When Youngsters Have a Heart Attack

Men Face An Increased Risk of Heart Attack Comparatively

​Blood pressure, stroke, diabetes or heart attack don’t differentiate people and treat every individual equally. These diseases neither know that they should be attacking only older people and spare the younger generation. A person might be fit, healthy, normal weight, does not smoke cigarette or drink alcohol and eats a healthy diet. Still he/she might be affected by a heart attack due to certain other reasons such as birth control pills, Sjogren’s syndrome, increase in lipoprotein level and many more.

Heart diseases is the number one killer among men and women, yet young people, especially those in good health, don’t think about getting themselves tested as they don’t doubt/care about their heart health or their doctors too don’t think that they need to be tested.

There are two interesting facts about heart attack in the younger population:

1. Heart attack numbers have only been rising since the last 30 or so years for middle-age and older adults. There are no definite reasons for this, but mostly point to lifestyle factors such as smoking, leading sedentary lifestyle due to their desk jobs, unhealthy diets and shift-based jobs.
2. As heart attack in younger people is not common, when it hits someone at a young age it leaves the person devastated with an intense psychological impact. Mental health check-ups post attack convey that these younger patients experience severe levels of depression, anxiety and post-traumatic stress disorder (PTSD).
   
   

Finetune Lifestyle Choices
Research tells that three of four heart attacks in young people could be prevented if they follow the below given healthy lifestyle rules. Rules might seem to be elementary, but the results are far-reaching.

1. Maintain a healthy weight. If you need support on changing your eating habits and doing physical activity, please get in touch with a registered dietitian nutritionist at www.firsteatright.com who can guide you to lose weight in a healthy way.
2. Do at least 150 minutes of physical activity every week
3. Don’t smoke
4. Eat a healthy diet rich in produce and limit red meat consumption
5. Avoid alcohol. If not, limit drinking to one drink per day
6. Restrict TV time. Don’t watch beyond 60 minutes every day
7. Get your blood pressure and cholesterol levels tested once in five years since your twenties.
   
   

How does it feel to get a heart attack at a young age?

The individual feels void: Life changes overnight for young individuals who are affected by a heart attack. While all their life they have been partying, working, having fun, socializing, parenting and living good, a heart attack makes a person feel house-arrested and bored. Restrictions such as abstaining from alcohol, fatty food and smoking makes them feel deprived of the pleasures in life.

Fears death: Dying or death is not in a youngster’s dictionary and when heart attack strikes, the person starts fearing death. They worry about their future and the condition of their family. Even trivial pain in the body (arm or chest) makes them fear a heart attack.

Learns something positive out of it: Some individuals find something positive in every experience and these people take their heart attack too that way. They either start leading a healthier lifestyle, cut down smoking, drinking alcohol or reduce their consumption of fatty foods. They also suggest others, their family, friends and colleagues, to start leading a healthier lifestyle and avoid making the same mistake that they had committed.
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One thing is clear-younger people who experience heart attack are mentally unstable compared to older people. Owing to this, they are less likely to attend rehab, do exercises, take medicines and make lifestyle changes that makes recovery easier. These people get quickly discharged from hospitals as they become physically fit and what needs to be done is to govern their mental health to enable a quicker physical rehab. While many young people think that heart attack draws their life to an end, what they don’t realize is that, it is the beginning of a better life when they follow the instructions given by their doctor and work hard on it.