What You Need to Know About Heart Attacks and Ekg Machines


by Jane Worthington - Date: 2008-11-13 - Word Count: 399 Share This!

The leading cause of death for both men and women around the world is a heart attack. Heart attacks, also known as myocardial infarctions, are caused by several different factors and can be detected and prevented with the right medical products. A heart attack occurs when the blood supply to a certain part of the heart is interrupted. The blood is unable to circulate normally due to blockage of a coronary artery. If a person is undergoing an acute heart attack, they will experience sudden chest pain, which may radiate to the neck and the left arm, shortness of breath, nausea, anxiety, and vomiting, among other symptoms. Not all heart attacks are acute, however, and it is possible to suffer a heart attack without noticing it at first.  However, a heart attack is a medical emergency, so if you feel as though anything seems unusual or painful, go see a doctor!



The most common factors that put someone at risk for a heart attack are old age, obesity, tobacco smoking, high blood pressure, and stress. If you have had a heart attack in the past, indulge in excessive alcoholic consumption, abuse certain drugs, for instance cocaine, or have chronic kidney disease, your odds of having a heart attack are disproportionately higher than the rest of the population.



When you go to the emergency rooms, the most effective piece of used medical equipment a doctor will use to tell whether or not you have had a heart attack is an electrocardiogram machine (EKG machine). When you are tested for a heart attack, you are told to lie down on the examination table. A nurse will attach electrodes on various points of your body so that the EKG can map the heart's activity. The resulting graph is created by measuring the strength and timing of the electric signals emitted by the heart. These electric signals are what tell the heart muscle the rate at which to pump blood throughout the body. The attending doctor then reads the resulting graph and is able to determine whether a heart attack occurred and the resulting damage.



If you feel you are at risk for a heart attack, do not leave it to the EKG machines to discover the damage after the fact! See your doctor on how you can lead a healthier lifestyle so that you avoid suffering a heart attack in the future!


Related Tags: health, wellness, medical equipment, heart attacks, ekg machines

Just another creative writer talking about anything and everything under the sun!

Your Article Search Directory : Find in Articles

© The article above is copyrighted by it's author. You're allowed to distribute this work according to the Creative Commons Attribution-NoDerivs license.
 

Recent articles in this category:



Most viewed articles in this category: