Basic AED Maintenance Tips and Tricks

AED’s are sophisticated devices and are easy to use but they do require some minimal inspection to verify they are working properly.  Having an AED present on-site is not enough to help save lives; you need to ensure that proper care and maintenance is being practiced most to preserve its high usability. Remember that AEDS are manmade apparatuses therefore glitches can happen anytime. To prevent these minute problems that can later turn big, why don’t you read these tips and tricks below and easily learn how to care for your Automatic External Defibrillator's.

1.       Daily inspection is needed – let’s start from the simplest maintenance tip which is the daily inspection of your unit. Remember that your AED should have a flashing black hourglass that indicates the “use” readiness of the device. Some manufacturers may use different symbols so please refer to your user manual and check which indicator signal its readiness for use. Should the device is not ready for use, immediately contact a trained personnel or manufacturer to help resolve the problem.

2.      Weekly inspection of the unit – you should also carry out a weekly inspection (preferably during weekends) to ensure that the device is working great. On weekly inspections, make sure that all stuffs related to AED like pads, PC cards, kits gloves are always in place and ready for use. Cleaning is also necessary to make AED units always fresh and free from harmful bacteria. Do not put any chemicals into the device without consulting the user manual. Disposable supplies should also be properly discarded to prevent transfer of microorganisms.

3.      Monthly check ups – to prevent AED failure, always do monthly check ups to the unit. Make sure that all supplies are within the date of use and those that are expired should be replaced immediately. AED pads should be replaced when worn out or as prescribe by the manufacturer. Should you have non working aed batteries, call the manufacturer and ask for immediate replacement. Remember that BIT or Battery Insertion Test should always be practiced before putting back the device.

4.       Yearly inspections – once a year self test is a must to ensure that your AED unit is free from technical issues or damages. Calling the manufacturer and asking for a self test will easily do the trick. Batteries should also be checked for its shelf life, remember that not all batteries are made to last forever. Cables and physical structure of the device should also be inspected to ensure that there’s no loose wiring, physical dents, cracks present on the device.

Automatic External Defibrillators can really help save lives and this is a fact not fiction. The life saving capabilities of an AED is more than enough to protect and keep them well maintained all the time. Remember that AEDs are so important should an SCA happen so don’t jeopardize the health and lives of the others, don’t overlook the device but rather keep them well maintained all the time.  

Alternative Medicines To Prevent Heart Disease

In 2006, there were over 400,000 deaths due to heart disease.  Most of the time heart disease goes unnoticed until it’s too late.  If detected early enough, modern medicine can treat many of the issues which lead to heart disease and eventual death. 


However, many are turning to alternative medicines better known as homeopathic cures to fight this disease.  Doctors are skeptical of the real world results, but agree that they can’t hurt.  Some of the homeopathic medicines include:

1.    Meditation

2.    Prayer

3.    Homeopathic

4.    Chelation Therapy

Meditation doesn’t have to be spiritual.  It can also be just a time out of the mind, clearing your thoughts of every day stress. Just 20 minutes per day twice a day can be effective at reducing stress and anxiety which are preludes to heart disease. Many doctors believe meditation is a good alternative medicine just because of the sense of well being it can bring to a patient.
Some wouldn’t consider prayer to be an alternative medicine.  With over 4 Billion people in the world religiously active it’s difficult to consider this as an alternative. None the less, there have been many studies on the impact of prayer for those with heart disease and the results are amazing. A study of 1000 patients that were split into two study groups, one with prayer and one without, those patients who had someone praying for them showed a significant higher level of success compared to those in the placebo group.

Homeopathic medicines have been used in parts of the world for years to cure ailments for thousands of years. Those who take herbal or natural supplements have stated a positive effect on curing their issues. If you’re going to consider putting any supplement into your system you should always speak with your doctor first.


Chelation therapy is where vitamins are injected directly into the blood stream via a catheter. Certain vitamins have shown to reduce heart disease in some patients.  For example, studies have shown that there is a definitive link between calcium and the buildup of plaque in the arteries.  Chelation therapy calcium can remove the calcium from the blood reducing the levels of plaque buildup. This is the most controversial of all procedures for fighting heart disease and it's highly recommended that you and your doctor thoroughly research this practice before determining starting any regiment.


You should never take your heart or it's condition for granted.  A heart attack or cardiac arrest can happen to anyone with little or no warning.  To be prepared you should consider keeping a portable defibrillator at home or work.  You should also keep a good set up Philips Adult Smart Pads Cartridge available model number M5071A.

