Myocardial infarction is an acute pathological condition during which necrosis of the cells of the heart muscle (myocardium) occurs in the body. After the cells die, connective tissue appears in their place, which lacks the ability to contract in response to the electrical impulses that come from the central nervous system.
Signs of a heart attack in women will be considered in this article.
What are the causes of myocardial infarction?
According to statistical information, women are included in the zone of increased risk of myocardial infarction. This is primarily due to the female hormonal background, namely, the production of estrogen. A hormone such as estrogen acts on vascular expansion, which affects the functioning of the heart muscle. However, with hormonal failure during pregnancy, menopause, and menstrual irregularities, estrogen production decreases quite significantly. This leads to the fact that the system of the heart and blood vessels begins to give out failures in their work.
Signs of a heart attack in women are of interest to many.
How to determine the approaching heart attack?
The fact that a little heart attack is creeping up to a person can be judged by a number of certain symptoms.
A heart attack is able to make itself felt a few hours before its exacerbation. However, if you have only a few minutes left, it is very important to understand in a timely manner how to provide first aid and not get confused.
It is important to be able to recognize signs of a heart attack in women older than 50 years or the precursors of this condition, this will help to provide timely assistance if necessary.
- Apnea or snoring while sleeping at night. Apnea is a sudden cessation of breathing during a calm state. Snoring is a respiratory failure. Both pathologies become the reason that the heart does not receive oxygen in the amount that is required for its life. This factor can subsequently lead to coronary heart disease.
- Weakness throughout the body and fatigue.
- Insomnia, sleep disturbances over a long time period.
- Defects in the functioning of the gastrointestinal tract.
- Dental diseases, and more specifically, periodontal disease, that is, gum bleeding. The reason for it lies in the violation of the activity of the heart muscle, which provokes circulatory dysfunction on the periphery.
- Pathological transformations of the functioning of the heart.
- Arrhythmia. Its cause is dysfunction of the coronary artery, which is the main source of nutrition for the heart muscle. How else to determine the approaching heart attack in older women?
- Swelling of the legs and feet. This factor, as a rule, is caused by impaired fluid outflow from the body, which occurs due to insufficiency of the heart.
- Discomfortable pain that is localized in the left forearm.
- Respiratory difficulties are the main sign of heart failure.
- Dyspnea.
- Severe pain in the head.
- Increased pressure.
- Urinating too often, especially at night.
Signs of myocardial infarction
The first signs of a heart attack in a woman are:
- pain that is localized in the left side of the chest;
- a feeling of heaviness in the chest;
- pain in the upper abdomen;
- burning near the heart and in the upper abdomen;
- discomfort in the jaw area;
- heart pain stitching;
- aching teeth pain;
- pain in the neck;
- pain starting in the left chest area, which after a few seconds passes to the left arm;
- a sharp decrease in blood pressure;
- shortness of breath that occurs when the body position changes;
- increased sweating
- numbness of the legs and arms;
- vomiting reflex;
- dizziness;
- nausea;
- slurred, slow and slurred speech;
- panic feeling of fear;
- neuralgic manifestations, anxiety;
- panic attacks;
- defects in visual function;
- bronchospasm;
- pulmonary edema.
Signs of a heart attack in women is important not to ignore.
First aid for these symptoms
If the above symptoms occur, then help consists primarily in an emergency call to the medical team. In the event that others could call her and she will arrive within ten minutes, the chances of avoiding complications after suffering a heart attack in women over 50 are increased. Signs may not appear all at once, but only some of them. This is all very individual.
Regardless of this, the patient must be placed on a horizontal even surface. A small pillow is placed under the head.
After that, you need to unfasten those parts of clothing that are able to block breathing.
You can not get up in any case, since the affected heart in this case will stop functioning.
Then you need to give the patient under the tongue one tablet of "Nitroglycerin", as well as one - "Analgin".
In the absence of ambulance at the first signs of a heart attack in a woman, for thirty minutes it is necessary to give the victim under the tongue another Nitroglycerin tablet.
If the patient has a panic state, you can stop the attack of “Corvalol” or Valerian.
It is necessary to carefully monitor the breathing. If its severity is weak and the heartbeat stops, it is urgently necessary to reanimate the patient. For this purpose, indirect cardiac massage or mouth-to-mouth artificial respiration is used. How does a heart attack manifest in young women?
Pregnancy and heart attack
During pregnancy, estrogens are produced intensely, in addition, there is an increase in myocardial filling with blood per minute, and therefore the risk of developing a heart attack is minimized. But in medical practice, there are still cases of this pathology in pregnant women. This disease affects patients who have taken oral contraceptives for a long period. Long-term use of contraceptives negatively affects the vascular walls.
The signs of a heart attack in a woman of 30 years are not particularly different from the symptoms in an elderly person.
Dietary nutrition after a heart attack
If a woman has a heart attack, then what kind of diet is required? After the patient suffered a heart attack, it is advisable to adhere to a diet in the acute period of the development and course of the disease (during the first week after a heart attack). Eat at least six times a day, without overeating, in moderate portions.
Diet purpose
With this pathology, the goals of the diet are as follows:
- weight reduction if necessary and possible;
- following the rules of good nutrition.
The prevention of chronic fatigue syndrome and stress, moderate physical activity, and monitoring of blood pressure, cholesterol and blood glucose are important.
Summary
The causes of heart attack in the fairer sex have long been investigated.
- Vascular obstruction after surgery (e.g., arterial ligation, angioplasty, etc.).
- Blood clots in the coronary artery (observed very often, in 95% of cases).
- Spasms of the heart arteries caused by angina pectoris.
However, regardless of the reason, the most important thing is to deliver the patient to the hospital as quickly as possible and provide her with timely medical attention.
We examined signs of a heart attack in women.