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If you exercise five times a week for 20-25 minutes per day, you can decrease your risk of having a heart attack by 46 percent. Changing your eating habits to consume more heart healthy foods helps as well. In most cases, heart attacks happen when fatty deposits have lined the coronary arteries. These arteries become blocked as the deposits build up and decrease or stop the flow of blood to the heart. The heart muscle can die if blood and oxygen flow does not resume within a matter of minutes or hours.

Eating properly and exercising regularly helps to decrease the fatty deposits. However, it is important to remember that over exertion can lead to a heart attack. Exercise carefully, warm up slowly, don’t exercise during poor weather conditions, don’t exercise immediately after eating, and avoid exercising in polluted environments.

Symptoms of heart attacks include chest pain, shortness of breath, nausea and sweating. Symptoms are often very different between men and women. Women usually notice fatigue, inability to sleep at night, indigestion, anxiety and shortness of breath. Many women report not having chest pain before or during a heart attack.

People most at risk for heart attacks are people who have already suffered from a heart attack, smokers, people who are obese, diabetic, have high cholesterol or have a family history of heart attacks.

During heart attacks, a portion of the heart muscle can die as well. The first few hours during and after a heart attack are critical, because how the heart heals and its ability to function depends on the steps taken.

• Never try to ignore chest pain or a possible heart attack. It is imperative that the blockage be removed from the artery before too much of the heart dies.
• Never underestimate the seriousness. Call 911 and tell them you are having a heart attack. Don’t downplay the seriousness by saying your chest hurts, your arm hurts, you have shortness of breath, etc. Be on the safe side and tell them you are having a heart attack. It’s better to be safe and be wrong than the other way around.
• Emergency personnel should first stabilize your vital signs, and then prepare themselves for any life-threatening conditions you might go through, and then determine whether you are suffering from a heart attack.
• Treatment should begin before results from the blood tests arrive. This is important; any delay can further damage the heart.

If you experience problems or delays in the emergency room or in the hospital, your heart can be greatly damaged. Contact a medical malpractice lawyer immediately with your questions.