Survive Heart Attack: When Alone

A heart attack occurs when the supply of blood and oxygen to an area of heart muscle is blocked, usually by a clot in a coronary artery. If treatment is not started quickly, the affected area of heart muscle begins to die. This injury to the heart muscle can lead to serious complications, and can even be fatal. Sudden death from heart attack is most often due to an arrhythmia (irregular heartbeat or rhythm) called ventricular fibrillation.

Effective treatments for heart attack are available that can decrease the chances of sudden death and long-term complications. To be most effective, these treatments must be given fast within 1 hour of the start of heart attack symptoms. The symptom is suddenly you start experiencing severe pain in your chest that starts to radiate out into your arm and up into your jaw. Acting fast can save your life and limit damage to your heart. How to survive a heart attack when alone? Since many people are alone when they suffer a heart attack, without help, the person whose heart is beating improperly and who begins to feel faint, has only about 10 seconds left before losing conscious in such condition do not panic, but start coughing repeatedly and very vigorously. A deep breath should be taken before each cough; the cough must be deep and prolonged, as when producing sputum from deep inside the chest. Breath and a cough must be repeated about every two seconds without let-up until help arrives, or until the heart is felt to be beating normally again.

Breaths get oxygen into the lungs and coughing movements squeeze the heart and keep the blood circulating. The squeezing pressure on the heart also helps it regain normal rhythm. In this way, heart attack victims can get to a hospital.

In most cases, there are no clear reasons why heart attacks occur when they do. However, sometimes your body releases adrenaline and other hormones into the bloodstream in response to intense emotions such as anger, fear, and the "fight or flight" impulse. Heavy physical exercise, emotional stress, lack of sleep, and overeating can also trigger this response. Adrenaline increases blood pressure and heart rate and can cause coronary arteries to constrict, which may cause an unstable plaque to rupture. Cocaine and nicotine, which is found in tobacco products, can cause similar responses.

Don't ever think that you are not prone to heart attack as your age is less than 25 or 30. Nowadays due to the change in the life style, heart attack is found among people of all age groups.