Avoiding A Heart Attack

So far there have been 3 people close to me that have had a heart attack. Surprisingly one of those people were in their late 30s an age I consider quite young to be having a heart attack. I don't consider myself at a high risk for a heart attack. However, after seeing what my friend went through at 38, the pain, recovery, job loss, and medical bills, I've decided to do more investigation on the risks of having a heart attack.

You literally can do searches on having a heart attack and get millions of results. I decided to focus my search on prevention, mainly preventive screening.

With any preventive measures you should consult with a medical professional. These are the steps my nurse practitioner told me to focus on:

• If you smoke...Quit. If you don't smoke don't start
  
• Eat a healthy diet. Cut down on foods that are high in salt and saturated fat to lower cholesterol and blood pressure.
  
• Control your sugar intake if you have diabetes.
• If your overweight, lose weight
  
• Exercise. Try to workout to at least 30 min. of aerobic exercise at least 3 times a week.
• Control your blood pressure if you have hypertension.

What is a silent heart attack?

My ignorance, but I just assumed that most people know when they are having a heart attack. I assumed that you feel excruciating pain in your chest and your arm. Well I recently asked someone who had a heart attack and was surprised. In fact, I read that almost 50% of people having a heart attack don't know they are having a heart attack.

I thought that silent heart attacks were rare but after reading some articles on CNN I found that there not so rare.

A concern that I'm having being that heart disease runs in my family is how do you know when your having a heart attack or when tightness in your chest is just gas and not a heart attack? When do I go see a doctor? My risk for heart attack is low but there is a family history and that's when I worry. When do I go see a doctor?

So I've learned that a silent heart attack means that that absence of pain but not the absence of damage to the heart and arteries.

Most physicians would probably encourage undergoing preventive screening when you have 2 to 3 risk factors such as smoking, diabetes, high blood pressure, and obesity. For me getting answers to questions about screening for risk of heart attack is where I've decided to start.