At our August A5, Wendy Mullooly – Clinical Nurse Consultant, Sutherland Hospital, shared extremely valuable information about Cardiac Health.
Prevalence of Heart Disease:
Heart Disease remains the number 1 killer of Australians – men and women.
This amounts to 55,000 heart attacks per year in Australia, or 150 per day or 1 every 10 minutes.
Great Advances:
Decrease in death rates due to:
- Medications
- Smoking reduction
- Diagnostics
- Reperfusion procedures
Weakest link:
Failure to act early
‘I wish I could have my heart attack again and I would do things differently’
Why do people delay:
- Failure to identify as a heart problem
- 1/3 of heart attacks present with chest pain
- Australia only 14% within the hour
- Often to GP first
- 2nd heart attack different
- False security – for example “I exercise regularly”, “I don’t smoke”, etc
Heart Attacks:
- ‘Time is muscle’
- Permanent heart muscle damage results if blood flow is not restored
- Cardiac arrest may occur
- Australia 100,000 presentations/year to hospital
- 2,700 deaths in hospital and 30 days following BUT 7,000 deaths that don’t get to hospital
Heart Attack Symptoms:
Pain, Pressure, Tightness or Discomfort can be felt in various parts of the body such as:
- Chest
- Upper arm
- Shoulder
- Neck
- Jaw
- Upper back
Warning Signs:
- Angina symptoms which go with rest
- Shortness of breath
- Wheeziness
- Indigestion / reflux
- Ankle swelling
- Irregular pulse, dizziness, faint
- Walks, swims etc taking longer
- Tiredness or feelings dismissed as ‘getting older’
- Especially if related to exercise or during recovery
Action – See Your GP:
- What results may depend on your family history, cardiac history, other medical issues
- Refer to cardiologist
- Stress test or stress echo
- 24 hour ECG monitor
- CT cardiac angiogram
- ECG
- Blood tests
- Medications for BP and cholesterol (resistance)
Maintenance:
- Exercise 30min cardio / day
- Weight / resistance work
- Know what is normal for you exercising
- Waist measurements-94cm males, 86cm females
- BMI 19 to 25
- Diet –fruit and veg, fish, fibre, nuts, low sat fats, reduce salt
- Social interaction
- Treat depression
- Adhere to medications
Observations:
45-60 year old men often:
- Don’t have a GP (no need, never sick)
- Work in own business or middle management and time poor, long hours
- Too tired to exercise after work
- Family commitments
- Business lunches or eat on the run
- Long periods of sitting – computers, car
- Stress management – alcohol, smoking, comfort food
Summary:
- Annual check ups over 50 yrs and ‘know your numbers’
- Exercise
- Diet
- Weight and waist measurements
- Non smoker
- Often signs precede a heart attack -Act on ‘Warning signs’
- Heart attacks are an emergency – act early, call an ambulance, time is muscle