What You Need to Know About Sudden Cardiac Arrest vs. Heart Attack

Are you concerned about the health of your heart?

If you are, then you have probably heard about the medical conditions known as heart attack and cardiac arrest. Everyone has, though, right?

What do these terms really mean?

The sudden cardiac arrest vs heart attack confusion is one that a lot of people face. But it’s extremely important to know the difference. Not only do you want to know what to do when one of these situations arises, but you also want to know how to avoid them in the first place.

In this article, we will look at the heart attack vs cardiac arrest difference, giving you all of the critical details so that you can be informed about your health and your family’s health.

Sudden Cardiac Arrest vs Heart Attack

The difference between cardiac arrest vs heart attack comes down to the difference between the heart not beating anymore and the heart not receiving blood anymore. To make it easy, let’s look at a sudden cardiac definition vs heart attack definition.

Sudden Cardiac Arrest

Sudden cardiac arrest occurs when the mechanics of the heart muscle malfunction and stop pumping blood. This is referred to as an ‘electrical’ issue by doctors.

Sudden cardiac arrest results in an irregular heartbeat, which doctors call arrhythmia. The issue is that all of your vital organs rely on a continuous blood supply. So, if your heart stops beating for a period, these organs can fail.

In particular, the brain and lungs are the most vulnerable, since we cannot live without these for even short periods.

Heart Attack

A heart attack, on the other hand, occurs when the blood flow to the heart is blocked. So, it has less to do with the heart muscle itself.

Blood flow to the heart is usually stopped due to a build-up of unhealthy substances such as fat and cholesterol. These substances often form a kind of plaque in your coronary arteries.

Sometimes, the plaque build-up will itself block the blood flow. But sometimes, too, the plaque will explode and cause a clot to occur.

Cardiac Arrest vs Heart Attack Symptoms

The biggest difference in symptoms has to do with time. A heart attack will often be preceded by minutes, hours, or days of discomfort in the region of the heart.

On the other hand, cardiac arrest usually occurs instantly. It will cause the person to go unconscious, losing their pulse. Treatment is needed within minutes to avoid death.

The good thing is that, if you have experienced a heart attack or cardiac arrest you can still work on improving heart condition through exercise and other therapies.

Be Proactive About Your Heart

Hopefully, you now know the essentials of sudden cardiac arrest vs heart attack. Hopefully, too, you understand the importance of taking care of your heart health.

Make sure you eat well, avoid extreme stress, and exercise. Heart attacks and cardiac arrest can occur instantly with no warning, which means you have to be proactive throughout your life.

Think of your family and take care of your heart!

If you have found this information useful, why not check out some of our other great articles on health topics?