Myocardial infarction in men: 4 causes that affect the heart

Just 100 years ago, heart and vascular diseases mainly affected people of retirement age.

Over time, the age limit began to decrease, although scientists have proven that the cardiovascular system remains unchanged in humans for many thousands of years.

"Rejuvenation" of heart diseases: causes and consequences

Diseases of the cardiovascular system can be divided into 3 groups:

1. vascular diseases (atherosclerosis and phlebitis);
2. heart diseases (rheumatism and myocarditis);
3. hypertension, which affects the entire cardiovascular system as a whole.

Atherosclerosis is a disease in which plaques form on the walls of blood vessels, gradually clogging the lumen in them. For many, this disease is caused by physical inactivity - lack of physical activity. And if you do not change anything, you can hear a more terrible diagnosis. If an atherosclerotic plaque ruptures, the vessel is completely blocked, and we get a myocardial infarction.

Myocardial infarction is the death of a section of the heart's myocardium.

1 reason: physical inactivity

Imagine an ordinary Moscow employee at the beginning of the 20th century. He hurries to work, easily covering a distance of five kilometers. Then he walks to the third floor - elevators were only in very rich houses back then. To hand over a prepared document, he walks along the entire corridor and goes down to the floor below, then makes the way back. This is about half a kilometer. There are several such trips. After a working day, he walks five kilometers again. But to relax, he decides to take a walk in the parks. The walk lasts about an hour, and he walks another three kilometers at a leisurely pace.

Let's say the man is a bachelor with a small income, so he has to take care of himself at home. Washing, cleaning, cooking dinner - everything by hand. All the housework is equivalent to three hours of intense exercise in the gym. We get about 15 kilometers on foot and intense physical work. As a result, the heart and blood vessels remain in good shape.

Our days. An office worker is in a hurry to work. It's 300 meters to the parking lot, the same distance from the car park to work. 15 meters to the elevator, 10 from the elevator to the office. There is no need to run to another place with each document - the Internet and fax replace walking.

Lunch. It's about 30 meters to the canteen, another 30 meters back. End of the working day. It's 300 meters to the car, the same distance to the entrance of the house. The man walked a little more than a kilometer during the day. But to keep the heart and blood vessels in good shape, a person needs to cover at least six kilometers every day.

The man is a bachelor, but all the work for him is done by machines: one washes, another vacuums, and a third chops vegetables. The load on the muscles is equal to 1.5 minutes of intense exercise in the gym.

For a city dweller, physical education means regular visits to a fitness club. Since we work out on exercise machines and take care of ourselves, it means that everything is fine with our body. But is this really so?

Reason 2: fitness obsession

Let's imagine the other extreme, when a young man spends an average of two hours a day in the gym. His trained body should be absolutely healthy. To check this, sometimes it is enough to measure the pressure: 145 to 80, but for a healthy person the norm is 120 to 80!

Both physical inactivity and excessive love of sports lead to pathological changes in the heart of men. 99% of champions have problems with the cardiovascular system. Excessive loads are to blame. The heart of such would-be athletes increases in volume, due to which its pumping function increases. In the future, all this can negatively affect health.

To draw the line between good physical education and bad sports, before going to the gym, you need to undergo an examination by a therapist.

Only modern research can determine the amount of loads, the excess of which is fraught with health problems. Moreover, the approach should be individual, since physical activity affects each person differently. But is good physical exercise enough to completely protect yourself from a heart attack?

Reason 3: Manager's syndrome

Let's say a man has long held a key position in a large company. But he cannot say that he is completely satisfied with his life. High workload, significant responsibility, permanent stress and anxiety are his constant companions.

It is no coincidence that psychologists call a heart attack a boss's disease: people in high positions die from cardiovascular diseases 3 times more often, paying for their careers with their own health.

Ischemic heart disease is one of the main causes of death among the working-age population in the structure of cardiovascular diseases. But how does stress get into the body and destroy blood vessels, and who helps it with this?

The fact is that stress is essentially the customer of the murder of our organs. The hormones act as killers - adrenaline and cortisol.

1. First they enter the blood, and from there - to all organs. Thus, the body comes into a state of tone.
2. As soon as a person senses danger, and it does not matter whether it is real or imaginary, these hormones begin to be secreted in the adrenal glands.
3. Now the vessels and cells of the organs are ready for active activity.

Initially, such a reaction of the body was saving. Our ancestors, surrounded by various dangers, had to run fast and fight fiercely in order to survive. In the modern world, there are almost no threats from which people could physically escape. But there is a whole range of stress factors that affect the body in the same way as a wild animal did to an ancient man.

