Pediatric and Congenital Heart - Cedar
7 Heart Attack Symptoms In Women
A heart attack (myocardial infarction) occurs if blood cannot reach your heart. About 80% of people who experience a heart attack report chest pain. Other heart attack symptoms can vary between men and women. Women, for example, are likelier to develop symptoms like back or jaw pain, indigestion, nausea, and pain down the left arm.
Heart disease is the number one cause of death for women in the United States, accounting for about one in five women's deaths in 2020. That year alone, 314,186 women died from heart disease. Read on to learn the signs of a heart attack in women and when to get emergency medical attention.
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What are the first signs of heart attack in a woman? The most common sign of a heart attack is chest pain. You may also experience back or jaw pain, shortness of breath, nausea, and vomiting. Women are more likely to have silent (mini) heart attacks than men. These heart attacks cause minimal symptoms that are easy to overlook. Mini-heart attack symptoms include extreme fatigue, indigestion, and muscle pain in your chest or upper back. Keep in mind that many heart attack symptoms can be signs of less severe health concerns. These include a panic attack, anemia (a lack of oxygen-rich red blood cells), dehydration, and lack of sleep. It's only likely a heart attack if multiple symptoms occur at the same time. Heart attack symptoms in women may include: Digestive symptoms: Women have nausea in 34% of cases of heart attacks, compared to only 22% of cases in men. Other digestive symptoms include indigestion, heartburn, and vomiting. You may also have a burning or stabbing pain in the upper-middle area of your stomach. Indigestion associated with a heart attack typically does not start shortly after a meal. Discomfort or burning in the chest: Women often describe a heart attack as tightness, heaviness, or pressure in the chest. It may feel like someone is squeezing your heart. Your pain may feel sharp (or stabbing), crushing, or burning. Pain that radiates to your arm or jaw, lasts for more than 10 minutes, and occurs with minimal exertion is a "typical" presentation of a heart attack. Dizziness or lightheadedness: Feeling faint or lightheaded for no apparent reason might mean blood is not getting to your heart. These signs may signal a heart attack if they occur with a cold sweat and nausea. Remember, these symptoms are common with dehydration, motion sickness, or getting up too quickly. Extreme fatigue: It could be a sign that blood is not getting to your heart if you are unable to walk a block comfortably or if you feel like you have to stop and rest often. Some people describe fatigue as a lack of energy, exhaustion, mental fog, and sleepiness. Your arms might feel weak or heavy, and you may feel irritable or demoralized. The feeling can be overwhelming. Jaw pain: This pain can occur intermittently and get worse when you exert yourself. Jaw pain can also radiate to your neck, back, arm, or shoulder. Shortness of breath: This typically occurs during or before chest discomfort and may be the only symptom. Shortness of breath can signal that something is wrong if it occurs while resting or doing light physical activities. Tingling down one or both arms or legs: This often means you have a pinched nerve or arthritis in your neck, but it's important to rule out heart problems first. See a healthcare provider if you notice any tingling in your extremities. A heart attack happens if the flow of blood that brings oxygen to the heart muscle suddenly becomes blocked. The heart muscle begins to die if your heart does not get enough oxygen, so prompt medical care is essential. This blood flow most often gets blocked when plaque (fatty deposit) builds up in the vessels. These vessels carry blood from your heart to other body parts. An area of the plaque can break open, causing a blood clot and blocking the blood flow. This happens because of coronary artery disease (CAD), the most common type of heart disease. Other heart and blood vessel conditions may cause heart attacks in different ways. Women may have heart attacks at older ages than men. Specific risk factors include: A heart attack is an emergency, so contact a healthcare provider right away if you or someone near you develops symptoms. It's safest to call 911 or have someone drive you to the nearest emergency room. Contact a healthcare provider right away if you have symptoms of a heart attack or heart disease and: Chest pain that lasts longer than five minutes or does not go away after taking nitroglycerin (a vasodilator, which opens blood vessels) Extreme shortness of breath Might have lost consciousness Do not dismiss heart attack symptoms as nothing or drive yourself to the hospital. Call 911 and seek medical attention right away if you or someone near you: Has sudden chest pain and other heart attack symptoms Is unresponsive Stops breathing There's no sure way to prevent a heart attack. Some risk factors, such as age and family history, are unchangeable. Ways to reduce your risk include: Being physically active: Aerobic exercise, such as brisk walking, jogging, and swimming, helps strengthen your heart. Exercise also helps improve blood flow, lower cholesterol and blood pressure, and maintain weight. Eating heart-healthy foods: These include fruit, vegetables, and whole grains. Limit your intake of added sugar, high-sodium foods, and saturated fats. Learning to manage your stress: Chronic (long-term) stress can raise your blood pressure, a significant heart attack risk factor. Try breathing deeply, listening to calming music, and meditating to relax. Losing weight and keeping a healthy weight: Diabetes, high cholesterol, and high blood pressure are common in people who are overweight or have obesity. You can lower your risk of heart disease by losing and maintaining weight. Not smoking: Smoking increases your blood pressure. It can be difficult to quit smoking, but a healthcare provider can help you. The most common heart attack symptom in women is chest pain, pressure, or discomfort. Women are more likely than men to have other symptoms, such as a racing heart, extreme fatigue, and tingling or pain down one or both arms or legs. Risk factors for women include having high blood pressure, high blood sugar, or high cholesterol. Do not wait it out or dismiss these symptoms if multiple occur together. Call 911 or have someone drive you to a hospital right away if you think you are having a heart attack.Thanks for your feedback!