Risk Factors With Sudden Cardiac Arrest

Here is something which we need to know:

Smoking: Smoking is a major cause of cardiovascular disease. Cigarette smoking is the most important preventable cause of death world wide. People who smoke a pack of cigarettes a day have more prone to heart attack than nonsmokers.

Using illegal drugs, like cocaine or amphetamines: Cocaine has been associated to a high incidence of disturbance in the rhythm of the heartbeat and sudden death due to cardiovascular complications related to its physiological effects that result in an increase of heart rate. The whole body speeds up, increasing the heart rate, blood pressure and breathing. Used un-properly, amphetamines can effects sleeping, increase obesity.

Physical Stress: Intense physical activity. The hormone adrenaline is released during intense physical activity. This hormone can generate sudden cardiac arrest in people who have other heart problems.

Age: Men after age of 45, women after age of 55 experienced more heart attacks. For women 40 and over, the chances of suffering sudden cardiac death are one in 24.

High blood cholesterol: When there is too much cholesterol in your blood, it builds up in the walls of your arteries. The result is a heart attack.

High blood pressure: This increase in blood pressure can damage the blood vessels or very important organs. This can lead to strokes.

Diabetes: Diabetes is a disorder of metabolism—the way our bodies use digested food for energy. If you have diabetes, you are prone to have heart disease or a stroke as someone who does not have diabetes.

Your Heart Disease Risk

Heart Diseases Risk

High cholesterol, lifestyle choices, and other factors increase heart attack risk. Find out if you're likely to have a heart attack within the next 10 years.

Even though you don’t have a time machine, you do have the ability to calculate your 10-year heart disease risk. Decades of research have shown how heart disease risk factors such as high cholesterol and lifestyle choices like smoking cigarettes add up.

The greater your risk for heart disease within 10 years, the more aggressive you need to be with prevention. For example, the guidelines note that people who already have coronary heart disease or an equivalent health condition, such as diabetes, have a more than 20 percent risk of a heart event within 10 years. Add other risk factors, such as high cholesterol, advanced age, cigarette smoking, and a family history of early heart disease, and your total risk notches up.

The NCEP guidelines include charts that enable you to calculate a very specific risk score, based on your risk factors, age, and gender. For example, a 57-year-old man could use the charts to find out that he gets 7 points for age, 5 points for cholesterol over 280, 3 points for smoking cigarettes, and 1 point for his slightly high but treated high blood pressure. Adding them all together, he has 16 points, or a 25 percent risk of a heart disease event within ten years.

The same approach is applied to diet — using the diet appendix in the guidelines, you can give yourself points for the types of foods you eat regularly to find out whether you are eating a heart-healthy diet.

Once you have a good idea of your heart disease risk, you can make an informed decision about the steps you want to take to reduce that risk.
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“We want to match the intensity of treatment that we recommend to any patient with that patient’s level of risk,” says Daniel Levy, MD, director of the Framingham Heart Study and professor of medicine at Boston University in Boston. This is because the changes you may have to make all have some degree of risk and burden attached to them.

Calculate Your Heart Disease Risk

This is the information you need to calculate your risk:

* Your age. As you get older, your overall increase for heart disease and heart attack goes up. For men this means being over age 45 and for women, over 55.
* Cholesterol. You need to know about your total cholesterol as well as both the “bad” low-density lipoprotein (LDL) cholesterol and the “good” high-density lipoprotein (HDL) cholesterol. If your LDL is too high or your HDL is too low (less than 40 mg/dL), you are at risk. Get a blood test to find out what your cholesterol levels are if you do not already know.
* Blood pressure. It should be 140/90 or lower. If you are taking medication to control blood pressure, you are still considered to be at risk even if your blood pressure is under control.
* Chronic diseases. There are other health conditions, such as diabetes, that are closely tied to heart disease risk.
* Family history. If you have close male relatives who had heart disease before age 55 or close female relatives with heart disease before age 65, you are at increased risk. However, Levy points out that many people do not know all the details of their family’s history with heart disease. Make the best guess you can if you don’t have someone to ask.
* Smoking cigarettes. Bad news for people who are smokers — this is a strong independent risk factor for heart disease.

Use this online risk calculator to get a better feel for where you stand when it comes to heart health. Of course, calculating heart disease risk is a more complex than simply using an online calculator, so check with your doctor to make sure you're taking all the steps you need to take.

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