American Medical Association Family Medical Guide - American Medical Association [18]
• Avoid smoky environments. Secondhand smoke at home or work can cause heart disease and worsen existing heart disease.
What Is a Heart Attack?
Blood reaches the heart through the coronary arteries. Fatty deposits called plaque can build up inside the walls of arteries, making them narrower. This process, called atherosclerosis, or hardening of the arteries, develops gradually over many years. If a plaque ruptures, a blood clot can form, reducing blood flow to the heart even more. If a clot suddenly cuts off most or all of the blood supply to the heart, a heart attack results. Cells in the heart muscle that don’t receive enough oxygen-carrying blood begin to die. The more time that passes without treatment to restore blood flow to the heart, the greater the damage to the heart muscle.
Sites of heart attack pain
The symptoms of a heart attack are sometimes hard to identify because a heart attack can feel different to different people. You could feel pain in any of the areas of the body shown here, or you could feel pain in only your arms, jaw, or back. Women’s symptoms, especially, can vary considerably from the classic signs of a heart attack. Women are more likely than men to experience dizziness, nausea, sweating, weakness, and faintness along with chest pain.
Chest pain that spreads to your neck or jaw
Crushing pain in your chest that radiates to your left shoulder
Deep, dull pain or a tight, heavy, or squeezing sensation under your breastbone
Chest pain that spreads to your back
Pay Attention to Angina
If too little blood reaches the heart because of narrowed arteries, chest pain (called angina) can develop. Angina can feel like erratic pain or heaviness, tightness, burning, or squeezing in the chest. The pain can be mild and intermittent or more pronounced and steady, and can start in the center of the chest and radiate to the left shoulder, arm, jaw, or lower teeth. Angina often occurs during physical exertion or times of stress. Angina is a sign that you have heart disease and are at risk of having a heart attack.
If you think you could have angina, tell your doctor right away. Getting prompt treatment for angina can prevent you from having a heart attack. The most common treatment for angina is a drug called nitroglycerin, which reduces the pain by widening the blood vessels to allow more blood to reach the heart.
Cancer
Cancer is the second leading cause of death in the US (after heart disease), causing more than half a million deaths each year. One out of two men and one out of three women develop some kind of cancer at some time in their life. Most cancers are diagnosed in people over age 55. Early detection and treatment increase your chances for a cure, so be sure to perform routine self-examinations (see page 137), have all the recommended screening tests (see page 143), and report any suspicious symptoms to your doctor.
What Is Cancer?
Cancer is a group of diseases characterized by the uncontrolled multiplication of cells that occurs when genes that control cell division or cell turnover (cell death and replacement) undergo mutations (changes). These genetic mutations are sometimes inherited or present at birth, but usually they result from environmental factors (such as radiation or cigarette smoke) that damage critical regulatory genes.
Cell turnover is a tightly balanced process that keeps the body healthy. In normal tissue, old or damaged cells die naturally before they can become cancerous or cause other problems, and are replaced by healthy new cells—a process called apoptosis. In cancer this balance is upset—when damage occurs to either the genes that tell cells when to stop