Heart attack treatment in Idaho Falls
Health Risk Assessments
Take one of our free health risk assessments! This short quiz helps highlight your risk factors for certain diseases or conditions and provides personalized recommendations.
The term "heart disease" refers to several types of heart conditions, including heart attacks.
While heart attack warning signs may show up individually or in a combination, regardless of your symptoms, the cardiac care and emergency care teams at Eastern Idaho Regional Medical Center (EIRMC) are here for you. With numerous accreditations validating our services, we offer patients access to high-level heart attack treatment in Idaho Falls.
If you have heart attack symptoms, call 911 immediately.
Accredited Chest Pain Center
EIRMC is designated as an Accredited Chest Pain Center by the American College of Cardiology (ACC). This distinction speaks to our reach as the central cardiac care hospital for southeast Idaho, western Wyoming and southern Montana. Our expert cardiac team quickly identifies heart attack symptoms and begins the appropriate treatment.
What is a heart attack?
When a heart attack occurs, the blood supply that normally nourishes the heart with oxygen is cut off, which causes the heart muscle to start dying. Essentially, a heart attack happens when the heart doesn't get enough blood. As such, this is a dangerous and sometimes deadly event, so you should seek immediate medical attention if you show any potential warning signs.
Heart attack causes
One of the most common causes of heart attacks is plaque buildup in the arteries. Once plaque has built up over time, it prevents blood from getting to the heart. This is called atherosclerosis, when fats, cholesterol, calcium, proteins and inflammatory cells collect in your arteries.
A heart attack can occur when so much plaque has built up in one or more coronary arteries that it forms a blockage. This is the most common cause of heart attacks. Heart attacks can also be caused by blood clots, torn blood vessels from penetrating vascular trauma or blood vessel spasms.
Risk factors to watch out for include obesity, lack of exercise, high cholesterol diets, smoking, excess alcohol consumption and stress. Men are more likely to have heart attacks, and the risk becomes greater with people 65 years old or older. Additionally, having a family history of heart disease, high blood pressure or diabetes is critical to consider.
Signs of a heart attack
Heart attack symptoms can appear individually or in combination but typically quickly make themselves known. Some of these warning signs can include:
- Becoming fatigued quicker than normal
- Chest discomfort with lightheadedness, fainting, sweating, nausea or shortness of breath
- Pain that spreads to the shoulders, neck, jaw or arms
- Uncomfortable pressure, fullness, squeezing or pain in the chest and throat that either lasts more than a few minutes or goes away and comes back
Heart attack symptoms in women
Heart attack symptoms in women may differ from heart attack symptoms in men. Warning signs for women include:
- Atypical stomach, abdominal or right-side chest pain
- Back pain between the shoulder blades
- Nausea or dizziness
- Palpitations, cold sweat or paleness
- Shortness of breath and difficulty breathing
- Unexplained anxiety, weakness or fatigue
If you are having a potential cardiac episode and require emergency care, be prepared to provide the following information to the 911 dispatcher immediately:
- Name
- Address of the emergency
- Callback phone number
- Description of precisely what is happening
Are you at risk for heart disease?
We can help you if you are at risk for heart disease through our heart risk assessment test. An EIRMC team member will contact you after the evaluation to discuss your risk.
