Heart attacks: Contrary to popular belief, young adults are not immune

Myocardial infarction – often misnamed a “heart attack” – occurs when a clot partially or completely blocks an artery, blocking blood flow to the heart muscle. Deprived of oxygen, heart muscle cells undergo necrosis over a more or less extensive area. The result is rhythm disturbances, heart failure or even heart failure.

Heart Attack: Only in the Elderly?

For a long time, myocardial infarction has been associated with increasing age. This is also an observation: the disease mainly affects men over 55 years of age and women between 65 and 70 years of age. However, smaller subjects can also be affected. A few years ago, the FAST-MI 2015 survey told us that 23.9% of patients admitted to the intensive care unit for a heart attack were under 50 years of age. Since then, numerous studies have confirmed that “heart attacks” are increasingly common among young adults. “1 in 4 women have a heart attack before age 65, compared to 1 in 6 in 2003

“, explains the Cardio-Vascular Research Foundation.

Is our lifestyle to blame?

A heart attack can actually occur earlier if a person has cardiovascular risk factors. Some factors, such as age and family history, cannot be controlled. But others are mostly fixable:

• smoking. It promotes narrowing of arteries, formation of clots and the appearance of heart rhythm disorders. Over the long term, tobacco gradually damages the arteries. The risk of heart attack is thus proportional to tobacco consumption;
• Poorly controlled diabetes. Too much glucose in the blood can actually damage the walls of the arteries;
• High cholesterol (HDL cholesterol). “A high-fat diet, overweight or obesity, or in the absence of physical activity, bad cholesterol increases and accumulates on the walls of the arteries in the form of fatty deposits.“Medicare Explained.”Over time, these deposits can slow and block blood circulation.“
• Cannabis use. Its consumption reduces the supply of oxygen to the heart muscle;
• Excessive alcohol consumption

How to work?

In men, the pain is around the chest and spreads to the arms and jaw. Shortness of breath, sweating… For women, the most common symptom is chest pain or discomfort. But an infarction can also be manifested by fatigue, palpitations and nausea.

Faced with these alarming signs, it is important to notify the emergency services (type 15 or 18).