2017 American Heart Month
The main focus of American Heart Month is preventing Heart Disease – the leading cause of death in the United States – and that’s fantastic. Heart disease can lead to a myriad of complications and lifelong life-threatening illnesses. It can also lead to heart attacks and, ultimately, sudden cardiac arrest. There are many great articles out there which address heart disease prevention, offering tips, advice, and ways to breach the subject with loved ones you may be concerned about. A simple Google search for “preventing heart disease” will take you to a list of credible, authoritative sites. We highly recommend you take a few moments this month to learn as much as you can about how to stay heart safe and heart healthy!
Here at AED Superstore, we applaud the efforts of American Heart Month to raise awareness on these topics, but we also would like to take a moment to emphasize not all heart conditions can be prevented by exercise, diet, and lifestyle. Most of these conditions are congenital and go undiagnosed until a cardiac incident occurs, many times resulting in the death of the patient. Wolff-Parkinson-White Syndrome, Long-QT Syndrome, and Hypertrophic Cardiomyopathy are just a few of these. When these cardiac events occur, immediate CPR and defibrillation are crucial to the immediate survival, subsequent diagnosis and on-going treatment of the patient.
Common symptoms of almost all congenital heart conditions include shortness of breath, fainting, irregular (too fast, fluttering or unusual) heartbeats, and chest pain. The most common is fainting. Unexpected and frequent fainting spells are a strong indicator there could be an underlying heart condition. If you even suspect there may be problems with your own heart, or a loved one’s heart, it is worth mentioning it to your doctor.
Happy American Heart Month – from all of us here at AED Superstore!
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