The following story from HealthScoutNews provides the sobering information
that heart attack survivors can never stop being vigilant about their
condition, because the increased risk of death persists for many years. So,
if you or any of your loved ones, colleagues or clients are cardiac
survivors, do impress upon them the importance of not reverting to lifestyle
habits that can increase any cardiac risk factors. As one of those
survivors, I can tell you that, after a few years of apparently excellent
health, it can be very easy to feel complacent about what you should and
should not do. Looks and feelings can be very deceiving, so never discard
"cardiac vigilance" (note that I am not saying "cardiac neurosis").
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<http://healthscout.com/template.asp?page=newsdetail&ap=1&id=510461>
[Excerpts given ....]
Eternal Vigilance Needed for Heart Attack Survivors
Researcher says the lesson is often ignored
By Ed Edelson
HealthScoutNews Reporter
MONDAY, Nov 25, 2002
Looking back at the medical records of people who had heart attacks before
current advanced treatments were developed, British physicians find a lesson
for today's patients and the doctors who treat them: Never relax your
vigilance, because the increased risk of death persists for many years.
It's a lesson that often can be ignored because of lack of awareness of the
persisting risk, says Dr. Malcolm R. Law, a professor of epidemiology and
preventive medicine at the University of London, and the leader of the group
reporting the study results in today's issue of the Archives of Internal
Medicine.
"People sometimes forget that they had a heart attack," Law says. "They might
imagine that they are OK after a few years, but it goes on indefinitely."
The magnitude of the risk, and the length of its persistence, came as a
surprise, Law says. He and his colleagues analyzed 23 published studies in
which 14,211 patients who had heart attacks in the decades before the 1980s.
On average, 23% of them died before reaching the hospital, and another 13%
died in the hospital.
One of every 10 survivors died in the first year after they left the
hospital. In the years that followed, the annual death rate was 5% --
indefinitely. After 15 years, the overall death rate was 70%.
The record was worse for people who had a second heart attack. A third died
before reaching the hospital, 20% died in the hospital, and the annual death
rate after release was 10% -- again, indefinitely. "The risk never went
away," Law says.
"The high mortality rate emphasizes the need to ensure that everyone who has
had a myocardial infarction, even years previously, receives effective
preventive treatment," the researchers write..........
The long-term death rate for heart attack survivors has not changed all that
much over the decades, says Robert J. Goldberg, director of the Worcester
Heart Attack Study, which has followed more than 10,000 patients in that
Massachusetts community for two decades.
"The mortality rate is about 8 to 15% in the first years, then 3 to 5% in the
years that follow," Goldberg says.
It does not diminish with time for a variety of reasons, such as patients not
complying with doctor's instructions and the presence of other illnesses,
Goldberg adds....
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Dr Mel C Siff
Denver, USA
http://groups.yahoo.com/group/Supertraining/
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