Wednesday May 22 , 2013

HEALTH & WELL BEING - HEART ATTACK - HOW TO HELP YOURSELF

 A soldier who survived mustard gas and pepper spray is now a seasoned veteran.


heart attack - how to help yourself
 

Heart attack info NEW ASPIRIN -  Serious stuff, no joke!!  
 
Just a reminder to all: purchase a box, keep one in your car, pocket book, wallet, bedside, etc.  
 
IMPORTANT READ......  
 
Something that we can do to help ourselves.  Nice to know.  
Bayer is making crystal aspirin to dissolve under the tongue. They work much faster than the tablets.  

Why keep aspirin by your bedside?  
About Heart Attacks

There are other symptoms of an heart attack besides  the pain on the left arm.  
One must also be aware of  an intense pain on the chin, as well as nausea and lots of sweating, however these symptoms may also occur less frequently..
Note: There may be NO pain in the chest during a heart attack..  The majority of people (about 60%) who  had a heart attack during their sleep, did not wake up.  However, if it occurs, the chest pain may wake you up from your deep sleep.


If that happens,  immediately dissolve  two aspirins in your mouth and swallow them with a bit of water .
Afterwards
:  
           CALL 999
-  say  "heart attack!"
-  say that you have  taken 2 aspirins..
 
-  phone a neighbor or a  family member who lives very close by
-  take a seat on a chair or sofa near the front door, and wait for their arrival  and...
~   DO NOT lie down ~ 

 

Let's say it's 6.15pm and you're going home, after an unusually hard day at work.

You're really tired, upset and frustrated.

Suddenly you start experiencing severe pain in your chest that starts to drag out into your arm and up into your jaw You are only about five miles from the hospital nearest your home. Unfortunately you don't know if you'll be able to make it that far. You have been trained in CPR, but the guy that taught the course did not tell you how to perform it on yourself..


HOW TO SURVIVE A HEART ATTACK WHEN ALONE
 


Since many people are alone when they suffer a heart attack, without help, the person whose heart is beating improperly and who begins to feel faint, has only about 10 seconds left before losing consciousness.

However, these victims can help themselves by coughing repeatedly and very vigorously. A deep breath should be taken before each cough, and the cough must be deep and prolonged, as when producing sputum from deep inside the chest.

A breath and a cough must be repeated about every two seconds without let-up until help arrives, or until the heart is felt to be beating normally again.

Deep breaths get oxygen into the lungs and coughing movements squeeze the heart and keep the blood circulating. The squeezing pressure on the heart also helps it regain normal rhythm. In this way, heart attack victims can get to a hospital. Tell as many
Other people as possible about this. It could save their lives!!



 

7 Things You Might Not Know About Salt

We’ve been reading a whole lot recently about themagic combination of salt, sugar and fat, and how the junk food industry has been sneakily using this combo to hook us on their products.

But what do you know about just plain salt, on its own?

1. It’s Bad Luck To Spill Salt

According to superstition, spilling salt can cause bad luck, an idea that seems to have have originated with Leonardo da Vinci’s painting “The Last Supper.” If you look closely, you can see that Judas Iscariot, the man who betrayed Jesus, has knocked the salt cellar over with his elbow. Thanks to Judas, spilled salt is associated with treachery and lies. Oh, and by the way, if you do spill salt, a pinch thrown over your left shoulder is supposed to blind the devil waiting there.

2. Too Much Salt Leads To Heart Problems

Salt makes your body hold on to water, so if you take in too much salt, you’ll be storing extra water in your body, which will raise your blood pressure. That in turn will lead to a greater strain on your heart, arteries, kidneys and brain. A study in the British Medical Journal suggests that if we were to cut our salt intake by 3 grams per day, the US alone would have up to 120,000 fewer cases of coronary heart disease, 66,000 fewer strokes and 99,000 fewer heart attacks annually.

3. An Overdose Of Salt Can Lead To Osteoporosis

It’s also true that an overdose of salt can put you at risk for osteoporosis and kidney stones. That’s because for some people, when sodium intake becomes too high, the body gets rid of it through urine. But sometimes, when it does that, it also takes calcium with it, and that could contribute toward osteoporosis. At the same time, the increased amount of calcium in urine may contribute to the development of kidney stones.

4. Salt In Moderation Is Good For You

However, there’s no reason to quit salt entirely. If high blood pressure is not an issue for you, and you’re generally healthy, you don’t need to worry about it. According to the The Institute of Medicine, we shouldn’t exceed 2,300 mg of salt a day, but most people do (by about a 1,000 mg), and it’s most likely not going to do great damage to your body. As always, consult with your doctor on what works best for you.

