Predicting your chances of developing heart attack

A diet rich in fat is not good for the heart.Many things can prevent proper blood supply to the heart muscles as well as cause it to fail in pumping adequate blood to the body organs. However, taking steps to assess the chances of your heart failing, can save you from dying at a tender age, reports Sade Oguntola.

Heart attack can lead to heart failure but in itself, it is a term that refers to when there is an obstruction to the blood supply to the heart. Aside from the heart pumping blood to the body, it supplies itself with blood. When it does not supply itself with blood or the supply becomes obstructed, heart attack happens.

Speaking with Dr. Wole Adebiyi, a heart expert at the University College Hospital (UCH), Ibadan, he said, just as blood flows into the heart because it is a living tissue, it also needs blood for its own survival. However, any obstruction in the blood flow to the heart muscles itself could lead to heart attack. This starts gradually.

In his explanation, a blood vessel can gradually start to be choked up, causing what is called arthelocolsosis and over time, the problem becomes complicated because the affected blood vessel, the artery, also becomes dead. This is what causes heart attack.

According to him, usually the signs and symptoms of heart attack are seen later on and by then it would have progressed to a critical level, adding that, “Heart attack is a gradual thing that may start from the age of 20 upward because the inner layer of blood vessels starts developing fat deposit.”

“The fats are deposited in them for several reasons, including hypertension, high cholesterol in the blood, diabetes, smoking, sedentary lifestyle, family history and wrong diets. While smoking is a major reason some develop this problem, some cases of blood pressure, cholesterol level in the blood and obesity however have their root in diet.

In his explanation, “Obesity increases the chances of developing diabetes as well as having a high cholesterol level . Both of them have direct influence on the other risk factors such as smoking, sedentary lifestyle and family history. The more the risk factors you combine, the more the risk of having heart attack.”

Even though being a man and age may make more men develop heart attack than women, Dr. Adebiyi said this is only applicable in those below the age of 40 years. “Before age 40, the female hormone tends to protect the women but the moment they reach menopause, the chances of developing heart attacks by women also equals that of men, “he said.

Meanwhile, Dr. Adebiyi said, given that the heart is a pump that must function properly to meet the need of the body, if there is a problem within the heart or around it, this could prevent it from pumping blood to other parts of the body as well as making the heart to fail.

However, many things can affect this “pump” and make it fail. Just as a heart attack can lead to heart failure, he declared that the commonest cause of heart failure in Nigeria is hypertension. This is unlike what is the major cause of the problem in developed countries.

“Hypertension is the commonest cause of heart failure in Nigeria, especially now that many live long and next to this is rheumatic fever,” he said. However, to some extent, an individual can guess his chances of developing heart disease. He said the interplay of cholesterol, hypertension, and diabetes, can be used to estimate in a way those that are likely to have heart disease.

Not many people know it, but a recent advance in cholesterol testing can help predict a person’s chances of having a heart attack. Called the lipoprotein sub-fraction test, this diagnostic tool measures the size of cholesterol particles and serve as a warning when it finds small LDL and HDL particles.

The smaller a person’s particles of LDL (the “bad” cholesterol), the more easily they burrow into the heart’s vessels, where they form damaging plaques and so increase a person’s risk of developing heart attack.

Now with better understand of the importance of cholesterol size, a few of the mysteries about heart attacks can now be better explained. Meanwhile, a person’s with high blood pressure and who is diabetic or borderline for diabetes (prediabetic) is equally more likely to have small LDL particles. Those that have heart disease in their family are also candidates for the cholesterol test, a predictor of those that may have heart attack.

However, many myths yet surround heart diseases and these are contrary to having a healthy heart.

*People that exercise and maintain a healthy lifestyle cannot get heart disease
Eating healthy foods and exercising is important, but do not guarantee good health. Risk of heart disease increases with several uncontrollable factors: You are more at risk if you are a man, if you are older and if you have a genetic history of diabetes, high cholesterol or high blood pressure.

It is important to check at least once a year your blood pressure and cholesterol levels, even in your 20s. If you are predisposed to high blood pressure or high cholesterol, you may need to take medication to prevent heart disease.

*Only old people should worry about developing about heart disease. Coronary artery disease can start to develop in the teenage years, and many of the bad habits developed as young adults persist, as we get older. Children, who are obese, have high blood pressure and a family history of heart disease is at higher risk. In some rare cases, some children (usually due to genetic differences) can have unusually high cholesterol and thus an increased risk for heart disease.

*Blood pressure can never be too low.
High blood pressure, a risk factor for heart disease and people are warned to ensure they maintain the right blood pressure for their age. However, in rare cases, when a person is ill or on blood-pressure-lowering medication, such can equally develop a low blood pressure, which can lead to fatigue, fainting and kidney dysfunction.

*People with heart attack will know because their chest and arm(s) will hurt.
Although 60 per cent to 90 per cent of heart attacks have the common symptoms (chest pain, arm pain, etc.), 25 per cent of heart attacks have either no signs or atypical signs associated with the incident. So-called “silent” heart attacks are more common in diabetics.
On the average, about half of the women will have traditional chest pain, and the other half show atypical symptoms such as headaches, nausea, fatigue and stomach upset.

*A little bit of alcohol is good for the heart.
Recent studies have shown that a small amount of alcohol every day, such as one glass of wine, can actually be beneficial for the heart. There are benefits associated with red wine, but other types may be beneficial as well.

However, too much alcohol can pose problems though. Binge drinking on weekends, for example, can be very damaging to the heart. Alcohol in large amounts has a toxic effect on the heart muscle cells, and can lead to heart failure.