Heart is one organ of the human anatomy which functions ceaselessly right from the time we are born till our very last breath. Taking the importance of this organ into consideration, it becomes more than obvious that health issues related to the heart shouldn’t be taken lightly. One such health issue is cardiac arrest which occurs when the heart stops functioning all of a sudden. If normal functioning of the heart comes to a complete halt all of a sudden, it can result in severe repercussions in the form of chest pain, profuse sweating, and even death (see cardiac arrest symptoms). In such circumstances, being well-versed with some simple ways to prevent cardiac arrest can come as a blessing in disguise.
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How to Prevent Cardiac Arrest
Cardiac arrest is actually a sudden condition that takes place within a few seconds and doesn’t come with any obvious warning signs that would give you time to prepare. Due to this unpredictability, it is very difficult to say specifically what can be done to prevent a cardiac arrest. Discussed below are some cardiac arrest precautions which will introduce you to some simple measures of preventing cardiac arrest which you can inculcate in your day-to-day life with great ease.
Be in Shape
The foremost thing to take into consideration is your weight. If you are overweight or obese, you need to get your weight in control to make sure that you are not vulnerable to cardiac problems. People fail to realize that obesity is in itself a disease, and has the tendency to place you at an added risk of suffering from cardiac arrest, as well as diabetes, hypertension, and a host of other diseases. After all, the heart of an obese person has to work harder to ensure that each cell in the body gets an adequate amount of blood and oxygen. In order to make sure that the functioning of your heart is not hampered, you must try and lose all the excess weight that you’re carrying. Ideally, you should start with simple cardio exercises so as to initiate the process of weight loss, and then progress to other intense exercises and weights.
Healthy Diet
Exercising is not the only precautionary measure that you need to follow to stay in good health. Even if you workout for half the day, only to go home and feast on burgers and fries, then all of your hard work is going down the drain. Heart healthy diet is as important as the workout that you do. You must concentrate on eating healthy fruits and vegetables, or at least cut down on the excess fat that you take in. For starters, people who eat a lot of beef must try and cut down on this habit, as beef is one of the main culprits when it comes to hypertension and cardiac arrest. You can instead try low-fat food, which is a relatively better option. Eating fattening food once in a while is excusable, but if it forms a part of your staple diet, then you are simply shortening the life of your heart.
Stop Bad Habits
There are many vices that directly affect the heart. This may come as a surprise for many, but even something as simple as a diet that is very high in salt can lead to heart and blood pressure issues in the future. One of the main culprits when it comes to habits that lead to cardiac problems is smoking. Smokers are often under the impression that smoking only affects the lungs and not the heart. They fail to understand that, since the lungs are affected, the oxygen-carrying capacity of the blood is compromised, and therefore the heart has to work harder to increase the blood circulation in the body. This increased workload that the heart is subjected to can eventually take a toll on it.
Regular Check-Ups
While the aforementioned tips will help you keep your heart healthy, things don’t just end there. One of the most important things to keep in mind is to go regularly for check-ups so as to make sure that predisposing factor, if any, is caught beforehand. Such checkups can help you gauge your health and identify any oncoming disease or malfunctioning of organs, including the heart before things go out of hand.
As you must have noticed, there is nothing new in the aforementioned information on tips to prevent cardiac arrest. These are the same tips that your parents, school teacher, family doctor, and many other people around you must have given you, which you must have just brushed aside. There is no questioning the fact that cardiac arrest can cause irreversible damage to the heart, and therefore preventing it is the only safe way out. At the end of the day, leading a healthy lifestyle is the only way you can ensure that your heart health prevails.
Tiffany is a Medical Student and also works as a fitness coach in part-time. She is also a writer and writes on health and fitness articles. Tiffany loves to engage with users and help them provide various useful information on General Health. She provides researched-based information and also featured on various blogs and magazines.