Now, Health Matters with Daniel Martin. Welcome back to Health Matters right here on CNN 938, the heart attack. It's a four part series. This is the final of four episodes inspired by the loss of a dear friend and colleague Chakan, who was an executive producer and director on the body and soul TV series in a long time employee here at Media Corp. He recently passed at the age of 51 from a very sudden heart attack.
He loved the body and soul series. I've spoken to his wife and told her that I'll be doing this series. I sent out a form to colleagues at Media Corp and friends of Shaan's to crowdsource for questions because I know many people had questions about like, how can this happen? How could it happen to somebody so suddenly at that young age as well, I couldn't talk about this with anybody else except Professor Carolyn Lam, who of course was my co-host on the
series for eight of the nine seasons. Professor Lam is senior consultant, National Heart Center Singapore and Professor Duke Nu. And like I said, pretty much, the fifth person that came in on the series. Do you remember? Let's see. Let's go back to our memories. You came in for a screen test with me to see, to see if there was a, it was a chemistry read. She was in the room. I know Daisy and Yvonne was she in the room? I can't
remember. For goodness sakes. I was too nervous to remember who was in the room. All I know is that we went off script immediately,
immediately through the script out of the window. And because I'd interviewed you prior on my radio show as well, I had submitted a list of doctors who could do it and we took chemistry reads. And I remember talking with our team including Shaan about who would be a best fit. And I remember Shaan simply just saying that one can honestly
though Daniel, I mean, in all seriousness. Thank you. It's been one of the greatest privileges and pleasures in my life to have done that with you and with Shean, I've learned so much so so
like communicating these important messages, right? But that's high praise from Shean. That one. Can I love that? That's high praise.
I miss you.
Yes, indeed. That's why we're doing the series. And let's address many of the questions that his friends and colleagues sent across to me. Somebody asked a stroke associated with a heart attack.
Oh, good question. Yes. So the underlying mechanism of a stroke is the same as a heart attack in a stroke, what happens is the blood vessel dying, nutrients and oxygen to the brain gets blocked and then part of the brain dies. And so that is a stroke. So exactly. So in the heart, a heart attack is when the blood supply supply nutrients and oxygen to the heart muscle gets blocked and then that part of the heart dies. So heart attack is stroke or brain attack can be considered a stroke.
Another question says I've been told that I have X percent blockage. They didn't reveal the, how many percent X percent blockage. And I don't need to do anything until it gets to a greater percentage. 60% or 70%. Is that true?
So, yes, it is true that if you've got only minor blockages that you don't have to do anything in the sense of what we call interventions, coronary intervention, a balloon. Exactly. But I don't want to get too technical there because there is plenty that you need to do once you know that you've got some blockages, which is now is the time to reverse your risk. Now is the time to really know what your blood pressure, cholesterol sugar, stop smoking, uh, employ a healthy lifestyle, get your weight
to a good level, become physically active. Now is the time that before it gets worse blockage, you can reverse it with all these measures of healthy lifestyle as well as medications to control cholesterol, blood pressure diabetes.
Another question that came in actually more than one person asked this. I'll take this phrasing of the question. 51 seems like a very young age to die of a heart attack. Is that the normal risky age?
It is young. Sadly. And our 2020 statistics in Singapore show that the mean age of a heart attack was about 70 years old. However, please, everyone out there, even young people can be at risk. If you've been dealt with the bad cards of genetics, with high cholesterol, you could have had a high cholesterol since your twenties. So that would already put you at risk by the time you're 40 you exactly of build up of the cholesterol. So everyone needs to be aware of the potential risk.
If you've got early symptoms, please seek medical attention and then know your numbers. You know, remember that you will not feel it if you've got high cholesterol. For example, you need to measure it to know it. Speaking
of knowing your numbers, at least two people ask is relying on our annual health screening enough.
Well, yes, annual health screening uh for an average person would include, I think all the lipids and um, lipids, which is cholesterol as well as diabetes screen,
right?
No, that's looking for the risk factors though. And that is a very, very good place to start. Now, that would be sufficient for the average. That's why we call it screening, right? Because it's mass screening. However, if you've got particular risk factors, like a family history of early heart attacks, if you already know that you've got some of the risk factors and you're having symptoms, all that means you cannot just go for
the annual screen. Don't wait, please go and see a doctor and get that running stress tests or even ac T coronary angiogram, for example, and have a look at the heart arteries.
