The Connection Between Pain and Heart Attacks
Did you know that if you experience a lot of pain after a heart attack, it might mean you have a higher risk of passing away in the next few years? A new study gives us insights into this connection.
People who had moderate to intense pain a year after their heart attack seemed more at risk of dying in the next several years compared to those who didn’t feel any pain.
This research was made public in a journal connected with the American Heart Association.
Linda Vixner, the lead researcher and a professor from Dalarna University in Sweden, highlights how crucial it is to pay attention to and take care of pain after a heart attack.
Why Pain Might Be a Warning Sign
Past studies have told us that people with heart problems tend to experience pain for a longer time. There are some reasons why this might be true:
People who feel pain for a long time and those with heart diseases often have similar habits like smoking, not exercising enough, or eating unhealthy food. These habits can hurt your heart.
Pain can make it tough for someone to get back to their normal life after a heart attack. If you’re in a lot of pain, you might not feel like exercising or doing activities that are good for your heart, making things riskier for you in the long run.
Before this study, we didn’t really know how pain could affect someone’s chances of dying after a heart attack.
The Study: Digging Deeper
For this study, the team looked at the health information of more than 18,000 adults from Sweden who suffered a heart attack between 2004 and 2013.
These adults, on average, were 62 years old, and about a quarter of them were women.
After their heart attacks, these adults went for a check-up two months later, and then filled out a survey about their pain a year after their heart attack.
They were placed in different groups based on their pain levels: no pain, moderate pain, or extreme pain.
Almost half of the people said they felt moderate to severe pain a year after their heart attack.
Those who felt moderate pain had a 35% higher risk of dying within the next 8.5 years compared to those with no pain. Those with extreme pain? They had more than double the risk.
Many of those who said they had pain two months after their heart attack also said they had pain a year later. This makes the researchers think that for many, their pain was not just a short-term problem.
Linda Vixner pointed out how pain can seriously impact a person’s daily life and even lead to disability.
If someone already feels pain, it becomes even more important to avoid other risks like smoking, high blood pressure, and high cholesterol.
Final Thoughts
This research shows how important it is to keep an eye on pain after a heart attack. It’s not just about feeling comfortable; it might be a sign of bigger problems down the road.
If you or someone you know has had a heart attack, make sure to talk to a doctor about any pain and keep up with healthy habits to keep the heart in good shape.
If you care about health, please read studies about the benefits of low-dose lithium supplements, and what we know about egg intake and heart disease.
For more information about heart disease, please see recent studies that magnets in common popular devices could harm your heart health, and results showing Vitamin K2 could help reduce heart disease risk.
The study was published in the Journal of the American Heart Association.
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