But given that a person in a big city is constantly under stress and has no opportunity to scream, run or fight, are there any ways to help the body get rid of a dose of adrenaline?

Moderate exercise, preferably outdoors:

1. yoga;
2. running;
3. oriental martial arts.

Unfortunately, many people start eating stress instead of doing physical exercise.

The body has its own reasons for this: in order to protect organ cells from being oversaturated with destructive hormones, the secretion of gastric juice in the stomach during an adrenaline attack increases significantly, resulting in an increased feeling of hunger. Surprisingly, the same endorphins are released during meals as during active physical activity.

Another way to relieve stress is smoking. However, it is worth recognizing that this is a pseudo-calm. In fact, this method brings more harm than good to the body.

When a person smokes a cigarette, a huge number of free radicals are formed, which damage the vascular endothelium. Free radicals are combustion products. Together with nicotine, they turn into poison. This substance literally burns through the inner protective layer of blood vessels, leaving small ulcers on the walls. Now the path to the vessels is open for cholesterol, and it calmly builds pyramids there, blocking the blood flow. But all this is true only if a person smokes non-stop.

The body can repair itself. The endothelium, for example, is capable of restoring itself two hours after smoking a cigarette.

Of course, if during this time it does not receive a new dose of poison. Strangely enough, food can also become poison. Food affects people in exactly the same way - now as it did 100 years ago. Only the composition of the daily diet has changed. Today, there is simply no time to cook food or wait in a restaurant. Fast food chains come to the aid of workers, satisfying hunger, but not saturating the body with the necessary substances.

Our ordinary products, often seemingly harmless (sausages, processed cheese, sausages, pates and others) contain a lot of hidden fats and flavor additives that increase appetite and make you eat more. Of course, we can't completely give up these products.

To reduce the risk of developing cardiovascular diseases, I recommend including polyunsaturated fatty acids Omega-3, 6 and 9 in your diet. They are found in flaxseed oil, fish oil, nuts (especially walnuts), and plant foods.

We are very picky with salt, and it is poorly absorbed by cells. The body tries to wash out excess sodium faster, so after canned foods you really want to drink. To dissolve salt faster, our body accumulates water, it becomes more, which entails an increase in blood pressure and additional stress on the heart and blood vessels.

The body needs salt in an amount of about 7-10 g per day. A little more in summer than in winter, since a lot of trace elements are washed out of the body with sweat, which need to be replenished. But this does not mean that you need to salt all your dishes. Vegetables are tasty even without salt.

Even if you remove all the risk factors listed above from your life, the problem of cardiovascular diseases will not be completely solved. The environment we live in also leaves an imprint on our health. And it's not just about ecology. The modern city itself is a stress factor.

Reason 4: Big cities

, early 21st century. The line between day and night has been erased. High-rise buildings give off a lot of light, it penetrates into our bedrooms. But humans have a natural biorhythm, it makes us sleep when it's dark and stay awake during daylight hours. Night lighting disrupts this rhythm, resulting in sleep disturbances and increased fatigue. Our body reacts to any external influence. Ancient people determined the level of danger by noise.

Now, when we hear a siren, an alarm, slamming doors, a stream of cars, the body subconsciously looks for this danger. As a result, we are in a state of combat readiness around the clock.

But despite all the risk factors that fill life, it can bring a lot of pleasure. The anxiety a person experiences when they feel that something hurts can be justified or far-fetched. In any case, it is better to consult a doctor. After all, with the first option, he will offer treatment methods, and with the second, he will relieve unnecessary worries.

I advise you to undergo examinations every year, then it will be possible to detect the disease in the early stages. And you should start with a general practitioner, endocrinologist, nutritionist and, of course, with functional diagnostics.

Lack of joy - this is what we call the path to cardiovascular diseases.

Wise words of a cardiologist

However, our reaction to stress depends on ourselves. We can relax, let things take their course at some points, stop somewhere, not panic, not run. Any impact of the environment passes directly through us. And the more we try to pay attention to positive moments, the more joy there will be in our lives, more smiles and fewer illnesses. Unfortunately, the heart, in addition to romantic experiences, presents extremely unpleasant surprises.

Each of us chooses our own destiny. A doctor cannot help if a person is not ready to change something in his life. Finding time for sports, saying "no" to bad habits, changing your diet are difficult decisions for many of us. But the health of our heart depends on these decisions.