Another common question that came in, is there a link between a heart attack and the COVID vaccine or our experience with having COVID?
Oh, this is a very, very may I say inflammatory topic, wasn't? It
shows on this many shows.
Yes. Ah, this reminds me of our chat with the statins. You know, you can find anything you want when you look out in the internet about stuff. So here's what we do know. Yes, there is a small risk of myocarditis, especially in younger men with the vaccine. Myocarditis is not a heart attack. Myocarditis is when the heart muscle is a little bit inflamed. Ok. So that's not a heart attack, which is the blood vessel becoming blocked, right? So please don't mix everything up.
Remember that heart attack can occur without a COVID vaccine. Now about the question of whether having COVID can precipitate a heart attack, I have to say that we are not very, very clear what makes the heart attack suddenly happen on top of a heart artery that's been building cholesterol over months or years
because I remember in episode one, you said something acutely can happen like an infection that could lead to that
collapse. Exactly. And that's where I was going to get that. Yes. A flu doesn't need to be COVID. Specifically any sort of inflammation, stress response, sudden physical exertion. Yes, including COVID, but including COVID among many other infections, influenza pneumonia can precipitate unhealthy rupture of that, that heart artery, all
the more reason not to get the flu or COVID.
Yes. And that's why we get
vaccine. Yes, indeed. Thanks for that question as well. Uh We had quite a few questions. Our dear friend Shukan did die in his home. Unfortunately, and I was looking at some of the the articles written about where heart attacks are more likely to happen and it talks about the home and surprisingly, the office as a common location as well. How is somebody supposed to respond? Well, some of the questions when they see somebody experiencing a heart attack, what is your advice
immediately? Call the ambulance? 995. Ok. So if there's one message you get, call the ambulance and then we have a little bit of a saying when it comes to medical, we say mona greets a heart attack. Mona is acronym mon A for morphine, oxygen nitrates aspirin. So that's what happens when the patient reaches the hospital. We try to get these things to the patient to try to quickly repro fuse the heart muscle, but just remember time is muscle.
So get the ambulance there immediately. And if you know CPR and if the patient has gone unconscious and you cannot feel the pulse not breathing, please perform CPR.
How do you know it's a heart attack? Do you know what I mean? Like, it's a scary experience. You might think that maybe the person is just fainted or maybe they're having. But there are telltale signs though, right? That you know that this person is probably having a heart attack.
Well, there is the typical, you know, hunching over and, and they're clutching their chest, they're going very cold and clammy and pain on the arm. Yes, it could also be a pain in the arm that radiates to the left arm is usually what we call. But central chest radiating to left arm and then because the heart beat can become irregular as it is dying. The patient can then lose consciousness because the heart's not pumping enough blood to reach the brain. So it, it
can be a heart attack. But listen, when you see someone collapse, you're not sure what it is and you cannot feel a pulse and the patient is not breathing. The treatment is the same. Do CPR immediately and call the ambulance,
they're trying to keep the heart pumping.
Exactly. You're keeping the circulation going until the definitive treatment can be done, which is either we need to restore the electrical rhythm or we need to give mona and bring the patient to a Cath lab and do a coronary intervention. But in the meantime, it is so critical if you can be trained in CPR and know how to do it properly, that can save lives
on that message, Professor Lam, I could not have done this without you. Thank you for helping us over these four episodes. Really, really talk in depth about the things that every man can do.
Well, thank you for the privilege and, and as I said, for the privilege of doing this in memory and honor of
Shaan. That's exactly what it is all about. Our colleague succumbed to a heart attack at the age of 51. Very recently, he helped Professor Lam and myself um from day one on Body and Soul, the TV series that started way back in 2013. He directed pretty much every episode and it was a long time employee here at Media Corp. He leaves behind his lovely wife and the darling young daughter as well.
That's why we were inspired. He loved body and soul so much, loved it and, and I know that he would want to help other people understand one of the most common health conditions in Singapore that he sadly did succumb to and that is the heart attack. I'm Daniel Martin. And this has been health matters here on CN 8938 before making any decisions based on the information in our program, please consult a medical professional.