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Why do people cough when they have a heart attack?

It's thought that if you can cough at roughly the same rate that your heart is supposed to beat, that the compression of your diaphragm will help get your heart back into normal sinus rhythm.

However, most doctor types have said that the chances of this helping are pretty low, and it's treated more as an urban legend/internet myth than a factual treatment for imminent heart failure.

http://www.americanheart.org/presenter.jhtml?identifier=4535
 
marvdmartian said:
It's thought that if you can cough at roughly the same rate that your heart is supposed to beat, that the compression of your diaphragm will help get your heart back into normal sinus rhythm.

However, most doctor types have said that the chances of this helping are pretty low, and it's treated more as an urban legend/internet myth than a factual treatment for imminent heart failure.

http://www.americanheart.org/presenter.jhtml?identifier=4535
Click to expand...

Ahhhhhh, now I see!

One of those bullshit medical "facts" thats more well-known than the real thing.
 
Cough is not a normal symptom of a heart attack, and purposefully coughing during one will not help, as stated above. A heart attack is caused by a lack blood and therefore oxygen to your heart, causing your heart tissue to die. The pain can cause an increase in heart rate (which is bad, because now the heart needs even more oxygen), but even if coughing could correct the heart rate, it wouldn't restore blood flow.
 
what cou... hhhhhhhnnnnnnnnnnnnnnnnnngggggg

1220853038151.jpg
 
shortylickens said:
In many movies and TV shows I see people coughing during their heart attack. I always assumed it was a natural reflex. Now I find out its the conscious result of bad advice.
Click to expand...

Congestive Heart Failure

As the heart's pumping action is lost, blood may back up in other areas of the body, producing congestion in the lungs, the liver, the gastrointestinal tract, and the arms and legs. As a result, there is a lack of oxygen and nutrition to organs, which damages them and reduces their ability to work properly.
Click to expand...
 
I have seen my share of heart attacks and a cought during the event is not normally one of the symptoms but,

One of the most common treatments prescribed post MI is a ACE Inhibitor medication, Lisinopril for example, that can cause one hell of a cough.

Also smokers are at increased risk of an MI, and they may have a chronic cough at baseline.
 
My heart occasionally does something weird where it'll miss part of the normal beat cycle, or some such thing, followed by a few slightly more rapid beats.
Apparently it runs in the family - one of my grandmother's siblings had it, my mom had it, and now I've got it. I don't know if it's a murmur, or exactly what it is. It can be exacerbated by shallow breathing, such as during a painful back spasm (can't breathe normally, as it hurts like hell), by inadequate sleep, or by anxiety. And sometimes it'll happen two or three times a day, or sometimes maybe only once every two or three weeks.


Anyway, when my heart decides to do that, I'll suddenly cough lightly. It's fairly involuntary, too - the feeling is almost like something's abruptly pressed against the inside of my lungs and trachea.

Hopefully the stupid thing won't decide to just outright stop beating. Hurray for zero redundancy on incredibly critical organs.🙄
 
Jeff7 said:
Hopefully the stupid thing won't decide to just outright stop beating. Hurray for zero redundancy on incredibly critical organs.🙄
Click to expand...

Actually your heart has a insane amount of redundancy built in. I've treated more then my fair share of people that have had 3-4 heart attacks. As long as you have decent right and left ventricle function it takes a BIG heart attack to kill you.
 
DeathBUA said:
Actually your heart has a insane amount of redundancy built in. I've treated more then my fair share of people that have had 3-4 heart attacks. As long as you have decent right and left ventricle function it takes a BIG heart attack to kill you.
Click to expand...
Even so...we have two kidneys - but should they both abruptly fail, that won't leave you dead within minutes. One heart, and if it screws up, despite any internal "parity" it has🙂, there's a pretty big problem.
 
You could get it with flash pulm edema secondary to a massive MI but its not a common presentation
 
shortylickens said:
In many movies and TV shows I see people coughing during their heart attack. I always assumed it was a natural reflex. Now I find out its the conscious result of bad advice.
Click to expand...

In many TV shows, you see people coughing as they run into the bathroom. They are supposed to be vomiting (as the script calls).

Network censors do not allow for the vomit reflex, or noise, so they accept "coughing" as a valid replacement. The influence of censors is, in itself, a bit hilarious, once you know what to look for.

it's also sad. very, very sad. Fuck these dinosaurs.

conclusion: you really should not be basing your life knowledge on what you've learned from TV, unless you back that up with the proper training on how to smell the BS.

:\
 
Capt Caveman said:
/facepalm
Click to expand...

zinfamous said:
In many TV shows, you see people coughing as they run into the bathroom. They are supposed to be vomiting (as the script calls).

Network censors do not allow for the vomit reflex, or noise, so they accept "coughing" as a valid replacement. The influence of censors is, in itself, a bit hilarious, once you know what to look for.

it's also sad. very, very sad. Fuck these dinosaurs.

conclusion: you really should not be basing your life knowledge on what you've learned from TV, unless you back that up with the proper training on how to smell the BS.

:\
Click to expand...

So apparently, two people did not actually read this tit-sucking thread.
 
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