Heart Attack Archive

The simple version of cardiopulmonary resuscitation — pushing hard and fast on the chest — can double a person's odds of surviving cardiac arrest.

If someone suddenly collapses and stops breathing, the most likely cause is cardiac arrest. An electrical malfunction causes the heart to beat rapidly and chaotically — or to stop beating altogether. But if a bystander immediately begins chest compressions, which mimic the heart's pumping action, blood keeps flowing to the person's brain.

For more than a decade, guidelines have recommended this simpler version of cardiopulmonary resuscitation (CPR), which does not involve the mouth-to-mouth breathing used in standard CPR.

Q. After my heart attack, my doctor told me that damaged heart muscle cannot be replaced. If this is true, why am I walking on a treadmill five days a week? Is this helping repair the heart muscle damage or strengthen what's left of my heart muscle?

A. Your skeletal muscles can repair themselves after an injury — pull your calf muscle and, after a few days or so, it heals. Until recently, it was believed that the human heart didn't have this capacity. But the heart does have some ability to make new muscle and possibly repair itself. The rate of regeneration is so slow, though, that it can't fix the kind of damage caused by a heart attack. That's why the rapid healing that follows a heart attack creates scar tissue in place of working muscle tissue.

Research we're watching

Fewer older adults are having heart attacks, and more are surviving them, according to a study published March 15 in JAMA Network Open.

Researchers analyzed data from more than 4.3 million people ages 65 and older who had suffered heart attacks over a 20-year period beginning in 1995. Back then, 20% of those included in the study died from their heart attacks. By 2014, that number had fallen to 12%.

After a serious heart-related event, cardiac rehabilitation can help you feel better and live longer.

If you have a heart attack, heart surgery, or another cardiac event, what's the best way to prevent future heart problems? Participate in cardiac rehab, a program that provides supervised exercise and teaches you the fundamentals of a heart-healthy lifestyle over a three-month period.

"The benefits of cardiac rehab are indisputable. It's more effective than any other intervention for preventing future heart-related problems and hospitalizations," says Dr. Hicham Skali, associate director of the Cardiac Rehabilitation Program at Harvard-affiliated Brigham and Women's Hospital. Eligible people who participate in cardiac rehab have a 24% lower risk of dying of cardiovascular disease compared with those who do not attend a rehab program. Cardiac rehab has also been found to improve your ability to exercise and your quality of life, he adds.

Ask the doctor

Q. I just got a stent placed in my heart artery and feel great again. If it develops problems, can it be treated?

A. Stents, the tiny wire-mesh tubes used to prop open blocked arteries, are useful for treating heart attacks and chest pain that occurs with physical activity. They're placed during a coronary angioplasty and stenting procedure, which usually involves snaking a thin tube (catheter) through a vessel in the upper thigh or the wrist up to the heart. After more than two decades of use, today's stents are safer and more effective that the original versions. Problems can still arise, but they are uncommon and treatable.

Learn how to recognize and prevent this dangerous condition, known as venous thromboembolism, or VTE.

When a blood clot blocks an artery supplying the heart or the brain, the result is a heart attack or stroke. Most Americans are familiar with these two serious health threats. But they're probably less familiar with the dangers of venous thromboembolism, or VTE — a clot that forms in a vein.

A clot in the leg or arm, known as deep-vein thrombosis, can cause pain, swelling, and redness in the affected limb. But the real threat occurs if the clot breaks off and travels to the lungs, causing a pulmonary embolism.

In the journals

People who have had a heart attack or a stroke are routinely prescribed a statin to reduce the risk of a repeat event. But by also following a Mediterranean-style diet, they can improve their chance of living longer, suggests a study in the Feb. 1, 2019, issue of the International Journal of Cardiology.

The study looked at 1,180 people, average age 68, who had at least one previous heart attack or stroke, and recorded their statin use and diet intake at the study's beginning. The researchers identified the people who faithfully followed a Mediterranean-style diet. A Mediterranean-style diet involves consuming medium to high amounts of whole fruits and vegetables, whole grains, legumes and nuts, olive oil, and poultry and fish, with limited amounts of red meat, alcohol, and dairy.

Why do heart attack rates rise on Monday mornings and the week after daylight savings time begins?

Deep inside your brain is a small cluster of cells that serves as your body's master clock. These cells govern your circadian rhythm, the 24-hour internal clock that keeps your body in sync with the day-night cycle. But nearly all your cells also have their own clocks to ensure that each one performs its unique role — such as producing proteins or releasing hormones — at the right time.

These biological timekeepers are under genetic control. But what happens if our behavior or environment is out of sync with our internal clocks? Understanding the potential health consequences of that misalignment is the focus of the Medical Chronobiology Program at Harvard-affiliated Brigham and Women's Hospital, says Dr. Frank Scheer, who directs the program.

People with fluctuating numbers — like blood pressure, cholesterol, and weight — may be at higher risk of heart attack, stroke, and even death.

 Image: © RapidEye/Getty Images

Most people battle "yo-yoing" at some point, when their weight, blood pressure, or some other health number keeps going up and down.

On the surface, this may not seem like a problem if you routinely hit the healthy numbers. Yet new research suggests that fluctuations like this may pose a greater health risk than staying at a single level, even if it's not a perfect one.

In the journals

Vitamin D and omega-3 fatty acid supplements have had mixed results when it comes to preventing heart attacks, strokes, and cancer in people who have already developed these problems or are at high risk for them. Yet a new study published online Nov. 10, 2018, by The New England Journal of Medicine found they may actually prevent these conditions among people who have never had these problems before.

Researchers recruited almost 26,000 people, ages 50 and older, who had no history of heart disease or cancer. The participants were divided into four groups. People in one group were given daily doses of 2,000 international units of vitamin D (an amount found to be linked to lower disease risk in observational studies) and 1 gram of a drug called Lovaza, which contained 840 milligrams of omega-3s (two to four times the amount in two servings of fish per week). The second group took vitamin D and a placebo, the third group took the omega-3s and a placebo, and the final group took two placebos. After more than five years, the researchers found that those given omega-3s were 28% less likely to suffer a heart attack compared with those given a placebo. Those who ate fewer servings of fish (less than the average of 1.5 servings per week) appeared to have a greater benefit from the additional omega-3s while those with higher fish intake had minimal benefit.