Is there any relation between Heart Attack and young age?
Yes, there is a strong relationship between heart attack at a young age and the lifestyle which leads to early-age heart attack symptoms and cause of death.
Most importantly we are living in the world of non-communicable diseases, therefore everyone is too busy earning money and doesn’t have time to even spend 60 minutes on exercise or walking.
Everyone is busy earning money at the cost of health but this hard-earned money is gone away when our self-made health emergencies surround us.
Many factors are involved to cause a heart attack at a young age. High-calorie foodstuffs are easily available around every corner as a result we are accumulating extra calories in our body without a second thought of the risk involved?
So let’s understand the factors and causes to answer this million-dollar question of a heart attack at a young age.
What is a Heart Attack?
Heart attack is a condition where one or more arteries supplying blood to the heart are narrowed or blocked due to clot formation or buildup of fatty plaques in arteries due to high cholesterol levels.
In other words, coronary artery disease is a major risk of a heart attack in any age group. The risk increases with the growing age in absence of prevention and precautions from the predisposing factors and risk elements.
As a result, a blocked artery leads to cutting off the blood supply to the part of the heart and causes a shortage of oxygen supply to the heart muscles leading to the death of the cells of the affected area and causing sudden death sometimes.
The narrowing of the coronary artery is called atherosclerosis and this condition is called coronary artery disease (CAD) which causes myocardial infarction (MI) or heart attack.
Causes of heart attack
Smoking habits in young adults is at the top of the list of risk associated with heart attack and the most prevalent cause even in young adults because this increases the chance of heart attack at a young age even in the 20s. 
Moreover, every cigarette smoked makes you more likely to get a heart attack or brain stroke. One out of five deaths from heart attacks is directly associated with smoking.
People who smoke are 3-4 times more likely to develop coronary artery diseases and get a heart attack at when young early age in their 20s or 30s because Tobacco causes injury to the inner layers of the coronary arteries leading to clotting within the arteries.
This is relevant to mention that heart attack in young women and middle-aged men indeed have an increased risk of a heart attack because of various reasons.
However, it was considered that 4o is the age where a youth enters the middle age and the risk of heart attack increases this is not the fact but these theories are changed now.
Predisposing factors and causes of an early heart attack at a young age
Many young adults are showing early signs of a heart attack in men and women. This young population has diseases like hypertension, diabetes, and obesity; working in stressful environmental conditions is more prone to early heart attacks at a young age.
Following are the predisposing factors and causes of an early heart attack at a young age.
Habits and Lifestyle
Our bad habits and lifestyle are the main culprit for coronary heart diseases and heart attacks in young adults. Following are the key factors:
- Smoking
- Lack of physical exercise
- Unhealthy eating habits
- Sedentary lifestyle
- Excess Alcoholism
Diseases
All the above habits and lifestyle conditions contribute to a big risk and cause the following diseases and ailments.
- Weight gain and Obesity
- Blood Sugar or Diabetes mellitus
- Blood pressure or Hypertension
- High cholesterol & Lipids levels in the blood
- Hormonal changes
Other Causes
- The psychological pressure
- Excessive workload
- Excessive stress
- Lack of sleep
FAQs on an early heart attack at a young age
I have come across different questions from young adults. People generally ask about heart attack causes, out of these few are listed below. We will try to address these common questions in one answer. 
- What causes a heart attack at a young age?
- Can a 25-year-old have a heart attack?
- Reasons for heart attack at a young age?
- What are the chances of a heart attack in your 20s?
- Can Heart disease happen at the age of 30 years?
- What is the risk of heart attack by age?
- Is heart attack possible at a young age?
Yes, there are so many factors of a heart attack at a young age but this is quite rare because there are so many other risk factors that are not involved when it comes to death due to heart attack.
Sudden death from a heart attack in young adults is very rare. But the risk has been increased by many folds in the last few decades. This is because of changes in lifestyle, smoking habits, changes in sleep patterns, sedentary lifestyles, and unhealthy eating habits causing sudden death in young adults.
However, there are many undiscovered heart anomalies and diseases causing death in young adults. But we cannot deny the coronary artery disease and heart attacks which are increasing with the fast pace in the young population.
How to prevent a heart attack?
This is the biggest curiosity among all age groups of the population regarding the prevention of heart diseases. People are asking questions to prevent heart attacks.
- How can you prevent heart attack at a young age?
- Is this possible to prevent heart attack at a young age?
The simple answer to these questions is YES in most of the cases but with some exceptions.
The role of genetics is very crucial and the risk is very high when your hereditary risk comes into the picture. Hereditary risk can be reduced with a change in your lifestyle and dietary habits.
What should I do to prevent a heart attack?
Regular screening tests or preventive health checks once a year
These are like very basic screenings to protect your heart because you can find out the reasons before the attack if any early changes in the report.
