Heart attack facts: Heart disease is the UK’s biggest killer. But can having a bad dream or a sharp shock really cause a heart attack? We highlight five popular beliefs about heart attack triggers and tell you whether you should worry – and if so, what you can do to avoid having a heart attack.
Heart disease causes over 117,000 deaths a year in the UK. That’s approximately one in five deaths in men and one in six deaths in women. Currently, just under 2.7 million Brits have Coronary Heart Disease, according to the British Heart Foundation.
Heart Attack Information: Heart Attack Causes
A heart attack occurs when an artery becomes blocked, for example by a gradual build-up of fat or a blood clot, starving the heart muscle of oxygen. If your artery is blocked for more than a few minutes, you have a heart attack – and when the heart stops pumping at all, you go into cardiac arrest and lose consciousness.
Rescue breathing and chest compressions, or an electric shock from a defibrillator, must be administered as soon as possible to avoid brain damage and heart muscle damage.
Heart Attack Information: Heart Attack Symptoms
Heart attack symptoms often include chest pain or tightness, sometimes spreading to the arms, neck, back or stomach, sweating, dizziness, breathlessness, nausea and disturbed heartbeats, but sometimes there are no symptoms at all.
A heart attack can, occasionally, be brought on by doing energetic activity which you are not used to, or by intense physical or emotional stress, but heart attacks can also happen when a person is resting. Read on to find out what activities could really trigger a heart attack.
Heart Attack Information: Could Sex Cause a Heart Attack?
People have heart attacks all the time, even while having sex. But while such cases often grab the limelight and cause extreme anxiety for many people with heart disease, the fact is that while sex may trigger a heart attack, the risk of this happening is very slight – less than 1 per cent of all heart attacks.
For a small number of people at risk though, sex can be a threat and increase heart attack risk. You may have to steer clear of getting hot and heavy if you have heart disease and are experiencing severe chest pains regularly, have very high blood pressure that you are not controlling, have a weak heart muscle or heart palpitations, or if you have had a heart attack in the past few weeks.
For these people, sex – like any other physical exertion – could trigger a heart attack, and should be avoided until proper treatment has stabilised the condition.
If you’re worried about having a heart attack, discuss minimizing your possible risk factors with your doctor – these would include having chest pains, heart disease, having had a stroke or heart attack, obesity, high blood pressure and high cholesterol. Your heart condition and high blood pressure can be controlled by medication, but remember that many of these drugs can diminish your libido and even cause erection problems for men, so discuss your choice of heart disease medications with your doctor if this is a worry as there are sex-friendly choices on the market.
Most importantly, prevent heart attacks by keeping active and exercise regularly to ensure that your heart doesn’t get a shock when you finally do get your pulse up – studies have shown that people who are unfit are four times more likely to have a heart attack within an hour of having sex. Sex raises your heart rate to around 130 beats a minute, which is roughly the same effect as climbing stairs for 15 to 20 seconds – so if you feel comfortable climbing the stairs, sex shouldn’t be a heart attack worry. If all else fails, stick to less strenuous positions!
Heart Attack Information: Can Dreaming Cause a Heart Attack?
Research suggests that dreaming causes your heart rate and blood pressure to soar, while stress hormones kick into action in the nervous system, putting twice as much stress on the heart as when you’re awake.
These physical reactions to dreams could cause blood clots and even trigger a heart attack in a person who is already at risk of heart attacks. Experts say that heart attacks are common in the early hours of the morning, when dreams are most active. In fact, the most dangerous time for the heart is the hour just after people get out of bed. These effects could be minimised by taking beta blockers to reduce the stress hormones’ negative impact on the heart.
Another trigger is sleep apnea, a condition where sufferers stop breathing at several intervals during sleep, often for more than 10 seconds as many as a hundred times a night. It’s characterised by snoring, gasping for air, nightmares and interrupted sleep, as well as being exhausted during the day. Apnea is known to cause a huge rise in blood pressure and also cuts oxygen to the heart, often leading to fatal strokes and heart attacks.
It’s usually caused by the throat being blocked, and there are several treatment options including lifestyle changes, surgery and airway pressure. Catching it early is really important to prevent high blood pressure and heart attacks, so if in doubt speak to a doctor as soon as possible.
Heart Attack Information: Could Getting a Shock Cause a Heart Attack
Suddenly learning of shocking and distressing news is a commonly known heart attack trigger, although it’s not as common as a typical heart attack. But researchers say it can also weaken the heart muscle in a way that resembles a heart attack – it’s called stress cardiomyopathy or broken heart syndrome.
Long periods of surging adrenaline caused by emotional stress can be toxic to the heart and stun it, even in people without heart disease or other risk factors, causing symptoms like chest pain, breathlessness, fluid in the lungs and heart failure (when the heart pumps blood less efficiently) – but luckily this heart muscle damage is reversible, and patients improve after a couple of days.
To read more on what to do if you have a heart attack when driving and whether exercise causes or prevents heart attacks, click here: More Heart Attack Information.