Heart Attack Symptoms and Early Warning Signs

A heart attack is a medical emergency. If you have symptoms of a heart attack, call 911 or your local emergency number right away.

  • DO NOT try to drive yourself to the hospital.
  • DO NOT WAIT. You are at greatest risk of sudden death in the early hours of a heart attack.

Chest pain is the most common symptom of a heart attack. You may feel the pain in only one part of your body, or it may move from your chest to your arms, shoulder, neck, teeth, jaw, belly area, or back. The pain can be severe or mild. It can feel like:

  • A tight band around the chest
  • Bad indigestion
  • Something heavy sitting on your chest
  • Squeezing or heavy pressure

The pain usually lasts longer than 20 minutes. Rest and a medicine called nitroglycerin may not completely relieve the pain of a heart attack. Symptoms may also go away and come back. Other symptoms of a heart attack can include:

  • Anxiety
  • Cough
  • Fainting
  • Light-headedness, dizziness
  • Nausea or vomiting
  • Palpitations (feeling like your heart is beating too fast or irregularly)
  • Shortness of breath
  • Sweating, which may be very heavy

Some people (the elderly, people with diabetes, and women) may have little or no chest pain. Or, they may have unusual symptoms (shortness of breath, fatigue, and weakness). A “silent heart attack” is a heart attack with no symptoms.

via Heart attack – PubMed Health.

What Is a Heart Attack?

Every year, more than 1 million Americans have a heart attack – a sudden interruption in the heart’s blood supply. This happens when there is a blockage in the coronary arteries, the vessels that carry blood to the heart muscle. When blood flow is blocked, heart muscle can be damaged very quickly and die. Prompt emergency treatments have reduced the number of deaths from heart attacks in recent years.

via Heart Disease Pictures Slideshow: A Visual Guide to Heart Disease on MedicineNet.com.

Famous Tobacco Victims – John Candy

Actor John Candy struggled with his weight and tobacco habit for most of his adult life. At 6 feet, 2 inches and approximately 300 pounds, cigarette smoking put additional stress on his heart.

In an effort to improve his health, Candy quit smoking a few months before his death. But it was not enough to prevent the heart attack that took him in his sleep after midnight on March 4, 1994. He was just 43 years old.

via Famous Tobacco Victims – John Candy.

Heart Disease Risk Factors You Can Control

High cholesterol and high blood pressure are major risk factors for heart disease. Being overweight, obese, or physically inactive all increase your risk. So does diabetes, especially if your glucose levels are not well controlled. Discuss your risks with your doctor and develop a strategy for managing them. There are many steps you can take to protect your heart.

via Heart Disease Pictures Slideshow: A Visual Guide to Heart Disease on MedicineNet.com.

Heart Attack Symptoms and Early Warning Signs

Knowing the early warning signs of heart attack is critical for prompt recognition and treatment. Many heart attacks start slowly, unlike the dramatic portrayal often seen in the movies. A person experiencing a heart attack may not even be sure of what is happening. Heart attack symptoms vary among individuals, and even a person who has had a previous heart attack may have different symptoms in a subsequent heart attack. Although chest pain or pressure is the most common symptom of a heart attack, heart attack victims may experience a diversity of symptoms that include:

  • pain, fullness, and/or squeezing sensation of the chest;
  • jaw pain, toothache, headache;
  • shortness of breath;
  • nausea, vomiting, and/or general epigastric (upper middle abdomen) discomfort;
  • sweating;
  • heartburn and/or indigestion;
  • arm pain (more commonly the left arm, but may be either arm);
  • upper back pain;
  • general malaise (vague feeling of illness); and
  • no symptoms (approximately one quarter of all heart attacks are silent, without chest pain or new symptoms and silent heart attacks are especially common among patients with diabetes mellitus).

via Heart Attack Symptoms and Early Warning Signs – MedicineNet.

Too Much Sodium Is Bad For Your Health

Most Americans Should Consume Less Sodium (1,500 mg/day or less). Most of the sodium we consume is in the form of salt, and the vast majority of sodium we consume is in processed and restaurant foods. Too much sodium is bad for your health. It can increase your blood pressure and your risk for a heart attack and stroke. Heart disease and stroke are the first and third killers of men and women in the United States each year.

via CDC – DHDSP – High Blood Pressure and Sodium.