- Blood pressure screening
- Blood sugar screening
- Lipids profile and cholesterol levels
- Echocardiogram (Echo)
- Electrocardiogram (ECG)
- Preventive Diagnostic Tests
- Coronary CT Angiogram
- Biomarkers – Perivascular fat attenuation index
Stay at a healthy weight/control your weight
Eating habits play a very essential and important role to protect your heart because regular exercise and low-calorie food help in reducing weight which helps in reducing blood sugar and blood pressure also.
- Eating Healthy Food
- Avoid fatty and fast foods
- No red meat
- Increase seafood
- Increase leafy vegetables
- Use plant seed oils
- Regular exercises and Brisk walk
- Reduce BMI and abdomen circumference
Make a Control of Your Habits
Your bad habits are your enemy to kill your heart because smoking itself is the largest killer and causes of a heart attack at a young age and in adults.
- Stop Smoking
- Manage stress
- Limit alcohol
Disease Management
If you are on medication then you should take all medicines on time because skipping medicines damages the heart further.
- Keep blood sugar under control
- Control your blood pressure
- No skip of prescribed doses of medicines
Symptoms of Heart Attack
- Can we identify early symptoms of a heart attack?
- What are the pre heart attack symptoms in females?
- Is it gas or heart attack?
- How to know about the early symptoms of a heart attack?
These types of questions generally come from the patients and young adults with OPDs frequently. Yes, we can identify the early symptoms of a heart attack. Most of these symptoms are ignored and remain unnoticed which leads to an acute heart attack.
Early symptoms in young adults are:
- Epigastric discomfort
- Nausea and vomiting
- Gas formation and heartburn
- Mild shoulder discomfort
- Tightness in chest
This symptom may mimic gastritis including heartburn and epigastric discomfort. Most of the time this is missed with the question, is it gas or heart attack?
Ideally, these symptoms should not be ignored. This can be tested easily if these symptoms are relieved by taking an antacid or proton pump inhibitor medicine; it means there are no early symptoms of a heart attack.
But if symptoms are not relieved, you should immediately go to your doctor and get a heart screening done; by this, you can prevent a massive heart attack and save a life.
Acute heart attack symptoms are:
- Feeling of pressure and tightness in the chest
- Pain in the left shoulder which refers to the arm
- Intense Jaw pain
- Feeling Uneasiness, dizzy and fainting
- Breathless or difficulty in berating
- Excessive and unexplained sweating
- Pain in the Centre of the chest
The role of Herbal Medicine to prevent Heart Attack
Nature has given us full of preventive herbs and plants to prevent all kinds of ailments and diseases.
- Eat a balanced diet according to the requirement of the body
- Do workout to excrete and eliminate the toxins from the body
- Use herbal medicinal plants
You can protect yourself without any medicine or therapy if you follow these rules.
Nature has given a virtue as herbal drugs, medicinal plants, and drugs to us that have cardiotonic, antihypertensive, and anti-atherosclerosis properties. These herbs are being used for ages and are very effective. Very helpful to prevent coronary artery diseases, hypertension and hyperlipidemia. Few medicinal plants are listed below:
Atherosclerosis and hyperlipidemia/ Coronary artery disease / Antihypertensive herbal drugs
Traditional Name Botanical/Scientific name
- Lehsun (Garlic) Allium sativum
- Mukul/Muqil Commiphora mukul
- Barberine Captis chinesis
- Rice Mold Manuscus perpureus
- Elachi/Cardamom Cardimom (Elettaria cardamomum)
- Abresham Bombyx mori
- Red sage Salvia miltiorrhiza
- Darcheeni (Cinnamon) Cinnamomum verum
- Gaozaban Onosma bracteatum
- Asrol (Sarpgandha Rauvolfia serpentine
- Stinging nettle (Bichchu Booti) Urtica diotica
- Kalonji Nigella sativa
Stinging Nettle (Urtica diotica)
Emergency and lifesaving treatment
Following are the treatment options available in modern medicine if acute heart attack conditions arise. Health insurance companies generally cover these emergency procedures.
- Medical management (Blood thinner and anti-coagulants)
- Coronary angiography (CAG)
- Percutaneous coronary angioplasty (PTCA) or stenting
- Coronary artery bypass graft (CABG)
Conclusion:
The heart is an organ that can be saved by you only and no one can save your heart other than you. Early heart attacks at a young age are very common but can be prevented by some changes in your lifestyle, Obesity Control, and dietary habits. Be natural and make a habit to use natural products because these herbs have anti-oxidants and alkaloids those woks as cardiac tonics.
Green tea, coffee, green leafy vegetables, seafood, and a few kitchen spices are very useful and life saviors for you to protect your heart.
