February’s Noontime Knowledge event focuses on heart health – Times Tribune of Corbin

CORBIN Baptist Health Corbin in collaboration with the Corbin Public Library held its monthly Noontime Knowledge at the library on Thursday.

In honor of American Heart Month, this months Noontime Knowledge focused on heart health and heart attacks. More specifically, heart attack signs, symptoms and how to react if you or somebody you know is having a heart attack.

Heart attacks are the number one killer of adults here in the United States, said cardiovascular educator at Baptist Health Corbin Tracy Bruck. Over 735,000 Americans have heart attacks every single year. 525,000 people have their first heart attack every year, a lot of people have more than one.

Heart attacks kill 116,000 Americans each year.

Heart attacks are a community problem with a community solution. That community solution is education because if a community knows early symptoms of a heart attack, then you can seek medical treatment early, explained Bruck.

When it comes to symptoms, Bruck said the most common are chest pain and discomfort. Other symptoms include pain in your back, shoulders, arms, neck, throat or jaw; abdominal discomfort; shortness of breath; weakness and fatigue; nausea; and sweating.

According to Bruck, early signs of a heart attack are present in about half of all patients that have suffered one.

Symptoms can suddenly accelerate just before somebody has a heart attack. Most early symptoms happen around 24 hours before someone suffers one. However, some symptoms can occur two to three weeks before someone suffers a heart attack.

Bruck says that men are more likely to suffer heart attacks on their first symptom than women are. Men normally feel pain and numbness on their left arm or side of their chest, while women will typically feel it on their right side.

A womans risk of suffering a heart attack increases four times after going through menopause. Women are also more likely to have what are known as silent heart attacks, which can result in a person having a heart attack and not even realizing it. Women are also more likely to suffer a fatal heart attack.

According to the CDC, heart attacks are more common in men, smokers, people who are obese or overweight, those with family histories of cardiac issues, and people aged 55 or older.

Bruck says knowing your family's personal history with heart disease can help in preventing a heart attack. She also recommends knowing and modifying those things in ones control that can attribute to a higher chance of heart attack.

Those factors one can modify to lower the chance of suffering a heart attack include keeping your blood pressure under control, maintaining an active lifestyle (getting at least 20-30 minutes of physical activity three times a week), stopping the use of tobacco, and keeping an eye on metabolic diseases like diabetes.

If you or someone you know is showing signs of a heart attack, Bruck says its important to seek medical attention right away.

We have a tendency as human beings to delay recognizing and responding to these early symptoms. Were our own worst enemy.

Some of the most common excuses people make are that theyre too busy or that theyre too healthy to be suffering a heart attack. Bruck says some try to pass it off as something else or ignore it all together. This could be dangerous because although the symptoms may subside, theyll come back and thats when it may be too late.

Along with medicine, modifications to lifestyle and preventative measures, the medical community has also created the Life Vest to help those who suffer with a heart related medical condition.

Kim Deering with Zoll Life Vest explained that the vest is a wearable cardioverter defibrillator that can be used to detect sudden cardiac arrest and defibrillate its wearer.

Available to the public since 2003, the vest was designed for those with a compromised heart function, a heart functioning at less than 35% of full capacity.

The Life Vest can be worn under clothing and can be hidden from public view. The vest monitors its wearer the entire time it is worn through the use of four dry electrodes that are placed around ones chest.

The vest senses an arrhythmic beat in its user's heart and activates a vibrating alert. A siren will then sound from the vest and continue to get louder. If the vest were to malfunction or have a bad reading, the wearer can press two buttons simultaneously to cancel the treatment. If the treatment isnt canceled, the vest will perform a treatment shock and release a blue gel.

The blue gel is released in case the wearer were to wake up alone after suffering cardiac arrest and receiving shock treatment. The blue gel would notify them of what had happened and the person could seek medical treatment.

Its saving about three patients a day all across America, said Deering, who added that the vest has a 98% success rate after the first shock.

According to Deering, the Life Vest is meant to be used as bridging tool. If a patient is able to get their heart working above that 35% threshold, then they are no longer at as great of a risk for sudden cardiac arrest, and the device is no longer needed.

The Life Vest is available all over the world, and is accepted by Medicare and all Kentucky Medicaid, as well as most private medical insurances.

The next Noontime Knowledge will be held March 6 at the Corbin Library from noon-1 p.m.

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February's Noontime Knowledge event focuses on heart health - Times Tribune of Corbin