in children with problems such as Kawasaki’s disease, cardiac trauma, and congenital heart defects. It may also happen if there’s a viral infection in the heart, or if a tooth infection spreads.

Fortunately, the risk of a child having a heart attack is still quite low unless a congenital abnormality exists. But with high cholesterol, diabetes, and high blood pressure on the rise in children, their risk of heart attack could be rising along with it.

What Should I Be Doing?

Preventing heart attacks is definitely preferable to trying to treat heart disease that’s already developed. You should be doing everything you can to prevent yourself from developing cardiovascular disease in the first place.

If you have existing issues such as family history, high blood pressure, or congenital heart defects, then you need to be especially concerned. It’s never too early to start caring for your heart, and to start your children on the road to long-term heart health.

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SolveYourProblem.com : 2008

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