Warning Signs Of A Heart Attack
A heart attack can occur with or without chest pain. You may experience pain in other spots, like the shoulder, and symptoms, including sweating and fatigue, among others.
Did you know that you can have a heart attack without feeling any chest pain? Heart failure and heart disease don't show the same signs for everyone, especially women.
The heart is a muscle that contracts to pump blood throughout the body. A heart attack (often called a myocardial infarction) occurs when the heart muscle doesn't get enough blood. Blood carries oxygen and nutrients to the heart muscle. When there isn't enough blood flowing to your heart muscle, the affected part can get damaged or die. This is dangerous and sometimes deadly.
Heart attacks happen suddenly, but they normally result from long-standing heart disease. Typically, a waxy plaque builds up on the walls inside your blood vessels that feed the heart muscle. Sometimes a chunk of the plaque, called a blood clot, breaks off and prevents blood from passing through the vessel to your heart muscle, resulting in a heart attack.
Less commonly, something like stress, physical exertion, or cold weather causes the blood vessels to contract or spasm, which decreases the amount of blood that can get to your heart muscle.
There are many risk factors that contribute to having a heart attack, including:
A heart attack is a medical emergency. It's really important to listen to what your body is telling you if you think you might be having one. It's better to seek emergency medical treatment and be wrong than to not get help when you're having a heart attack.
Most people with heart attacks experience some sort of chest pain or discomfort. But it's important to understand that chest pains don't occur in every heart attack.
Chest pain is a common sign of a heart attack. People have described this sensation as feeling like an elephant is standing on their chest.
Some people don't describe chest pain as pain at all. Instead, they may say they felt chest tightness or squeezing. Sometimes this discomfort can seem bad for a few minutes and then go away. Sometimes the discomfort comes back hours or even a day later. These could all be signs your heart muscle isn't getting enough oxygen.
If you experience chest pains or tightness, you or someone around you should call 911 immediately.
Pain and tightness can also radiate in other areas of the body. Most people associate a heart attack with pain working its way down the left arm. That can happen, but pain can also appear in other locations, including:
According to the American Heart Association, women tend to report heart attacks that cause pain, specifically in the lower abdomen and lower portion of the chest.
The pain may not be concentrated in the chest at all. It could feel like pressure in the chest and pain in other parts of the body. Upper back pain is another symptom women more commonly cite than men.
Sweating more than usual — especially if you aren't exercising or being active — could be an early warning sign of heart problems. Pumping blood through clogged arteries takes more effort from your heart, so your body sweats more to try to keep your body temperature down during the extra exertion. If you experience cold sweats or clammy skin, then you should consult your doctor.
Night sweats are also a common symptom for women experiencing heart trouble. Women may mistake this symptom for an effect of menopause. However, if you wake up and your sheets are soaked or you cannot sleep due to your sweating, this could be a sign of a heart attack, especially in women.
Fatigue can be a less commonly recognized heart attack sign in women. According to the American Heart Association, some women may even think their heart attack symptoms are flu-like symptoms.
A heart attack can cause exhaustion due to the extra stress on your heart to try to pump while an area of blood flow is blocked. If you often feel tired or exhausted for no reason, it could be a sign that something is wrong.
Fatigue and shortness of breath are more common in women than men and may begin months before a heart attack. That's why it's important to see a doctor as early as possible when you experience early signs of fatigue.
Your breathing and your heart pumping blood effectively are very closely related. Your heart pumps blood so it can circulate to your tissues as well as get oxygen from your lungs. If your heart can't pump blood well (as is the case with a heart attack), you can feel short of breath.
Shortness of breath can sometimes be an accompanying symptom to unusual fatigue in women. For example, some women report they would get unusually short of breath and tired for the activity they were performing. Going to the mailbox could leave them exhausted and unable to catch their breath. This can be a common sign of heart attack in women.
Lightheadedness and dizziness can occur with a heart attack and are often symptoms women describe. Some women report they feel like they might pass out if they try to stand up or overexert themselves. This sensation is certainly not a normal feeling and shouldn't be ignored if you experience it.
