Casefile 9: Let's play HEART ATTACK

Woah. Heart attack is so scary!!!

Oh, by the way, our topic was deficiency diseases. So what has heart attacks got to do with deficiency diseases?

Let us look back at how a heart attack occurs. According to Inspector Zhao, blood clots block the blood vessels supplying blood to the heart. When the blood is blocked, the amount of blood that is able to pass the blockage and reach the heart is highly reduced. This condition is called ischaemia.

Ischaemia

Ischaemia is the disease that occurs when there is reduced blood supply to the heart. Prolonged untreated ischaemia will lead to a total blockage of blood in the blood vessels as the blood clots build up. No blood is supplied to the heart and a heart attack occurs!!!

After-effects of ischaemia:
Temporary damage and pain, Acute heart failure (Short-term), Chronic heart failure (Long-term), Permanent heart damage (ok, the cartoon has both figurative and literal meanings. :)), Irregular heartbeat (can be fatal), Structural damage of heart e.g. heart valves

Ischaemia can be fatal!! It is the most common cause of death in the western countries!!!

So, take precautions!
- Do not light a cigarette, you're harming everyone!
- Maintain low blood pressure, not low blood sugar! Remember hypoglycemia?
- Exercise regularly, it strengthens your muscles! By the way, your heart is a muscle.
- Monitor your weight, obesity increases body fat stores e.g. abdominal fat. This increases the heart's workload. Don't be so cruel to your heart, it's part of your body!
- Damn those trans-fats. Eat less fast food, remember our trans fat article!
- Monitor and reduce cholesterol
- Three cheers to vitamin C (maintains healthy blood vessels)

Oh, and when you give people a surprise, make sure it's a pleasant one. Don't give them a... Click here.

P.S. Since HEART ATTACK is so dangerous, why do primary school students love to play it so much? :D

LOVE
Detective CxY

http://www.offthemarkcartoons.com/cartoons/1995-09-14.gif

http://www.coxandforkum.com/archives/04.09.09.HeartAttack-X.gif

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ischaemic_heart_disease

Casefile 8 : clogged or UNclogged?

This is SCIENTIFIC Inspector Zhao. See? I am now qualified to dispense the information that Dr Kelly does.

ANYWAY Heart disease is the second biggest killer next to cancer. Heart disease and stroke accounted for 26.3% and 9.2% respectively of all deaths in Singapore in 2001. Approximately 2,000 people have a heart attack every year and the death rate for cardiovascular disease more than tripled between 1957 (7.7% of total deaths) and 2001 (26.3%).

THIS COULD HAPPEN TO YOU





















Your heart beats an average of 100 000 times a day, that's 36 500 000 times a year! It propels about 7 litres of blood through 60 000 miles or 96560.64km of vessels, that's 20 times the distance of the USA from coast to coast! The heart pumps blood so forcefully that when one of your large arteries is cut, a JET of blood can shoot several feet in the air! I guess Kill Bill wasn't an exaggeration

Sorry but I couldn't find any picture of the part in Kill Bill where Uma Thurman slices this Jap guy's neck and the blood spurts out like a fountain.

How do heart attacks occur?
-plaque embedded in artery wall ruptures
-the wall cracks, triggering the formation of a blood clot
-the clot blocks the flow of blood to the heart muscle, which will die from lack of oxygen and nutrients
-your heart stops pumping



You would think that the more clogged your vessels are with plaque, the likely it is for you to get a heart attack but according to the National Geographic, February 2007, heart attacks generally occur in arteries that have minimal or moderate blockage.
Scientists have found that immature, softer plaque rich in cholesterol is more unstable and likely to rupture than hard, calcified (hardened by the deposit of calcium salts), dense plaque which extensively narrows the artery channel. However, scientists are still continuing their research to try to understand this better. SO STICK TO THAT BALANCED DIET FOR NOW.

Is there anything that we can do to help prevent heart attacks?
1. Eat a healthy diet, decreases risk by almost 30%
2. Learn to cope with stress, stress and depression triple the risk
3. Exercise, a lack of it can double or triple the risk
4. Stay trim, abdominal obsesity can double the risk too!

I don't do any of the above, I feel so unhealthy now :(



I'm going to write my will now,
SCIENTIFIC Inspector Zhao


Many Thanks to:
-Getty Images
-The National Geographic Magazine
-The Singapore Heart Foundation
-http://www.taylormade.com.au/billspages/conversion_table.html