A new initiative has been launched to decrease repeat heart attacks. | Courtesy of Shutterstock
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Amanda Rupp | Aug 7, 2016

New initiative launched to decrease repeat heart attacks

The American Heart Association (AHA) recently started a new educational campaign that seeks to decrease the number of recurrent or repeat heart attacks within the U.S.

The goal is to give survivors simple, effective action steps designed to decrease their chances of having more heart attacks.

“Our message is simple: don’t wait for a second heart attack,” Dr. Alice Jacobs, former AHA president and chair of the advisory group overseeing the new initiative, said. “Research shows there are some very clear things you can do to lower your chances of having another event.”

Some of these action steps include taking medication as primary physicians recommend. Heart attack survivors should also have follow-up appointments with their doctors and finish a complete cardiac rehabilitation program.

“Having a heart attack can obviously be very traumatic, and afterwards patients and families can have a difficult time processing all that has happened and all that needs to happen to get better,” Jacobs said. “All the questions to answer, the instructions to remember and the medical terms to understand can be overwhelming. We want to help by providing simple, easy to follow steps, easy to use tools and trackers that can help people not just recover fully from this heart attack -- but prevent a future one.”

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