Tuesday, July 23, 2013

Asthma and Your Heart


During an asthma attack you may have chest pains, your heart beats quickly and unsteadily at times. You might put these symptoms down to heart strain and wonder if you could be about to have a heart attack. But let's separate asthma from heart disease because they are two completely different things. Asthma will not damage your heart but hardening of your arteries will. It is heart disease that can cause a heart attack and not asthma.

It is true that your heart does have some strain put on it during an asthma attack. Your chest muscles, abdominal wall and diaphragm all work harder in an asthma attack. They want more oxygen but there is less of it available because your bronchial tubes have narrowed. To make up for this, your heart has to pump more blood around your body and will beat faster - not much faster than if you had been running hard. You could well get cramp in your chest muscles just like ordinary leg cramp but this is muscular pain and not from your heart. A healthy heart is quite capable of meeting the extra demands placed on it and once your asthma attack subsides your heart rate will return to normal without any damage to your heart.

So try not to be anxious that your asthma is going to do damage your heart, your anxiety may only prolong the asthma attack. Remember that cramp my be causing your chest pain and the remedy for that is to relax and breathe more slowly. Be aware that in a severe attack of asthma your chest pain could last longer, but after medical treatment your heart rate will slow down and things will go back to normal.

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