A good hearty cough could help you save your life in case of a heart attack. Information provided by the Bermuda Heart Foundation says that if you experience a heart attack when you are alone, coughing may help correct your heart beat just long enough for you to be able to get help.

The advice was contained in a newsletter from New York's Rochester General Hospital.

"Many people are alone when they suffer a heart attack. Without help, the person whose heart stops beating properly and begins to feel faint has only ten seconds left before losing consciousness.

However, these victims can help themselves by coughing repeatedly and very vigorously.

A deep breath should be taken before each cough, and the cough must be deep and prolonged, as when producing sputum from deep inside the chest.

A breath and a cough must be repeated about every two seconds without let up until help arrives, or until the heart is felt to be beating normally again.

Deep breaths get oxygen into the lungs and coughing movements squeeze the heart and keep the blood circulating.

The squeezing pressure on the heart also helps it to regain rhythm.

In this way, heart attack victims can get to a phone and, between breaths, call for help."