The internet is full of instructions on what to do for heart pain. In this interview with a specialized specialist, we will talk about what is best to avoid in treatment. This includes taking ineffective medications, unnecessary diagnostics and other useless, but still popular among the people.
To discuss erroneous actions for pain in the heart area, we invited a cardiologist Philip G. Kuzmenko, an assistant at the department of St. 6 years of continuous practice allow our guest to remember a large number of interesting situations and their outcomes. Well, let's get started.
- Hello, Philip Grigorievich! Tell me, if a person has a heartache, should he immediately run to the doctor, or is it better to wait for the pain to go away by itself? What if it's just a harmless tingling sensation in your side?
Hello dear readers of the Cardiograph. Before answering the question, I will give some rather interesting statistics.
Of the 56 million deaths in 2017, 9 million were due to diseases of a cardiac nature. It turns out that every fifth person who reads this article is at risk. The trouble is that if your heart hurts badly, it's too late to go to the doctor, because the problem is already acute. In such cases, you need to call an ambulance, and the sooner she arrives, the more chances of success. 2 hours before a heart attack, a person may feel absolutely normal, and there will be no changes on the ECG - this is the whole danger.
But do not rush to grab the phone receiver - people often confuse "heart" pain with osteochondrosis of the thoracic spine or intercostal neuralgia.
It is not difficult to distinguish them from each other. With a heart attack, discomfort in the heart is always localized behind the sternum (in the middle and lower part of it), and arises against the background of emotional or physical stress. The nature of the pain is intense, burning or pressing, while the sensations do not disappear in a few seconds or a minute.
If you have something stabbing in the left side of your chest and letting go, especially when you change the position of your body, then most likely it is not your heart.
When suddenly in a public place you witness an attack that is very similar to a heart attack, you need to do the following: calm the victim, seat him, provide fresh air and call an ambulance. If a first aid kit is at hand, give 300 mg of aspirin to chew.
- Philip Grigorievich, not all people can immediately get to the doctor. Some patients still do not believe in online consultations, trying to figure out the situation themselves. How? Naturally, by taking "improvised" pills. Tell our readers not to drink - what remedies can do more harm than help? Maybe share an interesting situation from practice.
I am sure that the future belongs to telemedicine. It is very convenient to be able to instantly consult a doctor. This saves a lot of time and can even save lives. It is too early to talk about the current results of implementation, but I believe that it is telemedicine that will help significantly increase life expectancy in the CIS, since the quality of medical care, especially in remote regions, leaves much to be desired.
Trying to figure out your illness isn't such a bad idea. The problem is that for this you need to know English, as well as online resources that you can trust. It is a very dubious and sometimes even dangerous idea to google “disease, symptoms and treatment”.
Any medicine (except fuflomycins - drugs without proven clinical efficacy: Validol, Riboxin, ATP-Long) in inept hands will do much more harm than good.
Once a patient came to me complaining of dizziness and weakness. He just rocked, and the pulse was 35-40 beats per minute (if someone does not know, this is a very low figure). When I questioned him, it turned out that he was taking high doses of a drug that lowers the heart rate. To the question: "Why?" the patient replied: “My friend had a heart attack and he was prescribed these pills. I decided to drink them too - since he was credited with having a heart attack, they will probably help me to avoid it. "
Therefore, I do not recommend taking ANY drugs without the doctor's advice. If it is not possible to consult in person - use the help of online consultants.
- Along with patients who cannot be taken to the hospital, there are those who bypass all doctors in a circle and spend a lot of money on unnecessary examinations. What diagnostic methods would you advise as necessary for pain in the heart area, and in which at the initial stages it makes no sense?
Trying to schedule your own examinations is a rather short-sighted idea. It would be like entrusting a hairdresser to repair a car. Diagnostics is the prerogative of the doctor. Independent action without medical education is ineffective and costly.
A simple example. Many patients think that checking the condition of the heart can be done by going through a simple cardiogram. But this is not the case. Changes in it are often determined only at the time of a painful attack. If the patient makes himself an EKG in a medical facility on his own, on which there are no abnormalities, he will calm down and think that his pain is a false alarm. And perhaps a catastrophe is about to happen in his heart.
A competent specialist can diagnose a problem with a high probability without any examinations at all and urgently hospitalize the patient. And there are a lot of such nuances. So take the time to find a qualified doctor.
So, today with Phillip Grigorievich Kuzmenko, a cardiologist and assistant of the department of St. If you get sick - run to the doctor, this is the result of our conversation. It is possible that the main muscle of your body will not have problems, but this is the only way to completely eliminate severe pathologies and minimize the risk of unwanted consequences.
