Need 150 word response to the below discussion post
The heart is the most important muscle in your body. The heart is just like a pump that moves the blood throughout the body. This action is what keeps us alive. We are typically taught about the danger of a heart attack, and what we must change in our lives to prevent it; but just like many people, I am at a high risk for heart disease because of family history as well as because of my firefighter career, as heart disease is the number one killer of firefighters (Fire Engineering, 2012). According to the American Heart Association, âboth the risk of heart disease and risk factors for heart disease are strongly linked to family historyâ (American Heart Association, 2016). However, even though your family history provided a picture or marker for possible issues, it is up to us to lower the risk by making changes in our lifestyles.
Heart attacks are caused by blockage that stops blood flow to the heart. A heart attack is when there is damage or death to the heart muscle tissue due to loss of blood supply and this does not necessarily result in an individual's death. A heart attack can show symptoms, such as radiating chest pain or discomfort, dizziness or nausea, sweating, anxiety, stomach pain and shortness of breath. Women have the same symptoms, but they do show some difference in that they describe the pain in their stomach and shoulder blades. In the field we treat heart attack by treating the symptoms; we use IV fluids, baby aspirin, as well as nitroglycerin.
There is another silent killer that most people do not hear much about or they think it is the same thing as a heart attack. As a medic, I deal with this life and death situation all the time, and it interesting to see how many people are not aware of the difference of a heart attack and a sudden cardiac arrest. Sudden cardiac arrest is the abrupt loss of heart function in a person who may or may not have diagnosed heart disease. This can happen at any time, its unexpected and occurs instantly, or seconds after symptoms occur. Cardiac arrest is caused when the heartâs electrical system malfunctions. This causes the heart to go into and irregular heart rhythm (ventricular fibrillation). When this happens, the hearts lower chambers suddenly start quivering and this stops the pump of blood in the heart. The only thing that can reverse cardiac arrest is early defibrillation and CPR. Most people think that a defibrillator can be used on heart attack patients, but this is not the case. The defibrillator is used to shock the heart and restore the normal heart rhythm, if the heart stops, then CPR has to be performed.
Unlike a heart attack, sudden cardiac arrest can happen to anyone, no matter how health or fit they are. According to the American Heart Association âcardiac arrest is a leading cause of death, nearly 360,000 out-of-hospital cardiac arrest occur annually in the United Statesâ (American Heart Association, 2016).
