Heart Attacks

A heart attack, or its scientific name of myocardial infarction, is a life-threatening event that occurs when blood flow to the heart is blocked, depriving the heart muscle of oxygen. Often caused by a buildup of plaque in the coronary arteries, heart attacks can strike suddenly and require immediate medical attention. While symptoms like chest pain, shortness of breath, and nausea are common, warning signs can vary, making awareness crucial for early intervention.

Here, Raaid Museitif, MD, Cardiologist at Fort HealthCare, discusses the causes, risk factors, symptoms, and prevention strategies for heart attacks, helping you understand how to protect your heart and recognize the signs before it’s too late.

The Heart’s “Mechanics”

The heart functions as a pump, circulating oxygen-rich blood throughout the body. Dr. Museitif likens it to a sump pump that moves water. Blood flows out of the heart through the aorta, the body’s main artery, which branches off into smaller arteries that supply various organs, including the heart itself. The coronary arteries, responsible for feeding the heart with oxygen and energy, play a vital role in maintaining its function.

When the heart works harder—such as during exercise—these arteries expand to meet the increased demand. However, like aging pipes in a house, these arteries can develop blockages due to plaque buildup. When a blockage occurs, the affected part of the heart muscle is deprived of oxygen and energy, leading to tissue death and ultimately a heart attack.

Heart Attack Risk Factors

The arteries supplying blood to the heart are dynamic structures with multiple layers that allow them to expand and contract. However, as we age, various factors—such as smoking, obesity, inactivity, and diabetes—can damage the inner artery lining. This damage allows cholesterol to penetrate the artery walls, gradually forming plaque that narrows the vessel and restricts blood flow.

Over time, this can lead to chest pain and shortness of breath. In some cases, the plaque can rupture, triggering the body’s immune response. Mistaking the plaque for a harmful invader, the body forms a blood clot around it, which can completely block the artery.

“When you form a blood clot inside an artery, you just clog the pipe. And when you clog the pipe, then no more blood flow goes past that clog. It cuts off the blood flow to that area of the muscle, and you get a heart attack,” explains Dr. Museitif.

Why Being Proactive Is So Important

Heart attack symptoms can vary, and in some cases, there may be no warning signs at all. This is why regular wellness checks and screenings with a healthcare provider are crucial. Classic symptoms include chest tightness, shortness of breath during physical activity, dizziness, or even fainting. Chest pain can feel like heaviness, squeezing, or pressure, but symptoms can also be subtle, such as numbness or tingling in the left arm or even a toothache. Many people dismiss these early signs as aging or weight gain, leading to delayed treatment.

One major issue is that symptoms typically don’t appear until an artery is at least 70% blocked. However, most heart attacks actually occur when blockages are less than 35%, before symptoms are noticeable. This happens when a thin cap over a small plaque buildup ruptures, triggering an immune response that forms a sudden blood clot, leading to an emergency heart attack.

“Those are the heart attacks where people end up in the hospital and require an emergent procedure. It’s important for all of us to be screened for risk factors. See your primary care provider for your wellness visit and discuss available screening tests they can do to try to determine whether or not you have blockages before you feel them,” urges Dr. Museitif.

Prompt Treatment Enables Positive Outcomes

While heart disease remains the leading cause of death in the United States, advancements in treatment have significantly improved outcomes. Emergency treatments include powerful medications, similar to liquid drain cleaners, that help clear blockages. If experiencing chest pain or shortness of breath, calling 911 is crucial, as EMS personnel can perform an EKG on-site to detect a heart attack and alert the hospital in advance. This early intervention speeds up treatment upon arrival.

Hospitals also have cardiac catheterization labs, where doctors use a small tube inserted through the wrist or arm to identify blockages. If found, a tiny balloon can be used to open the artery and restore blood flow, much like a plumbing procedure to clear a clogged drain.

“If someone has onset of symptoms and they’re able to call 911, their survival rate is very good. We can get in there and open it up. Medicine has evolved a lot,” assures Dr. Museitif. “True, we still have a ways to go. But, just to give you an example, more than fifty years ago if you had a heart attack, the only thing they would do is have you lay in a bed for thirty days. People would develop blood clots and die due to being so sedentary. One physician at Harvard started to get people up out of their bed at two weeks and people were screaming at that person that he was committing malpractice by moving someone. So, we’ve come a long way.”