If you are experiencing the symptoms of a heart attack and have to head down to the emergency room, then you know that you will be subjected to several tests to confirm the diagnosis. As scary as a heart attack is, many patients are even more scared of the diagnostic tests and surgery that may follow. But without early medical intervention, death may be knocking on your door – within minutes, hours or even days. It is only once a heart attack or other serious cardiac event is confirmed that your doctor and surgeon will look at taking you into the operating theater. First you have to undergo tests, which could even reveal that your symptoms were not related to a cardiac event that requires surgical intervention.

continue reading 8 Heart Attack Tests With Pictures

Changes in the blood pressure occur throughout the day. In fact your blood pressure can change several times within a minute and sudden fluctuations largely depends on what you are doing and your state of mind. However, for most people the blood pressure will not rise above nor drop below the normal range. It is important to understand that there is no specific number that can be considered normal for blood pressure. Not even the widely accepted 120/80 mmHg.

continue reading Sudden Increase in Blood Pressure (BP) 6 Common Reasons

High blood pressure, or hypertension, is the most common cardiovascular problem globally. You may have it for years or even decades before it kills you. That is the truth high blood pressure – it is deadly. In rare instances it can even kill you within weeks or months. But how does high blood pressure kill ? And how can you spot the deadly symptoms? The fact is that high blood pressure is often silent, meaning that a person does not show any signs or symptoms in most people. For this reason hypertension is labeled the ‘silent killer’.

On the other hand, the deadly complications of high blood pressure are usually not as silent . If you are observant, you may be able to detect the first symptoms of these killer diseases and seek treatment as soon as possible. But never wait for these deadly symptoms to become evident. Always screen for high blood pressure, irrespective of your age, body weight, lifestyle factors and family history. These days hypertension is being seeing in younger age groups and it is not unheard of for a person in their twenties to have hypertension.

continue reading How To Spot Deadly Symptoms of High Blood Pressure

Most of us think that we will be able to spot a heart attack when we see one. The typical image of a person clutching their chest, gasping for air and falling to the ground is the way we have seen heart attacks portrayed time and again in the media. Pretty easy to spot even if you have absolutely no medical training. But you may be totally off the mark. A recent study in Iceland has shown that typical heart attacks are far less common than atypical heart attacks (silent heart attack).

In fact, some of the symptoms that we think is due to a heart attack may actually have nothing to do with the heart. Everyday emergency rooms around the world are faced with patients who think that they are having a heart attack but are actually experiencing severe episodes of indigestion and heartburn, among other non-cardiac causes of chest pain. Nevertheless, there is no harm in being cautious especially if you are in a high risk category for having a heart attack.

continue reading How to Spot Heart Pain from Heartburn

Heart Attack but No Symptoms

We all think of a heart attack presenting in a typical manner – the crushing chest pain, severe shortness of breath, dizziness and excessive sweating. These symptoms arise suddenly and are unmistakably due to a heart attack. The first warning signs can help us seek emergency medical attention much earlier thereby improving the chance of survival. However, the situation is not always as straightforward. Imagine having a heart attack and not even knowing it. No typical acute episode where you are grasping your chest and fall to the floor with people scrambling around to get you to the ER. It is possible. In fact in the elderly, it is more common and twice as likely to lead to death than a heart attack with symptom . It is a silent heart attack!

continue reading Silent Heart Attack