The image many peopleget when they think of heartconditions is a grown mancluthing his chest. But notall heart conditions are asobvious or pronounced asheart attack.

Ischemia is a term used todescribe the restriction ofoxygen-rich blood to an areaof the body. Cardiac ischemiaoccurs when the blood can-not reach the heart.

Generally cardiac is-chemia causes pain in thechest, known as angina.However, in some cases thereis no warning pain and thecondition is called silent is-chemia.

Facts on silent ischemia

Silent ischemia affectsroughly 3 to 4 million Amer-icans every year. Individu-als who have had a previ-ous heart attack are at high-er risk for silent ischemiathan others. But there aremany other risk factors:

• Diabetes• Coronary artery disease• Hypertension• Coronary artery anom-

alies• Smoking• Obesity• Alcohol and drug abuse• Cardiomyopathy

If ischemia lasts too longor is especially severe, it maycause a heart attack. It canalso affect the naturalrhythm of the heart and itspumping ability, which cancause fainting, and evensudden cardiac arrest.

Symptoms and diagnosis

Silent ischemia has nosymptoms. However, if a per-son has had previousepisodes of chest pain, there’sa liklihood that he or shecould also be experiencingsilent ischemia and notknow it. Doctors may use an

exercise stress test to deter-mine silent ischemia.Also, aspecial monitor called aHolter monitor will recordthe heart rate and rhythmover the course of a day anddetermine if ischemia oc-curred.

TreatmentThe main ways to treat

silent ischemia is to reducecertain behaviors that in-crease risk. This includesquitting smoking, avoidingalcohol and maintaining ahealthy weight and diet.

For those who are diag-nosed with silent ischemia,there are some treatment op-

tions available. Most of theseinvolve improving blood flowto the heart, which often re-quires prescription medica-tions. Oxygen also may begiven to increase the oxygencontent of the blood that isreaching the heart. Otherpeople may take medicinesthat relax blood vessels, en-abling more blood to flow. Inmost cases this is all that isneeded to fix the situation.For those not responding totreatment, they may need apercutaneous coronary inter-vention (PCI), such as bal-loon angioplasty, coronaryartery bypass surgery, or asimilar procedure.

Muskogee Phoenix Sunday, Jan. 29, 2012 Page 2Living Well

BROADWAY MANOR HEALTH CARE CENTER

1622 E. Broadway Muskogee, OK 74403

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EASTGATE VILLAGE RETIREMENT CENTER

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PLEASANT VALLEY HEALTH CARE

CENTER 1120 Illinois St.

Muskogee, OK 74403 918-682-5391

YORK MANOR NURSING HOME

500 S. York St. Muskogee, OK 74403

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FORT GIBSON NURSING HOME

205 E. Poplar Fort Gibson, OK 74434

918-478-2456

1033 Hospital Road Eufaula, OK 74432

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EUFAULA MANOR Nursing & Rehabilitation Center

CHECOTAH NURSING CENTER

321 SE 2nd Checotah, OK 74426

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NURSING HOMES

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205 N. Lincoln Avenue Wagoner, OK 74467

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615 S. Co. Club Rd. Muskogee, OK 74403

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HOSPITAL

By Dylan Goforth Phoenix Staff Writer

Dr. Achala Singhal, acardiologist at the Jack C.Montgomery VA MedicalCenter has one word of ad-vice when it comes to hearthealth: “Move.”

It’s a very importantthing, just moving,” Sing-hal said. “We call it ‘not be-ing sedentary.’ Don’t un-derestimate the value ofmoving.”

Singhal said there aredifferent ways to improvethe condition of your heart— diet, for instance, oreven calm music that de-stresses you.

But exercise is king. Toooften, Singhal said, peoplefind excuses for why theycan’t get moving.

“They will say, ‘Oh, myknees hurt’ or ‘My backhurts,’” Singhal said.“These are legitimate prob-lems, but it does not meanthey cannot get exercise.”

Singhal said someonewho is overweight or elder-ly may decline a trip to thegym, because they’re un-able to perform a strenu-ous exercise program. Butimproving your healthdoesn’t have to start insixth gear.

“Begin gradually, becareful,” Singhal said.“What we say is to movein whichever way you can.Start a program to in-crease your daily move-ment.”

Technology, Singhalsaid, has robbed us of someof the movement we used

to receive. Whether it waswalking to turn off the tel-evision or lights, many ofthese movements are now

automated or done by a re-mote.

Her suggestion is to turnthat movement-stealing

technology against itself.“Technology has taken

movement from us,” Sing-hal said. “But it can also

benefit us in many ways. Ilike to encourage people toget a pedometer, which willmeasure the amount of

steps they take. Turn it in-to a game and encourage

Get moving to keep heart healthy

Staff photo by Dylan Goforth

Cindy Wayman teachers a water aerobics class at the Muskogee Swim and Fitness Center. Wayman’s class offers a low-resistance workoutdesigned to get the heart pumping and blood flowing without putting too much stress on joints. “Here in the water, this gravity is working foryou, not against you,” Wayman said.

(See BEING, Page 3)

Some heart conditions can be ‘silent’ CPR has roots in 1740recommendation

The history of cardiopul-monary resuscitation datesall the way back to 1740.Back then, the Paris Acade-my of Sciences officially rec-ommended mouth-to-mouthresuscitation for drowningvictims.

However, CPR as we knowit today involves more thanjust mouth-to-mouth resusci-tation. Chest compressionsare now an important part ofperforming CPR, but it wasnot until 1891 that Dr.Friedrich Maass performedthe first documented chestcompression in humans.What’s more, the first suc-cessful use of external chestcompressions in human re-suscitation did not occur until1903. Even then, it was notuntil more than half a centurylater that CPR was devel-oped. In 1960, the AmericanHeart Association began aprogram to acquaint physi-cians with close-chest car-diac resuscitation. Threeyears later, after cardiologistLeonard Scherlis started theAmerican Heart Association’sCPRCommittee, the associa-tion formally endorsed CPRas a means to saving lives.Nowadays, the AmericanHeart Association reports thateffective bystander CPR,when provided immediatelyafter sudden cardiac arrest,can double or triple a victim’schance of survival.

Laughter, music can reduce stress

Laughter and music justmay be good for the heart.Millions of people routinelytake prescription medicationsor make dietary changes,such as eliminating salt fromtheir diets, in an effort to low-er blood pressure. However,for those who are interestedin making some easy lifestylechanges that can result inmodest reductions in bloodpressure, listening to musicor laughing more may do thetrick. In a Japanese studypresented in May at an Amer-ican Heart Association meet-ing, researchers explainedthat people who took part inbimonthly group sessionsbuilt around music or laugh-ter lowered their systolicblood pressure (the top num-ber in the reading, whichmeasures the pressure in thearteries when the heartbeats) by an average of fiveto six points after threemonths. In contrast, the aver-age blood-pressure readingin a control group that re-ceived neither therapy didn’tmove. According to experts,this decline in pressure is theequivalent of what someonecould expect from adopting alow-salt diet or losing 10pounds. The American HeartAssociation recommends thathealthy blood pressureshould be less than 120 forsystolic and less than 80 fordiastolic.

Did you know?