Heart disease and stroke are major health risks for everyone. But African Americans are at especially high risk. How high? Consider this:

 

• Heart disease and stroke are the No. 1 and No. 3 killers of blacks.
• Heart and blood vessel diseases (cardiovascular diseases) claim the lives of over 104,000 blacks every year.
• These diseases account for 33 percent of all deaths among blacks in the United States. Kidney disease is also a concern for African Americans, because of the higher rates of high blood pressure. This will be discussed in conjunction with blood pressure.

 

About Heart Disease

 

There are different types of heart disease, but the kind you need to worry about most is coronary heart disease. Your heart has arteries that bring blood to the heart muscle. These are your coronary arteries. Over time, fatty deposits called plaque can build up in the walls of these arteries, reducing the blood supply. In some people — but not everyone — this can cause chest pain called angina.
 
Over time, a plaque can rupture, triggering a blood clot to form. This can block blood flow to the heart muscle, causing part of it to start to die. This is a heart attack. A heart attack is an emergency; get to the hospital right away. The quicker you get treatment, the more of your heart muscle might be saved. These are the warning signs of a heart attack:

 

Heart Attack Warning Signs

 

• Uncomfortable pressure, squeezing, fullness, or pain in the center of the chest that lasts more than a few minutes or goes away and comes back.
• Pain or discomfort in one or both arms, the back, neck, jaw or stomach.
• Shortness of breath with or without chest discomfort.
• Other signs such as breaking out in a cold sweat, nausea or lightheadedness.

 

As with men, women’s most common heart attack symptom is chest pain or discomfort. But omen are somewhat more likely than men to have some of the other common symptoms, particularly shortness of breath, nausea/vomiting, and back or jaw pain.

 

Calling 9-1-1 is almost always the fastest way to get lifesaving treatment. Emergency medical services (EMS) staff can start treatment when they arrive. If you can’t access EMS, have someone drive you to the hospital right away. If you’re the one having symptoms, don’t drive yourself, unless you have absolutely no other option.

 

Your heart beats because electrical signals flow through it at timed intervals, causing it to squeeze and pump blood. Sometimes a heart attack can disrupt these electrical signals, causing the heart to flutter and go into cardiac arrest. (Cardiac arrest can also occur spontaneously.) A person in cardiac arrest will collapse and die in minutes unless they get cardiopulmonary resuscitation
(CPR) to maintain respiration until they can get a shock from a device called a defibrillator to help a normal heart rhythm resume.

 

You need to register to comment.