Are Asthma Patients At Greater Risk Of Suffering A Heart Attack?

Asthma and heart attack are linked, research reveals, something that may surprise you given the fact that they affect completely different body systems. Asthma is a respiratory disease, while heart attacks are related to a person’s cardiovascular system. At first, it would seem that the two problems have no connection whatsoever. However, it turns out that people who have asthma are more likely to end up suffering from a heart attack compared to people who don’t.

What is cardiac asthma?

Heart failure can lead to pulmonary edema, which is a fluid build-up in the lungs that can affect your airways. Cardiac asthma can be caused by this fluid build-up, and the resulting wheezing and coughing is very similar to that of an asthma attack.

In reality, asthma is a condition that’s triggered by airway inflammation. As this occurs, the airways become narrow, causing people to breathe with difficulties. True asthma is not caused by a fluid build-up and has nothing to do with heart disease. It’s important to tell cardiac asthma apart from true asthma, because these two conditions are treated differently.

The link between asthma and heart attack: What research says

Recent evidence suggests that people living with active asthma have double the risk of having a heart attack, or any other cardiovascular event (such as a stroke). It also turns out that medication used to treat asthma can increase the risk of developing a cardiovascular problem by 60 percent over the course of 10 years.

In the past, it was believed that asthma and cardiovascular disease had little in common because they affect different parts of the body, one being a cardiovascular problem, and the other affecting the respiratory system.

According to studies showcased at the American Heart Association’s Scientific Sessions in 2014, it turns out that there is actually a link between these two conditions.

One of the studies revealed the fact that daily medication used as part of asthma treatment increases a person’s risk of cardiovascular disease up to 60 percent. 

According to senior author Dr Young J Juhn, many people consider that chest pain that’s a sign of a heart attack is actually triggered by their asthma. That’s why people who have asthma should always take chest pain seriously because it could be a sign of a heart attack.   

The doctor and his team examined the data of 550 patients who had suffered a heart attack within the last four year and compared the information to asthma status. The results revealed the fact that asthma was linked to increased risk of a heart attack.

Asthma attack vs heart attack?

Since there are people with asthma who experience chest pain (which is also a symptom of heart attack), it helps if everyone understood exactly what happens during an asthma attack. Every human has a complex system of airways that are connected to the lungs.

Healthy people have airways that are always open, which allows them to breathe air inside the lungs. People who suffer from asthma have inflamed or irritated airways, which makes breathing a lot more difficult. This difficulty in inhaling the same amount of air that a normal person inhales can lead to an asthma attack.

Such an attack is generally triggered by exercising, or inhaling contaminants (such as dust, fumes, pollen, allergens, or gases). Each of the aforementioned contaminants can irritate the airways, causing them to swell up. When this occurs, a person will start sneezing, coughing, and have problems breathing.

You may have seen someone with asthma breathing from a small portable tube. That device is called an inhaler, and it forces the airways to open in order for people with asthma to regulate their breathing pattern. People who have an asthma attack and do not have an inhaler with them require immediate medical help. Even if the asthma attack was triggered by allergen exposure, reducing the exposure or using the inhaler doesn’t guarantee a symptom improvement if the attack is too severe.

People who have an asthma attack may require emergency medical care if they feel like they can’t inhale or exhale at all, if they breathe very fast, or if they notice any blue tins on the fingernails, lips, and face (which indicates a lack of oxygen). 

Conclusion

At first, it was believed that asthma, being a respiratory problem, and heart attacks, being a cardiovascular problem, didn’t really impact one another in any way. However, research conducted over the past decade has shown that people who have asthma are at greater risk of having a full-blown heart attack, particularly if they have active asthma. Each of the two conditions may consist of a medical emergency, so don’t hesitate to see a doctor when you’re experiencing difficulties in breathing or chest pain.