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How to Support a Loved One’s During Heart Attack Recovery: A Guide

Surviving a heart attack is no mean feat. And heart attack recovery takes utmost care. A caregiver is central to helping someone walk the path to recovery.

Being a caregiver of a heart attack patient is not easy. You may have a hundred questions in your mind. And that’s why we’ve prepared this blog. Here, we will discuss some useful tips and answer some important questions that you may have about providing the right care after a heart attack.


About Heart Attack Recovery

Every person’s body is different. Hence, everybody takes a different time to recover from a heart attack, which may range from several weeks to several months. The recovery time depends on the severity of the attack, how quickly treatment was received, the type of treatment and the overall health of the patient.

The patient will need to stay at the hospital for the first few days after a heart attack to receive the right treatment with continuous monitoring of their condition. After discharge from the hospital, they will need to make several lifestyle changes including following a heart-healthy diet, exercising regularly and taking the right kind of medication to reduce the risk of future heart attacks and prevent further heart damage.

Caregivers play the central role during this post-heart attack care phase.


How to Care for Heart Patients

The most important goal after a heart attack is avoiding another one. For this, several lifestyle changes need to be made during the recovery process, the foremost among which are:

  • Eating a heart-healthy diet
  • Regular exercise
  • Quitting smoking

As a caregiver, you will help the patient in many ways including grocery shopping, meal planning, meal preparation and more. Let’s take a more in-depth look.

1. Meal Planning and Preparation

This is an extremely important aspect as the recovery of a heart attack patient will largely depend on eating a heart-healthy diet. This involves several steps such as:

Eating the right thing

When it comes to heart healthy diet, eating the right thing is what matters the most. While your medical team will provide you with detailed instructions on what to eat and what not, these are some of the important things to remember:

  • Include vegetables and fruits, which are good sources of vitamins and minerals.
  • Focus on whole grains which are good sources of fibre and other nutrients.
  • Limit saturated fats and trans fats to lower your blood cholesterol and lower the risk of other heart conditions.
  • Include low-fat proteins such as poultry, fish and eggs for limiting the fat intake.

Controlling portion sizes

While what you eat is important, how much you eat is important as well. Eating too much, even if it’s healthy food, can have detrimental effects. For this, you can:

  • Serve food in a small plate or bowl to control portion sizes.
  • Focus on low-calorie food that’s packed with nutrients such as vegetables and fruits.
  • Avoid processed, refined and fast foods.

1. Encourage and Support Lifestyle Changes

A crucial aspect of physical recovery after a heart attack involves making lifestyle changes. Yes, eating right is one of the pillars of changing the lifestyle, the other pillar is getting regular physical exercise.

This may feel like a challenge in the beginning. The patient may not have the physical strength to exercise after surviving such a major life event. Start small with a simple exercise such as walking. Then encourage the patient to slowly build up. Diet and exercise will work hand in hand for a smoother journey to recovery.

Another major aspect of lifestyle change is quitting smoking and limiting the intake of alcohol. Discuss with the doctor about the permissible amount of alcohol and if taking alcohol is allowed.


3. Medication Management

As a caregiver, one of your major responsibilities is managing the medication. The patient will need to intake medication at the right time to ensure recovery goals are achieved. Take a detailed briefing from the doctor’s team on the dosage of medication. Do not hesitate to ask questions and clarify your doubts.


4. Supporting Mental Recovery

Suffering a heart attack is as much a mental strain as it is physical. Most patients suffer from depression, which can also be a fallout of some of the medicines that need to be taken after a heart attack such as beta-blockers. Hence supporting the patient’s mental health after a heart attack is very important and is also the responsibility of a caregiver.

Positive affirmations go a long way and help the patients through dark days. Telling them that everything will be okay and they will be back to normal life soon can help. Invite friends home or arrange for small social gatherings to ensure they don’t feel isolated.


Home Care Services for Heart Attack Recovery

While the caregiver plays a pivotal role in heart attack recovery, things can get overwhelming, especially if the time of recovery is long. Fortunately, in Malaysia, you can avail of homecare services which can take some of the load off you. You can hire a professional to take some of the load off you such as meal preparation, taking the patient for exercises, medication management and others.

TrueCare2U is Malaysia’s leading home care service offering a range of services to support a patient’s journey to better heart health. From hiring professional nurses and caregivers to consulting with dieticians and psychological counsellors – you can obtain a range of support from TrueCare2U.

Download the app today to find out how you can obtain professional heart care support from TrueCare2U.

Download the app today to find out how you can obtain professional heart care support from TrueCare2U.


A Word for Heart Attack Survivors

If you’ve suffered a heart attack, don’t shy away from asking for help. And you will be surprised to see how many people are willing to chip in. Anybody can be your caregiver – family members, friends, colleagues and other people you know. You can have more than one caregiver too. A little help from everyone will go a long way.



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