TEN HEART ATTACK SYMPTOMS

I hope trolls on toostep.com will spare this post which is for public good.10 Heart Attack Symptoms You’re Most Likely to Ignore

By Melanie Haiken, Caring.com
Mon, Nov 01, 2010

Heart attacks don't always strike out of the blue -- there are many
symptoms we can watch for in the days and weeks leading up to an
attack. But the symptoms may not be the ones we expect. And they can
be different in men and women, and different still in older adults.
Last year, for example, a landmark study by the National Institutes of
Health (NIH) published in Circulation: Journal of the American Heart
Institute found that 95 percent of women who'd had heart attacks
reported experiencing symptoms in the weeks and months before the
attack -- but the symptoms weren’t the expected chest pain, so they
went unrecognized.

How to Tell if Someone Is Having a Heart Attack

Don't let that happen to you. Here, 10 heart symptoms you're likely to
ignore -- and shouldn't.

1. Indigestion or nausea

One of the most oft-overlooked signs of a heart attack is nausea and
stomach pain. Symptoms can range from mild indigestion to severe
nausea, cramping, and vomiting. Others experience a cramping-style
ache in the upper belly. Women and adults over age 60 are more likely
to experience this symptom and not recognize it as tied to cardiac
health.

Most cases of stomach ache and nausea aren't caused by a heart attack,
of course. But watch out for this sign by becoming familiar with your
own digestive habits; pay attention when anything seems out of the
ordinary, particularly if it comes on suddenly and you haven't been
exposed to stomach flu and haven't eaten anything out of the ordinary.

2. Jaw, ear, neck, or shoulder pain

A sharp pain and numbness in the chest, shoulder, and arm is an
indicator of heart attack, but many people don't experience heart
attack pain this way at all. Instead, they may feel pain in the neck
or shoulder area, or it may feel like it’s running along the jaw and
up by the ear. Some women specifically report feeling the pain between
their shoulder blades.

A telltale sign: The pain comes and goes, rather than persisting
unrelieved, as a pulled muscle would. This can make the pain both easy
to overlook and difficult to pinpoint. You may notice pain in your
neck one day, none the next day, then after that it might have moved
to your ear and jaw. If you notice pain that seems to move or radiate
upwards and out, this is important to bring to your doctor’s
attention.





3. Sexual dysfunction

Having trouble achieving or keeping erections is common in men with
coronary artery disease, but they may not make the connection. Just as
arteries around the heart can narrow and harden, so can those that
supply the penis -- and because those arteries are smaller, they may
show damage sooner. One survey of European men being treated for
cardiovascular disease found that two out of three had suffered from
erectile dysfunction before they were ever diagnosed with heart
trouble.

4. Exhaustion or fatigue

A sense of crushing fatigue that lasts for several days is another
sign of heart trouble that's all too often overlooked or explained
away. Women, in particular, often look back after a heart attack and
mention this symptom. More than 70 percent of women in last year's NIH
study, for example, reported extreme fatigue in the weeks or months
prior to their heart attack.

The key here is that the fatigue is unusually strong -- not the kind
of tiredness you can power through but the kind that lays you flat out
in bed. If you're normally a fairly energetic person and suddenly feel
sidelined by fatigue, a call to your doctor is in order.

5. Breathlessness and dizziness

When your heart isn't getting enough blood, it also isn't getting
enough oxygen. And when there's not enough oxygen circulating in your
blood, the result is feeling unable to draw a deep, satisfying breath
-- the same feeling you get when you're at high elevation. Additional
symptoms can be light-headedness and dizziness. But sadly, people
don't attribute this symptom to heart disease, because they associate
breathing with the lungs, not the heart.

In last year's NIH study, more than 40 percent of women heart attack
victims remembered experiencing this symptom. A common description of
the feeling: "I couldn't catch my breath while walking up the
driveway."

6. Leg swelling or pain

When the heart muscle isn't functioning properly, waste products
aren't carried away from tissues by the blood, and the result can be
edema, or swelling caused by fluid retention. Edema usually starts in
the feet, ankles, and legs because they're furthest from the heart,
where circulation is poorer. In addition, when tissues don't get
enough blood, it can lead to a painful condition called ischemia.
Bring swelling and pain to the attention of your doctor.

7. Sleeplessness, insomnia, and anxiety

This is an odd one doctors can't yet explain. Those who've had heart
attacks often remember experiencing a sudden, unexplained inability to
fall asleep or stay asleep during the month or weeks before their
heart attack. (Note: If you already experience insomnia regularly,
this symptom can be hard to distinguish.)

Patients often report the feeling as one of being "keyed up" and wound
tight; they remember lying in bed with racing thoughts and sometimes a
racing heart. In the NIH report, many of the women surveyed reported
feeling a sense of "impending doom," as if a disaster were about to
occur. If you don't normally have trouble sleeping and begin to
experience acute insomnia and anxiety for unexplained reasons, speak
with your doctor.

8. Flu-like symptoms

Clammy, sweaty skin, along with feeling light-headed, fatigued, and
weak, leads some people to believe they're coming down with the flu
when, in fact, they're having a heart attack. Even the feeling of
heaviness or pressure in the chest -- typical of some people's
experience in a heart attack -- may be confused with having a chest
cold or the flu.

If you experience severe flu-like symptoms that don't quite add up to
the flu (no high temperature, for example), call your doctor or advice
nurse to talk it over. Watch out also for persistent wheezing or
chronic coughing that doesn't resolve itself; that can be a sign of
heart disease, experts say. Patients sometimes attribute these
symptoms to a cold or flu, asthma, or lung disease when what's
happening is that poor circulation is causing fluid to accumulate in
the lungs.

9. Rapid-fire pulse or heart rate

One little-known symptom that sometimes predates a heart attack is
known as ventricular tachycardia, more commonly described as rapid and
irregular pulse and heart rate. During these episodes, which come on
suddenly, you feel as if your heart is beating very fast and hard,
like you just ran up a hill -- except you didn't. "I'd look down and I
could actually see my heart pounding," one person recalled. It can
last just a few seconds or longer; if longer, you may also notice
dizziness and weakness.

Some patients confuse these episodes with panic attacks. Rapid pulse
and heartbeat that aren't brought on by exertion always signal an
issue to bring to your doctor's attention.

10. You just don't feel like yourself

Heart attacks in older adults (especially those in their 80s and
beyond, or in those who have dementia or multiple health conditions),
can mimic many other conditions. But an overall theme heard from those
whose loved ones suffered heart attacks is that in the days leading up
to and after a cardiac event, they "just didn't seem like themselves."

A good rule of thumb, experts say, is to watch for clusters of
symptoms that come on all at once and aren't typical of your normal
experience. For example, a normally alert, energetic person suddenly
begins to have muddled thinking, memory loss, deep fatigue, and a
sense of being "out of it." The underlying cause could be something as
simple as a urinary tract infection, but it could also be a heart
attack. If your body is doing unusual things and you just don't feel
"right," don't wait. See a doctor and ask for a thorough work-up.

And if you have any risk factors for cardiac disease, such as high
blood pressure, high cholesterol, smoking, or family history of heart
disease, make sure the doctor knows about those issues, too.