Medicines to prevent heart attack
The prevention of a heart attack includes adjusting blood pressure, blood sugar and blood lipids. Often one has to use medication for this. This is recommended if a change in lifestyle and diet does not lead to the desired result.
If the coronary arteries are already narrowed (coronary heart disease, CHD), it is advisable to take regular small doses of Aspirin® (100 mg per day) to inhibit platelet aggregation, and a statin to reduce blood fats and “stabilize” the deposits in the coronary arteries. Chest pain (angina pectoris) is treated by long-term use of beta-blockers. These ensure that the heart uses less oxygen and “hungers” for oxygen less often.
Nitrates are often prescribed for acute pain. These drugs dilate the coronary arteries and increase the oxygen supply. One example is glizerol trinitrate, which is available as a spray.
This must never be taken with sexual enhancers such as Sildenafil (Viagra), as dangerous drops in blood pressure can occur in combination. Acetylsalicylic acid (ASA) is a widely used painkiller, which also has fever-lowering, anti-inflammatory and anticoagulant properties. Colloquially it is often referred to as Aspirin®, although this is strictly speaking only one of many brand names of ASA-containing drugs.
In addition to its use for pain relief in doses of 0.5 to 2g, it is used in lower doses of usually 100mg to prevent heart attacks and strokes. It acts by inhibiting the enzyme cyclooxygenase-1 (COX-1), which is contained in the blood platelets (thrombocytes), to inhibit clotting. This effect lasts for several days.
Thus, Aspririn prevents the formation of blood clots (thrombi). These, in combination with vascular calcifications, are usually the cause of the development of heart attacks by closing the coronary arteries and can thus cause a lack of blood supply to the heart muscle tissue, which ultimately inevitably leads to the death of the muscle. However, a regular intake of ASA over a longer period of time is accompanied by a number of side effects.
One of the most common complaints is its poor stomach tolerance. As aspirin has a stimulating effect on the production of gastric acid, it provokes irritation of the stomach lining in the long term and considerably increases the probability of a stomach ulcer. For this reason, aspirin is usually prescribed together with a “stomach protection” drug, for example the widely used pantoprazole. Other possible side effects include impaired kidney function and, logically, an increased tendency to bleed.
