The Health Blog

CHEST HEAVINESS WITH PAIN THAT MOVES INTO JAW AND DOWN LEFT ARM, WITH SWEATING: TREATMENT AFTER A HEART ATTACK

In the first few days and weeks after a heart attack, your doctor will primarily be concerned with controlling your heart rate and blood pressure and preventing any more damage to the heart. The high-tech coronary care units in most hospitals are well equipped to monitor your heart rate and blood pressure.

Once your condition has stabilized, the team will use an angiogram or another test, such as an echocardiogram, to determine the extent of the damage and whether bypass surgery is necessary to open the clogged blood vessels that caused the heart attack. Bypass surgery is a course of last resort, to be used when an angioplasty—a nonsurgical technique that uses a tiny balloon to open up a blocked coronary artery—does not do the trick.

If you experience no complications, you will probably be released in a week. After you leave the hospital and recover fully from the heart attack—which takes about a month—your doctor and other medical professionals, such as an exercise physiologist, a dietitian, and a stress manager, will work with you to develop a long-term commitment to changing your lifestyle, which includes attention to a low-fat, low-cholesterol diet, regular exercise, quitting smoking, and perhaps job retraining if necessary, for instance, if your job involves severe physical or emotional stress. The diet plan I offer my post-heart attack patients is pretty simple: Limit your intake of animal protein, which includes chicken, fish, and meat, and try to eliminate red meat entirely. Substitute low-fat cheese, milk, and ice cream for high-fat dairy products, and refrain from eating fried foods. I also suggest that patients eat no mote than two eggs a week, go easy on the butter and margarine— olive oil is better—and eliminate junk foods such as potato chips; pretzels are better.

Today, fortunately, if a patient has proper rehabilitation and makes the proper lifestyle changes, a heart attack does not mean the end of a productive life. I’ve seen many people, even in their 60s and 70s, use a heart attack as an excuse for a whole new—healthier—lease on life.

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