Heart palpitations can range from feeling like your heart is skipping a beat to having changes in heart rhythm that can feel like your heart is pounding or throbbing. Your heart and body rely on a consistent, steady beat to best move blood throughout your body. If the beat gets out of rhythm, this could be a sign you're having a heart attack.
Heart palpitations due to heart attack can create a sense of unease or anxiety, especially in women. Some people may describe heart palpitations as a sensation their heart is pounding in their neck, not just their chest.
Changes in your heart's rhythm shouldn't be ignored, because once the heart is consistently out of rhythm, it requires medical intervention to get back into rhythm. If your palpitations are accompanied by dizziness, chest pressure, chest pain, or fainting, they could be confirmation that a heart attack is occurring.
Often people begin experiencing mild indigestion and other gastrointestinal problems before a heart attack. Because heart attacks usually occur in older people who typically have more indigestion problems, these symptoms can get dismissed as heartburn or another food-related complication.
If you normally have an iron stomach, indigestion or heartburn could be a signal that something else is going on.
If you think you are having a heart attack, you or someone nearby should call emergency services immediately. It's unsafe to drive yourself to the hospital during a heart attack, so call an ambulance. While you may feel awake and alert enough to drive, the chest pain could get so severe that you may have trouble breathing or difficulty thinking clearly.
After you call emergency servicesWhen you call emergency services, the dispatcher may ask you about the medicines you take and your allergies. If you don't currently take a blood thinner and you aren't allergic to aspirin, the dispatcher may advise you to chew an aspirin while you're waiting on medical attention. If you have nitroglycerin tablets, you may also wish to use these as directed by your doctor to reduce chest pain.
If you have a list of medications you currently take or any information about your medical history, you may wish to take this information with you. It can speed your medical care.
At the hospitalWhen you arrive at the hospital, you can expect the emergency medical personnel to take an electrocardiogram (EKG). This is a pain-free way to measure your heart's electrical activity.
If you're having a heart attack, an EKG is performed to look for unusual electrical patterns in your heart. The EKG can help your doctor determine if the heart muscle is damaged and what part of your heart was damaged. A doctor will also likely order a blood draw. If you're having a heart attack, your body usually releases certain proteins and enzymes as a result of the stress to your heart.
If you're having a heart attack, your doctor will discuss treatment options with you. Your risk of severe heart damage is lowered if you start treatment within several hours of developing symptoms.
What are the signs of heart failure in your feet?Swelling, called edema, can occur in your feet if you have heart failure.
What are the 4 signs your heart is quietly failing?The 4 most common early symptoms of heart failure are:
See your doctor immediately if you have these symptoms.
What happens to your feet before a heart attack?There are no symptoms in your feet specifically that indicate a heart attack is likely.
There are symptoms you may experience in your feet that may indicate reduced blood flow and may mean you have peripheral vascular disease or cardiovascular disease and need to see your doctor or healthcare professional. These symptoms include:
Symptoms of a heart attack that you may have a month or more before are called angina or prodromal symptoms, and they may include:
According to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, an estimated 200,000 deaths from heart disease and stroke are preventable. Even if you have risk factors for heart disease or have already had a heart attack, there are things you can do to reduce your risk of having a heart attack in the future.
People who have already had a heart attack should make sure to take all medications prescribed to them by their doctor. If your doctor placed cardiac stents to keep your heart vessels open or you had to have bypass surgery for your heart, taking the medications your doctor prescribed to you is vital to preventing a future heart attack.
Sometimes, if you require surgery for another condition, your doctor may recommend stopping some medications you take for your heart. An example might be an antiplatelet (anticlot) medication like clopidogrel (Plavix), prasugrel (Effient), or ticagrelor (Brilinta). Always check with the doctor you see for your heart before you stop taking any of your medications. It's unsafe to abruptly stop many medications, and stopping abruptly could increase your risk of heart attack.
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What Does A Heart Attack Feel Like?
Typical signs of heart attack can include tightness and pain in the chest. But other signs can also include lightheadedness and pain in the neck or jaw.
Every year, an estimated 805,000 people in the United States have a heart attack, according to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC).
A heart attack, also known as a myocardial infarction, happens when blood flow to the heart is blocked. If there's not enough blood flowing to your heart muscle, it can damage the affected part of your heart and cause the muscle to die. This can be life threatening.
Chest pain is the most common heart attack warning sign, but there can be other symptoms, too, such as shortness of breath or lightheadedness. Symptoms may be severe or mild, and can vary from one person to the next.
Sometimes, a heart attack can be mistaken for heartburn or an anxiety attack. In addition, heart attack symptoms can vary between men and women.
This article will take a closer look at the warning signs of a heart attack, what it typically feels like, and how the symptoms can vary between men and women.
