A doctor said a 38-year-old woman who survived a heart attack that nearly killed her had an epiphany — that the nicotine and tar she inhaled by smoking more than 150,000 cigarettes over 20 years could have been a deciding factor in her illness.
According to Chen Fu-chun (陳復中), an attending physician in the cardiology division of the Chung Kang branch of Cheng Ching General Hospital in Greater Taichung, the woman worked from home on her own online business and smoked to relieve her mood swings caused by sales fluctuations.
“Her heavy smoking habit did not cause any discomfort until recently, when she suddenly experienced unusual chest pain and lapsed into unconsciousness for 15 minutes. Fortunately, she lived near the hospital and was rushed to the emergency unit by her husband in time,” Chen said.
By the time the woman arrived at the hospital, her right coronary artery was completely blocked, causing right ventricle obstruction-failure syndrome and her blood pressure had plummeted, but cardiac catheterization saved her life, Chen said.
“The traditional major risk factors for heart attacks include low temperature, old age and the “three highs” — high blood pressure, high blood lipids and high blood sugar. In cases where people suffer a heart attack at a young age, the mostly likely trigger could be tobacco consumption,” Chen said.
Nicotine in cigarettes can not only cause vascular spasms and constriction of the blood vessels, but also increases platelet adhesion and thus the potential for clotting and arterial blockages, the cardiologist said.
“There might not be any clear signs before a heart attack triggered by long-term smoking. Heavy smokers could lapse into a critical condition shortly after they experience chest tightness and pain,” Chen said.
Only about one-third of such patients survive, while others die immediately or on the way to hospital, he said.
A group of Taiwanese-American and Tibetan-American students at Harvard University on Saturday disrupted Chinese Ambassador to the US Xie Feng’s (謝鋒) speech at the school, accusing him of being responsible for numerous human rights violations. Four students — two Taiwanese Americans and two from Tibet — held up banners inside a conference hall where Xie was delivering a speech at the opening ceremony of the Harvard Kennedy School China Conference 2024. In a video clip provided by the Coalition of Students Resisting the CCP (Chinese Communist Party), Taiwanese-American Cosette Wu (吳亭樺) and Tibetan-American Tsering Yangchen are seen holding banners that together read:
UNAWARE: Many people sit for long hours every day and eat unhealthy foods, putting them at greater risk of developing one of the ‘three highs,’ an expert said More than 30 percent of adults aged 40 or older who underwent a government-funded health exam were unaware they had at least one of the “three highs” — high blood pressure, high blood lipids or high blood sugar, the Health Promotion Administration (HPA) said yesterday. Among adults aged 40 or older who said they did not have any of the “three highs” before taking the health exam, more than 30 percent were found to have at least one of them, Adult Preventive Health Examination Service data from 2022 showed. People with long-term medical conditions such as hypertension or diabetes usually do not
POLICE INVESTIGATING: A man said he quit his job as a nurse at Taipei Tzu Chi Hospital as he had been ‘disgusted’ by the behavior of his colleagues A man yesterday morning wrote online that he had witnessed nurses taking photographs and touching anesthetized patients inappropriately in Taipei Tzu Chi Hospital’s operating theaters. The man surnamed Huang (黃) wrote on the Professional Technology Temple bulletin board that during his six-month stint as a nurse at the hospital, he had seen nurses taking pictures of patients, including of their private parts, after they were anesthetized. Some nurses had also touched patients inappropriately and children were among those photographed, he said. Huang said this “disgusted” him “so much” that “he felt the need to reveal these unethical acts in the operating theater
Heat advisories were in effect for nine administrative regions yesterday afternoon as warm southwesterly winds pushed temperatures above 38°C in parts of southern Taiwan, the Central Weather Administration (CWA) said. As of 3:30pm yesterday, Tainan’s Yujing District (玉井) had recorded the day’s highest temperature of 39.7°C, though the measurement will not be included in Taiwan’s official heat records since Yujing is an automatic rather than manually operated weather station, the CWA said. Highs recorded in other areas were 38.7°C in Kaohsiung’s Neimen District (內門), 38.2°C in Chiayi City and 38.1°C in Pingtung’s Sandimen Township (三地門), CWA data showed. The spell of scorching