Be sure to remember the signs before sudden death! Doctors teach you how to avoid sudden death!

Whether it's on the Internet or listening to people around you chatting, there are tragedies of sudden death from time to time.

Every year, about 550,000 people in my country die suddenly. Sudden death refers to sudden, unexpected death caused by disease. Simply put, it is death caused by a certain disease, not death caused by accidents such as car accidents, disasters, etc.

Since it is a disease, why not prevent or treat it?

Because most of these diseases are latent, people who die suddenly do not discover or actively find out whether they have the disease before their death.

The main cause of sudden death is heart disease, and there are a few other diseases, such as cerebral hemorrhage, cerebral infarction, pulmonary embolism, aortic dissection, acute pancreatitis and so on.

But about 80% of sudden deaths are caused by heart disease. So if they have heart disease, why do most people not discover it or take it seriously?

Because most people who die suddenly do not have typical symptoms of heart disease before they die. Without typical symptoms of heart disease, they will not go to the hospital for examination, and naturally they will not discover their heart disease in time. If they do not discover their heart disease, they will not receive treatment, let alone regular treatment. Eventually, the heart disease will worsen and may cause sudden death.

Among the heart diseases that cause sudden death, about 80% are acute myocardial infarction. So are there no symptoms before sudden death caused by myocardial infarction?

Beijing Fuwai Hospital has a Chinese Acute Myocardial Infarction Registration Study, and the results show that more than half of the patients with acute myocardial infarction in my country are at low to medium risk of cardiovascular disease at the time of onset.

What does this mean? That is, nearly half of myocardial infarction patients or sudden death patients in my country have not been diagnosed with coronary heart disease, or they think they are "healthy".
When a “healthy” person suddenly dies of a heart attack, this is called sudden death.

But this kind of "health" is almost always superficial, or fake "health".

Before death, people who died suddenly almost always had the following three characteristics:

1. No three highs?

When many middle-aged people die suddenly, their family members say that they were fine and had no illness.

Is it really true that you don't have any disease?

Have you had a physical examination in the past year? Have you measured your blood pressure in the past month?

For example, the main risk factors for coronary heart disease and myocardial infarction are hypertension, diabetes, and hyperlipidemia. These are what we usually call the three highs, but the three highs are not written on the face. Most people with the three highs will not feel anything in the early stages, and may not even feel that they have the three highs for several years.

So you need to have a physical examination to check if you have diabetes, high blood lipids or high blood pressure. It is not that if you feel fine at ordinary times, you are healthy and fine.

Speaking of high blood pressure, you cannot just have a physical examination and measure your blood pressure once a year to determine whether you have high blood pressure. The incidence of high blood pressure is very high, almost reaching one in four people. It is related to stress, staying up late, lack of exercise, genetics, obesity, unhealthy diet, smoking and drinking, etc. Therefore, you cannot measure your blood pressure once a year. High-risk adults should measure their blood pressure once a month, which is the minimum requirement.

When it is said that "the person who died suddenly was healthy before his death", we first need to see whether he has actually been checked, at least to rule out the three highs; so to prevent sudden death, you must first understand whether you have the three highs. If you have the three highs, you must actively and regularly control and monitor them, so as to avoid the three highs not being discovered and controlled for a long time, which will eventually aggravate cardiovascular stenosis, induce thrombosis, trigger myocardial infarction and lead to sudden death.

2. What are the triggering factors?

Serious cardiovascular diseases such as myocardial infarction are the root causes of sudden death. In other words, sudden death occurs only when there is this underlying disease.

However, there are usually predisposing factors that cause sudden death, namely, a person's lifestyle and living habits, which can cause sudden death.

Many people who die suddenly, especially those who are young, have some triggering factors.

For example, if the three highs, high blood pressure and high blood sugar, are not actively controlled, it will induce plaque rupture, blood clot formation, trigger myocardial infarction, and lead to sudden death.

For example, an irregular lifestyle, staying up late for a long time, overwork, and physical overdraft can also induce plaque rupture, blood clot formation, trigger myocardial infarction, and lead to sudden death.

For example, smoking and drinking in large quantities can cause the heart rate to increase, blood pressure to rise, plaque rupture to occur, blood clots to form, myocardial infarction to occur, and sudden death to result.

For example, mood swings, excessive stress, irritability and anger and other negative emotions can also cause plaque rupture, blood clot formation, cause myocardial infarction, and lead to sudden death.

For example, cold stimulation, straining during bowel movements, strenuous exercise, overeating, etc. can cause plaque rupture, form blood clots, trigger myocardial infarction, and lead to sudden death.

Most people who die suddenly have engaged in these behaviors before their death, so to prevent sudden death, we must first reduce or avoid the above-mentioned inducing factors.

3. Heart alarm?

Even if the three highs are not found, even if the inducing factors cannot be avoided, there are still some people who die suddenly, but they still have the last line of defense against sudden death, which is the heart alarm.

Studies have found that nearly 75% of people who die suddenly experience symptoms of angina pectoris before death; 66% of people who die suddenly from cardiac causes experience symptoms of angina pectoris for half an hour to one hour before death.

So, to put it bluntly, angina pectoris is actually the last alarm for these sudden death victims before their death, but this alarm may be ignored, leading to the final sudden death.

Angina pectoris has many manifestations, not just pain in the heart. The most common manifestation is chest pain or pain in the precordial area, so it is usually called angina pectoris.

However, angina pectoris may also be pain in the front chest, back, jaw, upper abdomen, under the xiphoid process, left arm, shoulder and other parts of the body; and some angina pectoris does not hurt at all, and may manifest as symptoms such as chest tightness, shortness of breath, profuse sweating, and vomiting.

Therefore, you cannot simply judge whether you have angina pectoris based on the above symptoms. The biggest feature of angina pectoris is that it is paroxysmal, especially after activities. For example, a person usually has no discomfort symptoms when walking fast, going upstairs, running, exercising, and doing activities, but recently suddenly has the above symptoms after activities, each lasting for a few minutes, most of the time for 3-8 minutes, generally not more than 2-15 minutes, and generally relieved by resting for a few minutes. Then this discomfort should be highly suspected to be angina pectoris.

Angina pectoris is the warning signal of myocardial infarction, and may even be the last warning signal before sudden death. You must seek medical attention immediately!

In short, remember these 3 points to prevent most sudden deaths!

Source: Cardiovascular Doctor Wang