Lindsay Shanks, seen here with her son, had a heart attack in 2022, when she was 37. Shanks said it never crossed her mind she was having a heart attack; she thought she had a pinched nerve. Photo \/ Lauren Shanks, The Washington Post<\/p>\n
The Washington Post asked cardiologists about the more surprising signs and symptoms of a heart attack. Their advice: if anything feels off, tell someone and call an ambulance. Don\u2019t delay a trip to the hospital because the pain isn\u2019t what you\u2019d expect a heart attack to feel like.<\/p>\n
\u201cDelay can lead to irreversible heart damage,\u201d Rosen said. \u201cSo, really, listen to your body.\u201d<\/p>\n
1. Jaw pain<\/p>\n
The aching discomfort or pain from a heart attack will often radiate to other parts of the body, said James de Lemos, chair of cardiology at UT Southwestern Medical Center. The symptoms can sometimes be subtle and \u201cless impressive\u201d than what you see on television. <\/p>\n
\u201cSome people will tell you it\u2019s just my forearm that hurt – or I had really intense jaw pain that came out of nowhere,\u201d de Lemos said.<\/p>\n
Rosen said one of her patients met with dentist after dentist because she thought her aching jaw was because of a tooth – until one dentist suggested it could be because of her heart.<\/p>\n
\u201cAnd, in fact, it was,\u201d Rosen said. The patient probably avoided a heart attack because of \u201ca very intelligent and holistically thinking dentist\u201d.<\/p>\n
Pain from a heart attack can – but not always – travel to the left side of the body, on the same side as the heart, the cardiologists said.<\/p>\n
Women experience chest pain more often in combination with symptoms such as back pain, nausea, dizziness or shortness of breath, Rosen said. And instead of calling it \u201cchest pain\u201d, they are more likely to describe their symptoms as discomfort or fatigue.<\/p>\n
\u201cWhen someone tells me their chest is aching, that elevates my concern,\u201d said Clyde Yancy, chief of cardiology at the Northwestern University Feinberg School of Medicine.<\/p>\n
2. Nausea and vomiting<\/p>\n
Nausea, vomiting, acid reflux, belching and other forms of indigestion can be a sign of a heart attack, especially when the attack is affecting the lower portion – or inferior wall – of the heart, de Lemos said.<\/p>\n
If the indigestion can\u2019t be treated by an antacid, the gastrointestinal distress could be related to the heart, de Lemos said, particularly in a person who\u2019s at risk for a heart attack.<\/p>\n
3. A sense of impending doom<\/p>\n
A heart attack can also cause someone to feel a sense of impending doom, cardiologists said. All of a sudden, \u201cyou feel like you\u2019re going to die\u201d, Brady said.<\/p>\n
It\u2019s different from \u201cpure anxiety\u201d, said Seth Martin, a cardiologist at Johns Hopkins Medicine. It\u2019s physical symptoms coupled with a persistent sense that \u201csomething is seriously wrong\u201d.<\/p>\n
\u201cIt can be just this awareness, just a sense that something doesn\u2019t feel right,\u201d Yancy said. \u201cThat\u2019s sufficient to alert my senses that we need to evaluate the heart and blood vessels.\u201d<\/p>\n
Ben Rennert, 40, had a heart attack in March while picking up his kids at school. He said that \u201cthe whole event lasted probably three to four minutes”. Photo \/ Ben Rennert, The Washington Post<\/p>\n
4. Sweaty, cold and clammy skin<\/p>\n
A blockage in a coronary artery is an extraordinary stress on the body, Rosen said. And, when it happens, your sympathetic nervous system is overloaded, causing you to feel cold, clammy and sweaty.<\/p>\n
If you\u2019re carrying groceries in and your chest is suddenly tight, you\u2019re short of breath and you\u2019re breaking out in a sweat, these are signs of an impending heart attack, Brady said. Especially on fair-weather days when there\u2019s no reason to perspire.<\/p>\n
And if you find the discomfort goes away when you sit down and rest, that doesn\u2019t mean you\u2019re in the clear, Brady said. You should still see a doctor.<\/p>\n
5. Fatigue<\/p>\n
A heart attack limits the circulation of oxygen through the body and to the heart, which can cause you to feel fatigued or short of breath, Martin said.<\/p>\n
You may feel foggy but can\u2019t pinpoint why, Rosen said.<\/p>\n
Some people think they\u2019re just getting older and slowing down, said Anna Bortnick, an interventional cardiologist and associate professor of medicine at Montefiore Einstein Medical Center in the Bronx. Others delay going to the hospital because they\u2019re taking care of kids or family members.<\/p>\n
A person with early signs of heart problems may experience symptoms only when they\u2019re walking or doing other forms of exercise. The heart requires more blood flow when we exert ourselves, but a blockage or a weakened heart muscle is preventing that from happening, Rosen said.<\/p>\n
Sometimes, a heart attack is like a tree trunk falling across a river, blocking all blood flow to the heart, Rosen said.<\/p>\n
Other times, \u201cthere can be stuttering symptoms that go on for days, that get worse when the artery is more blocked\u201d, she said. \u201cIt\u2019s really a dynamic process for many.\u201d<\/p>\n
How to reduce your risk of a heart attack<\/p>\n
You can\u2019t replace heart muscle cells once the organ is damaged, Rosen said. If you don\u2019t get treatment quickly enough to restore blood flow, the heart attack can affect the organ\u2019s ability to pump blood. This could lead to heart failure, which is a chronic condition where the heart doesn\u2019t function as well as it did.<\/p>\n
Instead, cardiologists recommend you take steps to reduce your risk of a heart attack in the first place. Try to lower your blood pressure and cholesterol levels. Exercise regularly for at least 150 minutes a week, don\u2019t smoke, limit how much alcohol you drink and build healthy eating habits. <\/p>\n
Rennert, from Wisconsin, said he has physically recovered from his heart attack. Last week, he biked 15 miles around town with a friend.<\/p>\n
\u201cIt was actually my first ride on this particular bike since the heart attack, and it felt good,\u201d he said. \u201cIt was short – but it was still good to get out.\u201d<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Ben Rennert, 40, a small-business owner from Oshkosh, Wisconsin, was picking up his children from school when he…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":4025,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[3],"tags":[3225,5656,89,5660,5653,5657,307,5658,4522,1342,305,42,2862,3025,43,1118,193,2850,384,4514,5659,5652,5655,684,5662,5654,61,40,38,41,39,5661,1455,1533],"class_list":["post-4024","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-headlines","tag-according","tag-aching","tag-attack","tag-attacks","tag-cardiologists","tag-chest","tag-dont","tag-experts","tag-feel","tag-five","tag-have","tag-headlines","tag-heart","tag-most","tag-news","tag-of","tag-other","tag-pain","tag-people","tag-same","tag-say","tag-signs","tag-squeezing","tag-there","tag-think","tag-tight","tag-to","tag-top-news","tag-top-stories","tag-topnews","tag-topstories","tag-typically","tag-warning","tag-will"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/4024","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=4024"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/4024\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/4025"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=4024"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=4024"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=4024"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}