Heart Attack: How to treat it
What is a Heart Attack
Due to increasing stress and changing lifestyle, nowadays we hear a lot about heart attacks (Known as Myocardial Infarction). This occurs when the blood flow to the heart is reduced, insufficient, or blocked.
The major cause of a heart attack is the blockage of the coronary arteries caused due to fat and cholesterol build up. Heart attack is also caused due to spasm of the coronary artery that results in shutting down of blood flow to part of the heart. It can be a life-threatening condition if heart attack treatment is not done in time.
How to treat a Heart Attack
Usually, there are two ways of treating a heart attack. One and the most immediate way is through medications. Here are the types of medications which are given immediately when a patient shows symptoms of heart attack:-
- Anticoagulant Medicines:- Anticoagulant medicines are the ones that stop blood clotting to happen and ensure the flow of the blood resumes to the heart.
- Antiplatelet Medicines:- Medicines having Antiplatelet agents are given to the patient so that they prevent the blood clots from forming by not letting the blood platelets from sticking together.
- Beta-Blockers:- These medicines reduce the heart rate and which in turn lowers the blood pressure. This results in making the heartbeat slowly and with less force giving it time to recover.
- Thrombolytic therapy:- These are also known as clot busters. These help to dissolve blood clots in patients heart’s arteries and resumes free flow of blood.
But the treatment of heart attacks patients are not possible via medication only. At times, the attack is so severe that the use of medical procedure becomes necessary. A few medical procedures which are used to treat a heart attack:-
- Angioplasty:- If a patient is diagnosed with blocked arteries, this preventive medical procedure is undertaken by cardiologists to widen the blocked arteries by use of a tiny balloon catheter which helps restore blood flow to the heart.
- Bypass surgery:- In this surgery, doctors use blood vessels from other parts of the body to create a new route for the blood to reach the heart. This way a bypass is created around the blocked arteries to supply oxygen-rich blood to the heart freely.
- Stent procedure:- In this procedure, a tiny tube is inserted inside the blood arteries to open them up so that free blood flow can happen. These tubes are coated with medicines that release into the bloodstream and prevent the arteries from getting blocked again in the future.
- Heart Transplant:- This is the last resort available when all procedures have been done. The patients’ heart is replaced by another healthy heart.
Click here to learn more about Coronary Artery Disease
As you can see, the first necessary steps are through medications to treat the condition of a heart attack. However, in other cases, medical procedures need to be taken into consideration. Once again, to minimize the risk of heart-related conditions, it is vital to ensure a healthy and active lifestyle.