5. In Fact, Not Enough Salt Can Kill You

Just like animals who seek out a salt lick, we humans need an adequate supply of salt. Hyponatremia, which refers to a dangerously low level of salt in the body, occurs when a person drinks excessive amounts of water, resulting in a very low concentration of sodium in the blood. This is most commonly seen in long-distance runners and athletes. In the most serious of cases, an athlete may experience seizures, coma or even death.

6. Sea Salt Is No Better For You Than Table Salt

Sea salt and table salt have basically the same nutritional value. They d0 differ in how they are processed, how they taste, and in their texture, but not in their chemical makeup. Sea salt, which is produced through evaporation of sea water, can contain a few trace minerals. Table salt is mined from underground salt deposits and is usually stripped of its natural minerals, even though iodine is often added.

7. Thomas Jefferson Spoke Of A Salt Mountain In Louisiana

To achieve the Louisiana Purchase, one of his triumphs, President Jefferson cited reports of a “salt mountain.” “This mountain is said to be 180 miles long and 45 in width, composed of solid rock salt, without any trees or even shrubs on it.” Unsurprisingly the salt mountain was never found; speculation was that the reports referred to Oklahoma’s Great Salt Plains.



Read more: http://www.care2.com/causes/7-things-you-might-not-know-about-salt-2.html#ixzz2Odvl3eFS

 

 

 

 


10 HEART ATTACK SYMPTOMS

Twice I have ended up in hospital thinking I was having a heart attack. In my 30's I over strained at the gym one day and had the most awful pain in my chest,  and 2 years ago ( in 2010 ) through the actions of  Kristian who stole from us,  stress and enxiety took me to the hospital.  In both cases when I told the doctors I felt guilty for wasting their time, they immediately told me that if EVER I have any fears or thoughts I might be having a heart attack, to come straight to the hospital or dial 999 - REGARDLESS of whether it might be stress or a muscle strain,  as the symptoms are very similar and not worth taking the risk.  They insisted that on all occasions,  call 999 and get it checked out immediately.

A friend sent me this piece below recently and I thought it of interest.
 


Heart attacks don’t always strike out of the blue — there are many symptoms we can watch for in the days and weeks leading up to an attack. But the symptoms may not be the ones we expect. And they can be different in men and women, and different still in older adults. Last year, for example, a landmark study by the National Institutes of Health (NIH) published in Circulation: Journal of the American Heart Institute found that 95 percent of women who’d had heart attacks reported experiencing symptoms in the weeks and months before the attack — but the symptoms weren’t the expected chest pain, so they went unrecognized.

Don’t let that happen to you. Here, 10 heart symptoms you’re likely to ignore — and shouldn’t.

1. Indigestion or nausea
One of the most oft-overlooked signs of a heart attack is nausea and stomach pain. Symptoms can range from mild indigestion to severe nausea, cramping, and vomiting. Others experience a cramping-style ache in the upper belly. Women and adults over age 60 are more likely to experience this symptom and not recognize it as tied to cardiac health.

Most cases of stomach ache and nausea aren’t caused by a heart attack, of course. But watch out for this sign by becoming familiar with your own digestive habits; pay attention when anything seems out of the ordinary, particularly if it comes on suddenly and you haven’t been exposed to stomach flu and haven’t eaten anything out of the ordinary.

2. Jaw, ear, neck, or shoulder pain
A sharp pain and numbness in the chest, shoulder, and arm is an indicator of heart attack, but many people don’t experience heart attack pain this way at all. Instead, they may feel pain in the neck or shoulder area, or it may feel like it’s running along the jaw and up by the ear. Some women specifically report feeling the pain between their shoulder blades.

A telltale sign: The pain comes and goes, rather than persisting unrelieved, as a pulled muscle would. This can make the pain both easy to overlook and difficult to pinpoint. You may notice pain in your neck one day, none the next day, then after that it might have moved to your ear and jaw. If you notice pain that seems to move or radiate upwards and out, this is important to bring to your doctor’s attention.

3. Sexual dysfunction
Having trouble achieving or keeping erections is common in men with coronary artery disease, but they may not make the connection. Just as arteries around the heart can narrow and harden, so can those that supply the penis — and because those arteries are smaller, they may show damage sooner. One survey of European men being treated for cardiovascular disease found that two out of three had suffered from erectile dysfunction before they were ever diagnosed with heart trouble

4. Exhaustion or fatigue
A sense of crushing fatigue that lasts for several days is another sign of heart trouble that’s all too often overlooked or explained away. Women, in particular, often look back after a heart attack and mention this symptom. More than 70 percent of women in last year’s NIH study, for example, reported extreme fatigue in the weeks or months prior to their heart attack.