A heart attack usually involves pain in the center or left side of the chest that lingers for several minutes or comes and goes. The pain can feel different from one person to the next. It's often described as:
However, sometimes there are other symptoms in addition to chest pain. And, in some cases, these symptoms may be present without chest pain.
Symptoms that often accompany — or are present without chest pain — include:
If you are experiencing shooting pain from your shoulder down your arm, this can be a sign of a heart attack. Men, more than women, are known to experience heart attack-related pain down their left arm and under their left armpit, but it's possible to experience pain in either arm when having a heart attack.
Pain in the back during a heart attack is usually located in the upper back. The pain may feel like someone has tied a rope around you and is squeezing it tightly, leading to feelings of pressure, generally in the chest as well.
Neck pain can be a sign of a heart attack if it comes on suddenly and is severe. This pain may be felt in areas near the neck as well, including the jaw or chin. It is usually accompanied by pain in the chest, upper back, or arm as well.
To make matters even more complicated, some heart attacks occur without any traditional symptoms or even any noticeable symptoms at all.
These so-called silent heart attacks could represent nearly a quarter of all heart attacks in the United States, according to the American Heart Association.
A silent heart attack may resolve on its own if, for example, the clot blocking blood flow dissolves or becomes dislodged and is absorbed into the body. But a silent heart attack can still cause damage.
If a doctor discovers that you had a silent heart attack, you may want to consider cardiac rehabilitation and the type of care that any other person who's had a heart attack receives.
A silent heart attack may be discovered months or years after the fact if you have an electrocardiogram (EKG) to check your heart's electrical system. Evidence of a heart attack can often be seen in the electrical patterns picked up by the EKG.
Even though a heart attack is a sudden event, some symptoms can come on mildly and slowly.
You may feel unusually tired for a few days leading up to the onset of more serious symptoms. Some people who've experienced a heart attack report feelings of anxiety and dread for a few days before the onset of other symptoms. This tends to be more common among women but can happen with men, too.
Mild to moderate pain in one or both arms, along with shortness of breath and nausea, may also occur in the lead-up to a major heart attack.
Chest pain or pressure is a common heart attack symptom among both men and women.
However, the feeling of chest discomfort can be somewhat different for men and women. For men, the pain is often described as a heavy weight on the chest. It tends to be located in the center of the chest, but it can be felt from armpit to armpit. Some describe it like an elephant sitting on your chest while the pain radiates down your arm.
In contrast, chest pain for women is often described as pressure or tightness instead of the "heavy weight on the chest" pain that men describe.
There are also some non-classic heart attack warning signs that are more common among women. These include:
Women are often reluctant to seek medical attention for heart attack symptoms, partly because of delays in recognizing heart attack symptoms since they're not commonly talked about.
While women are slightly less likely than men to have heart attacks before menopause, the odds essentially are equal after menopause.
Because certain symptoms, such as nausea or fatigue, can signal any number of health concerns, it's important to be aware of other possible heart attack symptoms.
If you suddenly become nauseated and are having trouble catching your breath or you have serious jaw pain, call 911. Tell the 911 dispatcher you may be having a heart attack.
You may be reluctant to call 911 if you're not sure whether you or a loved one is having a heart attack, but it's better to err on the side of caution.
A heart attack is often a life threatening emergency. The faster you get medical attention, the better chance you have of a good recovery.
When to call 911
Any time you have pain or pressure in your chest that lasts more than a few minutes and is different to pain you've felt before, it's important to get medical attention as soon as possible. This is especially important if you have other symptoms, too, such as:
While you're waiting for an ambulance to arrive, make sure to stay on the phone with the 911 dispatcher, and unlock the front door for emergency personnel to come in.
The 911 dispatcher may tell you to chew on an aspirin while you wait for them. This may not be safe to do if you take blood-thinning medications.
Try to remember how and when your symptoms began so you can provide this information to the emergency personnel.
Some people are at a higher risk of a heart attack than others. If you have any of the following risk factors, it's especially important to pay attention to any warning signs of a heart attack:
Chest pain is the most common heart attack warning sign. What it feels like, though, can be somewhat different for men versus women. With men, the pain is often described as a heavy weight on the chest, and tends to be located in the center of the chest.
With women, chest pain that's associated with a heart attack is often described as pressure or tightness. In some cases, there may only be other symptoms and very little or no chest pain.
Other heart attack symptoms that are more common among women include abdominal discomfort, dizziness, extreme fatigue, and jaw pain.
It's very important not to ignore any symptoms that feel like a heart attack. Even if you're not having a heart attack, it's better to be evaluated than to risk serious, life threatening complications.
Trust your instincts and pay attention to what your body is telling you. If your chest pain or symptoms last more than a few minutes, don't hesitate to call 911 immediately.
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