Heart Attack Symptoms and Prevention (Q&A)
Heart Attack Symptoms and Prevention (Q&A)
Dr. Michael E. Silverman is a cardiologist with Cardiovascular Specialists of Central Maryland and has privileges at Howard County General Hospital in Columbia, Maryland. In this video, Dr. Silverman describes the symptoms of a heart attack, who is most at risk, and what you can do to keep your heart healthy.
For more information about the cardiac and vascular services available at Howard County General Hospital, Johns Hopkins Medicine, please visit http://www.hcgh.org/heart.
In June 2023, the hospital was renamed Johns Hopkins Howard County Medical Center.
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0.03 -> My name is Michael Silverman I'm
a cardiologist with cardiovascular
21.81 -> specialists of Central Maryland. I've been in
practice since 1994. There are many risk factors
34.17 -> that have been a found to be associated with
heart disease. Diabetes is very high on that
39.72 -> list. People who smoke should certainly
be concerned, people with hypertension,
44.4 -> people with high cholesterol need to be worried,
certainly folks who are sedentary and who are
51.57 -> overweight also need to be quite concerned.
There's even evidence that people who have
55.59 -> sleep apnea can be at risk for heart disease.
Family history is another risk factor for a
67.17 -> heart disease. If you have a male in your family
who had heart disease at an age younger than 45
72.63 -> or a woman in your family with heart disease
younger than 55, that increases your risk. So
79.65 -> people often confuse that...they think that
if grandma had a heart attack at the age 80
83.52 -> they're at risk for it. That's really not the
case. It's really only the case when it's a
88.59 -> young family member that's had heart disease
that puts your risk at an increased level.
95.9 -> The most important symptom that we see with a
heart attack is that of chest pain the classic
104.96 -> description is that of chest pressure chest
tightness or chest squeezing some people describe
110.72 -> it as a brick or an elephant standing on their
chest not everybody is classic and out of the
115.85 -> textbook some people have radiation of those
symptoms to their neck to their jaw to their
121.94 -> shoulder to either arm some people have those
symptoms along with shortness of breath nausea
128.75 -> and sweats some people have no chest discomfort at
all and just have shortness of breath women don't
135.32 -> present in the typical manner sometimes they'll
have shortness of breath sometimes they'll just
140.9 -> have fatigue or exercise intolerance first and
foremost is find the nearest telephone and call
152.84 -> 911 the second thing to do is to find for baby
aspirin and chew them to get them down as quickly
159.5 -> as possible if you don't have baby aspirin at
home certainly you can chew one adult aspirin
164.12 -> as well as another alternative and then just wait
for Fire Rescue to get there high blood pressure
177.26 -> is a risk factor for heart disease and if you
don't control your blood pressure your risk for
183.47 -> a variety of things those things include heart
attacks strokes blindness kidney failure so it
190.55 -> really is important that you know what your blood
pressure is if you do have high blood pressure I
195.02 -> suggest that you go to the local pharmacy and get
yourself a blood pressure monitor so you can check
198.92 -> it periodically I often find as a physician the
results that I get from home they're more valuable
204.02 -> than the results in the office it's your natural
environment it's where you live and it's just more
209.96 -> meaningful than than a quick blood pressure
under the bright white lights in a doctor's
213.8 -> office where you might be a little bit anxious
and it might be a little bit falsely elevated
218.39 -> one of the problems with the American diet
today is that sodium is hidden in all of
227.87 -> our processed foods I highly suggest that when
you go to the grocery store or wherever you go
232.52 -> shopping that you read the labels and read the
sodium content and really know that you should
237.53 -> not be eating more than two to three grams of
sodium in your diet per day high sodium diets
243.26 -> can lead to hypertension can make your can make
your hypertension more difficult to control if
247.79 -> you have condition called congestive heart
failure it can also make management of that
251.69 -> condition more challenging as well diabetes is
one of the more worrisome cardiac risk factors
262.16 -> in fact when somebody has diabetes I equate
that with a coronary artery disease equivalent
267.5 -> what does that mean that means that I assume
that you have coronary artery disease until
271.43 -> proven otherwise you're also risk for stroke is
also significantly increased I think it's very
282.26 -> important that all patients know certain numbers
about their health certainly they should know
287.36 -> their blood pressure they should keep records
of their blood pressures a lot of my patients
290.93 -> keep them all in Excel spreadsheets that's
important to know to bring them in when you
295.49 -> see your doctor it's important to keep flow
sheets of your lipids of not only the total
299.99 -> cholesterol but the breakdown numbers as well that
the LDL the HDL and the triglycerides certainly
306.17 -> to know your sugar as well another long-term
measure of diabetes and glucose control with
311.54 -> something called the hemoglobin a1c and somebody
should those should know those numbers as well
320.76 -> one of the other important things to consider
is including exercise in your daily routine the
326.73 -> American Heart Association now recommends
that you do an hour of aerobic exercise 5
331.35 -> days per week most patients of mine are
not very happy about that when I hear
335.22 -> that but when I work with them there's
often a way that they can come close to
338.94 -> that certainly there's two weekend days and
even if they get a half an hour in on three
343.17 -> or four weekdays that's certainly a significant
value and by aerobic exercise walking swimming
348.39 -> biking running it really doesn't matter
what you do you just have to do something
Source: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=jHaQmPZ8GZQ