The key here is that the fatigue is unusually strong — not the kind of tiredness you can power through but the kind that lays you flat out in bed. If you’re normally a fairly energetic person and suddenly feel sidelined by fatigue, a call to your doctor is in order.

5. Breathlessness and dizziness
When your heart isn’t getting enough blood, it also isn’t getting enough oxygen. And when there’s not enough oxygen circulating in your blood, the result is feeling unable to draw a deep, satisfying breath — the same feeling you get when you’re at high elevation. Additional symptoms can be light- headedness and dizziness. But sadly, people don’t attribute this symptom to heart disease, because they associate breathing with the lungs, not the heart.

In last year’s NIH study, more than 40 percent of women heart attack victims remembered experiencing this symptom. A common description of the feeling: “I couldn’t catch my breath while walking up the driveway.”

6. Leg swelling or pain
When the heart muscle isn’t functioning properly, waste products aren’t carried away from tissues by the blood, and the result can be edema, or swelling caused by fluid retention. Edema usually starts in the feet, ankles, and legs because they’re furthest from the heart, where circulation is poorer. In addition, when tissues don’t get enough blood, it can lead to a painful condition called ischemia. Bring swelling and pain to the attention of your doctor.

7. Sleeplessness, insomnia, and anxiety
This is an odd one doctors can’t yet explain. Those who’ve had heart attacks often remember experiencing a sudden, unexplained inability to fall asleep or stay asleep during the month or weeks before their heart attack. (Note: If you already experience insomnia regularly, this symptom can be hard to distinguish.)

Patients often report the feeling as one of being “keyed up” and wound tight; they remember lying in bed with racing thoughts and sometimes a racing heart. In the NIH report, many of the women surveyed reported feeling a sense of “impending doom,” as if a disaster were about to occur. If you don’t normally have trouble sleeping and begin to experience acute insomnia and anxiety for unexplained reasons, speak with your doctor.

8. Flu-like symptoms
Clammy, sweaty skin, along with feeling light-headed, fatigued, and weak, leads some people to believe they’re coming down with the flu when, in fact, they’re having a heart attack. Even the feeling of heaviness or pressure in the chest — typical of some people’s experience in a heart attack — may be confused with having a chest cold or the flu.

Know the Different Symptoms of a Cold, Flu, Swine Flu, or Pneumonia- check these out on the internet.

If you experience severe flu -like symptoms that don’t quite add up to the flu (no high temperature,
for example), call your doctor or advice nurse to talk it over. Watch out also for persistent wheezing or chronic coughing that doesn’t resolve itself; that can be a sign of heart disease, experts say. Patients sometimes attribute these symptoms to a cold or flu, asthma, or lung disease when what’s happening is that poor circulation is causing fluid to accumulate in the lungs.

9. Rapid-fire pulse or heart rate
One little-known symptom that sometimes predates a heart attack is known as ventricular tachycardia, more commonly described as rapid and irregular pulse and heart rate. During these episodes, which come on suddenly, you feel as if your heart is beating very fast and hard, like you just ran up a hill — except you didn’t. “I’d look down and I could actually see my heart pounding,” one person recalled. It can last just a few seconds or longer; if longer, you may also notice dizziness and weakness.
Some patients confuse these episodes with panic attacks. Rapid pulse and heartbeat that aren’t brought on by exertion always signal an issue to bring to your doctor’s attention.

10. You just don’t feel like yourself
Heart attacks in older adults (especially those in their 80s and beyond, or in those who have dementia or multiple health conditions), can mimic many other conditions. But an overall theme heard from those whose loved ones suffered heart attacks is that in the days leading up to and after a cardiac event, they “just didn’t seem like themselves.”

A good rule of thumb, experts say, is to watch for clusters of symptoms that come on all at once and aren’t typical of your normal experience. For example, a normally alert, energetic person suddenly begins to have muddled thinking, memory loss, deep fatigue, and a sense of being “out of it.” The underlying cause could be something as simple as a urinary tract infection, but it could also be a heart attack. If your body is doing unusual things and you just don’t feel “right,” don’t wait. See a doctor and ask for a thorough work-up.

And if you have any risk factors for cardiac disease, such as high blood pressure, high cholesterol, smoking, or family history of heart disease, make sure the doctor knows about those issues, too.

 

 

 
I know a guy who's addicted to brake fluid.  But he says he can stop any time.

 

 

 

 

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