Age doesnt matter in heart attack!!!

Hi! I'm from the Philippines also... I can relate to this, but not for myself, but for my husband who had a heart attack early last year. We couldn't believe that it was a heart attack, and even after we were discharged from the hospital and after spending 1 day in the ICU, we were really convinced that it was just a minor stomach problem, because i brought him to the hospital due to complaints of stomach cramps. But when we had a second opinion in another hospital, and when he underwent several tests -- it was a nuclear heart scan first, in which it showed a block in his artery -- then it was confirmed in an angiogram, we finally got convinced! After all, the manifestation that he had was stomach cramps, i even suspected that he was having gallstones attack. And then, his new cardiologist told us that since the affected artery was in the lower vena cava, the symptoms that he will experience will really be pain in the upper stomach. He is now under medications, he didn't undergo angioplasty, and from his latest heart scan, just this month, the block has reduced from large to medium-size. So, we are so blessed!

There are some factors that make you more prone to heart attacks than others but although age does play a part in it still it isn't the determining factor. There are a lot of things that can cause a heart attack to come about. There are young people that have heart attacks. So no age doesn't matter as it has been proved over and over again.

If you really think that you have a myocardial injury, you really should undergo the other tests. ECG is only 1 test and it does not give all the information that the doctor wants. It only gives a clue. It's the easiest and least expensive test, so it's the one that's being used first. The next step is to find the reason why abnormal waves are showing up on the strip. You have to realize that the different tests that you are describing gives different information on a heart condition. If there is a finding on the ECG, you really have to undergo the other tests in order to establish what is really wrong with your heart. AN ECG is only a "snapshot" of the electrical signals fired by the different parts of the heart, if it shows abnormalities, the next time is to find if the abnormality is a really an abnormality and what it really is. The stress test is more reliable. The 2D Echo is an like an ultrasound of the heart, wherein you try to find out about the functions of the different heart valves and the blood flow through them. Is there a valve that's too loose? Too tight? The 2D Echo will tell you that. What your mom underwent was standard workup for a heart condition. Myocardial infarction means that a part of the heart was not receiving oxygen because there was a blockage in it. The angiogram identified where the blockage is so that they can plan what to do next. You cannot plan a balloon angiography or a bypass surgery without knowing which particular vessels are blocked, so that's important. Let's put it this way: it's not the doctors who do not want to believe the diagnosis of myocardial injury (which is not a definitive diagnosis), it's that they need more information before they can commit to a diagnosis. In fact, for a blockage, the working diagnosis is really very specific -- they will say that it's a 3 vessels disease if 3 blood vessels are affected. You cannot really be careless in just saying that you have a heart condition by looking at the ECG. Granted that there is a problem, WHAT is the specific heart condition? What valves are affected? What vessels are affected? They are answered by the other tests. I hope I have shed light on why the doctors want the other tests. Yes, it's true that age is not the only factor. We should watch our food intake (avoid unhealthy foods), avoid smoking, ESPECIALLY since you have a family history of a myocardial infarction. Coz, that also begs the question, do you have a familial tendency to hypercholesterolemia at a younger age? We won't know.

my aunt had her first heart attack when she was five years old..this disease is really a culprit!