More than a million Americans have heart attacks each year. In fact, an American suffers from a heart attack every 25 seconds.

What is a Heart Attack

The heart muscle requires a constant supply of oxygen –rich blood and the coronary arteries provide the heart with this critical blood.

However, if you have coronary artery disease, those arteries become narrow and blood cannot flow as well as it should causing calcium to build up within the arteries and form plaque.

Blood clots form around the plaque and block the artery depriving the heart muscle of oxygen. Within a short time, death of heart muscle cells occurs resulting in permanent damage to the heart muscle; a heart attack.

Risk factors for Heart Attacks:

• Family History
• Smoking
• High Cholesterol
• Stress
• Physical Inactivity
• Obesity
• Diabetes
• High Blood Pressure

Symptoms of a Heart Attack

Signs can vary person to person, however the five major symptoms of a heart attack are:

• Pain or discomfort in the jaw, neck or back
• Feeling weak, light-headed or faint
• Fatigue
• Pain or discomfort in arms or shoulder
• Shortness of breath
• Chest pain or discomfort

Heart disease is a progressive disease, therefore if you are having a heart attack, the trouble has been building up in your chest for a while. It is important not to wait, therefore you need to know if you are at risk prior to an event.

If you have a heart attack, you are more likely to survive if you know the signs and symptoms, call 911 right away and get to a hospital quickly.

How do you minimize your risk?

People who have had a heart attack can reduce the risk of future events or strokes by making lifestyle changes and taking medication.

Prevention includes:

• Quit smoking, avoid second hand smoke
• Lower cholesterol
• Control high blood pressure
• Maintain a healthy weight
• Exercise
• In some cases, surgery is necessary
• Get a heart scan on a regular basis

The CT heart scan at Advanced Body Scan is the single most effective technology available to simply and non-invasively detect the warning signs of a heart attack.

Other diagnostic procedures generally only capture signs of the disease once you are experiencing 50 to 75 percent arterial blockage. Even if you recently had a normal stress test, MRI, CT scan or PET scan, if you fall into a high-risk category you should consider having a heart scan.

Coronary artery disease, also referred to as heart disease or coronary atherosclerosis, is the most common type of heart disease and is the leading cause of death in the U.S. for both men and women.

What is Coronary Artery Disease

Coronary Artery occurs when the arteries that supply blood to the heart muscle become hardened and narrowed. This is due to the buildup of cholesterol and other material (plaque) on the inner walls.

As it grows, less blood can flow through the arteries resulting in the heart muscle being deprived of the blood or oxygen it needs.

This can lead to chest pain (angina) or a heart attack. Over time this can also contribute to heart failure and arrhythmias (changes in the normal beating rhythm of the heart).

Symptoms of Coronary Artery Disease

Signs and severity can vary from person to person. The most common signs are:

• Chest pain or discomfort
• Pressure or squeezing in your chest, sometimes shoulders, arms, neck, jaw, or back
• Fatigue
• Indigestion
• Pain worsens with activity and goes away with rest
• Shortness of breath

How do you minimize your risk?

• Quit smoking. Avoid second-hand smoke
• Exercise
• Eat a healthy diet
• Stay at a healthy weight
• Get a heart scan on a regular basis

The CT heart scan at Advanced Body Scan is the single most effective technology available to simply and non-invasively detect the buildup of these calcium deposits.

Other diagnostic procedures generally only capture signs of the disease once you are experiencing 50 to 75 percent arterial blockage. Even if you recently had a normal stress test, MRI, CT scan or PET scan, if you fall into a high-risk category you should consider having a heart scan.

• Pericardium Assessment
• Heart Size Assessment
• Heart Valve Calcification

Heart Scan In Oklahoma and Texas

If you are like most Americans, heart disease and heart health are not at the forefront of your mind. However, heart disease is the leading cause of death in the United States. How can you tell if your heart is having problems that you can’t detect? You need to get a heart scan to see not only if your heart is healthy, but also to see what you can do to keep your heart healthy.

Heart scans are easy to do, convenient to schedule, and comprehensive in their results. What can a heart scan cover? It can detect:

• Heart attacks
• Strokes
• Coronary Artery Disease
• Heart size
• Heart valve calcification
• Pericardium assessment

Who Should Get A Heart Scan?

If you have ever thought about a heart scan, you should probably go in and get one. You will not regret having this done. You should come in and get a heart scan from Advanced Body Scan if you have a history of heart disease in your family. This will help give you the peace of mind that you need in either detecting something or letting you know that you are fine until your next scan. If you are over 40 years old, you should get a heart scan. If you notice that you are light-headed after doing activities that normally don’t give you this side effect, you should come in. If you have shortness of breath doing very simple activities, you should come get a scan.

Where Can I Get A Heart Scan?

You can get your heart scan from Advanced Body Scan. We use a state-of-the-art scanner that is used for early detection of heart disease. Our clinic offers this service to all our patients. Heart scans should be done at a place that has a heart specialist that can read the scans and help you know how best to treat whatever you might have.

What Can I Expect When I Get A Heart Scan?

Heart scans take only a few minutes to complete but are very comprehensive in what they diagnose. A CT scan is similar to an x-ray in that it takes pictures of your heart and other parts of your body and can detect calcium in your coronary arteries with the utmost accuracy, and in a very short amount of time. This is what makes the CT Scanner the top of the line for detecting heart diseases.

What Other Scans Do We Offer?

Advanced Body Scan offers many other preventive scans. These scans range from a virtual colonoscopy to a lung scan.

Body Scan – Body scans are a great way to see how your overall health is. It is a scan from your shoulders down to your thighs. It takes pictures of your lungs, your chest, abdomen, and pelvis. This scan can help detect cancer, heart disease, and other abnormalities. This will allow you the opportunity to get ahead with your treatment before it becomes too serious.

Virtual Colonoscopy – This scan doesn’t require much preparation and no anesthesia. The pros of having this scan is that it is minimally invasive as the doctor can do real time measurements, zoom in on spots of concern, and the whole procedure can be completed in less than 30 minutes.

These other scans make Advanced Body Scan the premier place to get a heart scan in Oklahoma and Texas. These scans can help prevent serious health problems down the road. These scans also allow you to take control of your health and help you know what you need to focus on so that your doctor can give you advice on what changes in your lifestyle you may need to make.