How To Prevent A heart Attack.

Heart attacks and new prevention methods

Inflammation and how it effects your heart

When plaque tears open, however, a blood clot forms at the point of injury. This clot can block the already narrowed vessel and cut off blood flow, thus causing a heart attack. And the longer the blood flow is absent, the more damage the heart sustains.

"Most people think heart attacks are caused by continuous narrowing of the arteries (with plaque)," Victor said, "but it's not like that. Some people don't have much plaque but their plaque is tearing open and causing heart attacks."

Previous studies were unable to determine whether the cells were in the plaque before the heart attacks occurred -- perhaps even causing them -- or gravitated to the point of injury after the attack.

To answer that question, Victor and Helfant studied plaque from 10 people who died of heart attacks. Four died within an hour of the their attack and six died several days later.

"We found no significant difference in the amount of inflammatory cells in the two groups," Victor said. "So it looks like these inflammatory cells are actually causing the plaque to break open and cause the heart attack, rather than being an inflammatory response after the heart attack."

In a previous study, Victor and co-researcher Richard Helfant, M.D., showed that people who died from heart attacks had clusters of collagen-dissolving inflammatory cells in their plaque. By contrast, people who died of other causes had extensive but stable plaque lacking the inflammatory cells.

These research findings could lead scientists to change their view of heart attacks, Victor said.

"Maybe a heart attack is not an inevitable product of our lifestyle. It could be just another inflammatory disease, such as arthritis," he said. "If there were some way to inhibit these enzymes, you might be able to prevent heart attacks."

The researcher emphasizes, however, that his findings do not make it any less important for individuals to lead healthy lifestyles in order to prevent heart disease and strokes.

The American Heart Association recommends that people should not smoke, stay physically active, control their blood pressure and eat foods that are low in saturated fat and cholesterol.

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