foodconsumer.org: Heart attack survivors can have sex as usual

Heart attack survivors can have sex as usual
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admin on 05/22/2010 20:28:00
 
Exercise offsets risk of sex-induced heart attack
Heart attack survivors who are sexually active prior to a heart attack cut their
bedroom activity drastically after treatment, particularly if they don't have
the "sex talk" with their doctors, a new survey found.
The survey of 1,184 men aged 59 and 576 women aged 61 showed that on average,
only half of men and a third of women reported that their cardiologists advised
them about when it would be safe for them to resume sex before they were
discharged from the hospital.
On the other hand, within a year after their heart attack, 40 percent of men and
20 percent of women reported their talking about the issue with their
physicians.
The survey also showed both men and women cut their sexual activity during the
year following a heart attack, even though most heart attack patients can resume
enjoying sex within weeks after treatment as long as they feel well enough and
engage in regular exercise.
Many patients fear that sex will boost their risk for another heart attack. But
Murray A. Mittleman, MD, of Harvard Medical School told WebMD that the risk is
negligible.
Sex does not increase risk in heart attack survivors who exercise regularly.  In
people with heart disease, sex may increase the risk for heart attack by about
two in one million and 20 in a one million in those with heart disease,
according to a report by Webmd.
Dr. Mittleman was cited as saying exercise is very important for heart attack
survivors. "Exercise virtually eliminates the risk of having a heart attack
associated with sexual activity."
The survey was conducted by Stacy Tessler Lindau, MD from the University of
Chicago and colleagues, and was reported this week in Washington DC at an
American Heart Association meeting.
Heart attack survivors engage in less sexual activity not only because they fear
sex would trigger a future heart attack, but due to depression and side effects
of medications. One other reason is that cardiac patients may also suffer from
erectile dysfunction.
Pfister O. from Universitätsspital Basel in Basel reports in the March 2010
issue of Therapeutische Umschau. Revue Thérapeutique that sexual acitvity does
not increase risk in the majority of patients with heart disease.
However, Pfister says that sexual activity might trigger coital angina or
cardiac decompensation in those patients suffering from severe angina or chronic
heart failure leading to hospitalization.
He acknowledges, however,  that the risk for patients with coronary artery
disease to have a heart attack or fatal event during sex is extremely low.
A heart attack occurs when blood flow to a section of heart muscle gets blocked.
If the blood flow isn't restored quickly, the heart muscle becomes damaged from
lack of oxygen and begins to die.
Heart attacks occur most often in patients with coronary artery disease or
simply heart disease, which results from a build-up of a fatty material called
plaque.
Following a healthy diet can help prevent or even reverse atherosclerosis
progression, according to Dr. Dean Ornish, a professor from the University of
California San Francisco who uses the so called “Ornish” Diet to help treat
patients with heart disease with great success.
By David Liu and editing by Rachel Stockton