Can Your Heart Sometimes Stops and Starts Up Again

marzo 23, 2022 Publicar un comentario

Cardiology And Vascular Health
Health Topics
Heart Health
Agreement Heart Disease

When a Beating Heart Stops: Sudden Cardiac Arrest

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Sudden cardiac arrest is exactly what it sounds like. The heart stops beating. Unexpectedly. With no prior alarm. With no prior symptoms. Without the heart's steady pumping action, blood stops flowing to the torso's organs. Unless emergency aid restores the heartbeat and gets the blood moving over again within minutes, death volition event.

People sometimes confuse sudden cardiac arrest with a middle set on, but they are not the same thing. (Nonetheless, a heart assault can trigger sudden cardiac arrest). A heart attack results from a circulation problem: a blocked artery cuts off the blood supply to a portion of the middle. If it'south not remedied quickly, that portion of the heart begins to dice. Typically, heart attack symptoms develop over a number of hours, days, or weeks.

"The bottom line is that people demand to acquire CPR."

The Causes Of Sudden Cardiac Arrest

Sudden cardiac arrest results not from a circulation problem, but from an electrical problem with the middle. The center's rhythmic pumping is controlled by electrical impulses that cause the walls of the centre to contract, keeping the blood flowing through your body'southward veins and arteries at the proper charge per unit. If something goes wrong with the heart'due south electrical system, the regular rhythm of the eye'south beating can be thrown off, causing the center to beat too slowly, too quickly, or with an erratic, irregular rhythm. These conditions (called arrhythmias) can potentially cause the heart to stop pumping claret—that is, they can cause sudden cardiac arrest. About cases of sudden cardiac abort are caused by a specific blazon of arrhythmia chosen ventricular fibrillation.

Anyone with underlying coronary artery disease is near at risk for sudden cardiac arrest. Other things can put yous at gamble, such as a history of irregular heartbeat or a previous sudden cardiac arrest. You are as well at risk for sudden cardiac arrest if you lot have a congenital problem that affects the structure of your heart or if there are electrical abnormalities with your center's wiring. The greatest risk is really if you lot have underlying coronary artery disease with blocked arteries.

Some kinds of physical stress likewise tin can lead to sudden cardiac abort, including:

Intense concrete activeness
Major blood loss
Severe lack of oxygen

Your genes play a part as well. The tendency to have arrhythmias, which can lead to sudden cardiac arrest, sometimes runs in families, equally can other inherited atmospheric condition such as structural center problems.

If y'all've had a heart attack—even one that was subtle enough to get undiagnosed ( a "silent" heart attack — your risk of sudden cardiac abort is increased. Seek medical advice immediately if you notice any of the following symptoms:

Chest pain or pressure
Shortness of jiff, indigestion, unusual and unexplained sweating
Loss of stamina
New swelling in your ankles

Some people wonder if an individual feels whatever symptoms just prior to sudden cardiac arrest. This is a hard question to respond considering lots of times you don't have any symptoms at all. Suddenly you just collapse. If the sudden cardiac abort is preceded by something else commencement, say you had a heart attack or you had some type of irregular heartbeat that was sustained, you might experience a fluttering in your chest or you might feel lightheaded or light-headed or pass out.

How Is Sudden Cardiac Abort Treated?

When a Beating Heart Stops small

Past its very nature, sudden cardiac arrest is an extreme medical emergency, and the fact is, most people who take sudden cardiac abort die from it. For handling to have any hope of success, it must be practical within merely a few minutes.

Cardiologist Kevin Kravitz, MD, advises that someone call 911 immediately. "If cardiac abort is due to a fast rhythm problem," Dr. Kravitz says, "y'all need to be shocked to restore the heart's pumping power. If you have cardiac arrest because the heart is very wearisome or is stopped, shocking it volition non help."

An automated external defibrillator (AED) is a portable electronic device that works to restore the heart's normal electrical activity and get the eye chirapsia again. AEDs are found in emergency vehicles such as ambulances and police force cars, and are oft available in public areas such every bit sports arenas, malls, hotels, and role buildings.

Simply AEDs are not available everywhere. And, since cardiac abort can strike anywhere, Dr. Kravitz stresses the importance of everyone learning how to perform CPR. "Until an AED is available, chest compressions are essential to pump claret effectually the trunk, and specially to the brain. If the brain does non accept oxygen for about 5 minutes, the patient will get encephalon-dead or shut to it. Even if you then shock them and keep them live, at that place likely will be no meaningful brain role."

Dr. Kravitz says that if no AED is bachelor, and no ane nearby knows CPR, the only hope is that the paramedics arrive very quickly. "The bottom line is that people need to larn CPR," he says.

Dr. Kravitz explains that for those who survive sudden cardiac arrest, "nosotros try to fix whatsoever underlying problem that may have caused it. Structural issues with the heart often tin be fixed to reduce the take a chance of another sudden cardiac abort effect. Electric problems tin can exist managed with an implanted defibrillator, which provides a jolt to restart the heart."

Are There Means To Prevent Sudden Cardiac Arrest?

In that location is no way to absolutely foreclose sudden cardiac abort, only if you know you're at risk for the status, you tin can help yourself by addressing the underlying problems that put yous at risk. Dr. Kravitz advises, "In someone with a known history of centre issues, heart attacks, weak heart, a family history of sudden cardiac abort, or family unit history of genetic heart rhythm problems, I would exist very worried about symptoms such as palpitations, lightheadedness, passing out, or about-passing-out episodes."

If you lot take questions or concerns about the possibility of centre disease or your potential for incurring sudden cardiac arrest, talk to your physician or health care provider.