{"id":258,"date":"2020-11-17T19:16:44","date_gmt":"2020-11-17T19:16:44","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.sharonmorrison.com\/blog\/?p=258"},"modified":"2020-11-17T19:16:44","modified_gmt":"2020-11-17T19:16:44","slug":"how-not-to-avoid-a-heart-attack-or-how-my-sister-came-back-from-the-dead","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.sharonmorrison.com\/blog\/how-not-to-avoid-a-heart-attack-or-how-my-sister-came-back-from-the-dead\/","title":{"rendered":"How NOT to avoid a heart attack\u2026 or how my sister came back from the dead \u00a0"},"content":{"rendered":"

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With the whole world focused on COVID-19, it\u2019s not surprising that cardiovascular diseases have been relegated to the back burner this year. Yet they are the world\u2019s biggest killer, responsible for almost 18 million deaths annually, 85% of which are due to heart attack and stroke. My eldest sister Loraine could have been one of those statistics when, in 2013, she suffered a cardiac arrest. Luckily, a defibrillator was on hand, and she\u2019s lived to tell the tale of how she did everything necessary to bring on a heart attack and why she\u2019s doing everything it takes to make sure it never happens again.<\/p>\n

First, you need to know our back story. Our parents died young, mum was only 50 and dad 58. Where mum was slim and active, dad weighed 25 stone and had a dodgy knee; both were smokers and had high cholesterol. They were very much of the school of \u2018do as I say, not as I do\u2019 and always told us smoking was a terrible habit and we must never smoke. Three of the four sisters followed orders, but Loraine started smoking secretly at 16, only one or two a week at first then, once she started work, it was a 20-a-day-habit. We didn\u2019t know it then, but we four kids had inherited a predisposition to heart disease and \u2018familial cholesterol\u2019. \u2018Familial cholesterol\u2019 is a gene mutation that prevents some of us from processing cholesterol (a type of fat) efficiently, leading to clogged blood vessels. All we needed to do to ignite this potentially toxic mix of conditions was to light up. And that\u2019s what Loraine did at 16. Despite all the scientific evidence, there was no way she could give up smoking. \u2018It\u2019s an addiction,\u2019<\/strong> she told me recently. \u2018I could watch a programme on lung cancer while chain smoking.\u2019<\/strong> She wasn\u2019t in denial, she just enjoyed smoking.<\/p>\n

In the late 90s Loraine managed to quit for seven years, but in 2004, when she moved from England to Gibraltar to be near our sister Lesley, and was enjoying a very full social life, smoking drew her back in. Nine years later, after breaking up a fight at a wake (she may only be 5\u2019 2\u201d but she\u2019s feisty), she felt a little breathless and told Lesley she didn\u2019t feel too well. Lesley admits, even now, that not once did she think Loraine was actually ill, she just though she was being dramatic and decided to call her bluff by driving her to A&E. Lesley left Loraine in the reception area while she re-parked the car. By the time she returned, Loraine had collapsed, her heart had stopped beating and she was undergoing emergency treatment to save her life. She had literally been in the right place at the right time. The doctors got her heart beating again and, three stents later, she was able to walk back to her flat and carry on (not quite) as normal.<\/p>\n

\u2018I realise that I had probably had heart disease for at least a couple of years before the heart attack, but I\u2019d put the symptoms down to ageing<\/strong>,\u2019 says Loraine. \u2018I was always feeling tired. I\u2019d always be breathless, and usually break into a sweat just going shopping or climbing the stairs to my flat. I thought it was normal. But after the operation to insert the stents into my arteries, all physical activities became so much easier. I could breathe again.\u2019<\/strong><\/p>\n

A week before her cardiac arrest Loraine remembers feeling unable to get comfortable. It was as though a band was tightening around her chest, and the pain was radiating upwards. She went to bed, kept changing positions to try and relieve the pain, had a hot shower, but nothing worked. After a couple of hours, the pain subsided. The doctors believe she was having a heart attack then.<\/p>\n

The genes weren\u2019t on her side<\/strong><\/p>\n

After the operation, Loraine attended a 13-week rehabilitation course. The importance of regular exercise and healthy meals was impressed on her and, although it\u2019s stuff most of us know, it\u2019s taken far more seriously by those who\u2019ve had a near-death experience. And, of course, Loraine stopped smoking immediately. She didn\u2019t vape or chew nicotine gum either, she just quit doing her very favourite thing. She\u2019d realised that, while her lifestyle in Gibraltar was a healthy one (not the smoking bit) – plenty of outdoor activities and a Mediterranean diet – our parents had passed on certain conditions that make a heart attack a cert if appropriate action isn\u2019t taken. They both died of heart disease, so all four of us were more susceptible to it, and we all have high cholesterol. So, in addition to ditching the smoking habit (obviously not inherited), and in 2016 becoming tea-total (not that she was a big drinker), Loraine\u2019s taking statins to control her cholesterol, something she\u2019ll have to do for the rest of her very healthy life.<\/p>\n

Loraine moved to Tendring this September and is regularly putting me to shame with her energy and zest for life. \u2018Ever since the operation I\u2019ve been feeling better and better, and I\u2019m doing everything in my power to ensure I never have a heart attack again.\u2019<\/strong><\/p>\n

\u00a0S<\/strong>o, just how healthy are we?\u00a0<\/strong><\/p>\n

We all know we need to take care of ourselves, physically and mentally, if we\u2019re to enjoy a long and happy life. None of us wants to be a burden on our relatives or the NHS and, let\u2019s face it, we don\u2019t want to go into a home if we can help it. So, we\u2019re eating healthily, exercising regularly, cutting down on alcohol and we\u2019re not smoking . Well, I guess you can already see the glaring discrepancies in that last sentence. Sadly, as far as looking after ourselves goes, we\u2019re not that great. Every year Bloomberg conducts global research to track the healthiest nations, and in 2020, we came 19th<\/sup>. Spain\u2019s at the top, boasting a life expectancy of 83.5 years, projected to increase to 85.8 by 2040, the highest in the world. But don\u2019t the Spanish drink a lot of wine, smoke and stay up late? Well, yes they do, but Spain also has the highest percentage of walkers with almost 40% of the population walking everywhere they can; they also follow a Mediterranean diet which is high in healthy fats, vegetables and legumes, and low in processed food and red meat. Spain is followed by Iceland, Japan, Switzerland, Sweden, Australia, Singapore, Norway\u00a0and Israel. The USA doesn\u2019t even make it into the top 30 (it\u2019s 35th<\/sup>) due to its obesity levels.<\/p>\n

The UK and heart disease<\/u><\/p>\n