In the movies, when people have heart attacks, they often clutch their chest in pain and collapse on the floor. But in real life, that’s often not the way it happens. We bring you the bottom line on secret symptoms of a heart attack.
| Bottom Line/HEALTH: | | Dr. Steinbaum, I notice that in the movies, there are these incredibly dramatic events—you know, people have heart attacks and they clutch their chest, they fall to the floor, they die instantly. But in real life, I understand that that’s not actually the way it happens. Can you tell us a little bit about what does it actually look and feel like to have a heart attack? |
| Dr. Suzanne Steinbaum: | | It’s not always that Hollywood heart attack. There are often more subtle signs. Definitely chest pain or pressure is the most common symptom people have, but it could also be shortness of breath, fatigue, nausea, back pain, jaw pain, vomiting, even flulike symptoms, so don’t exactly expect that Hollywood heart attack. |
| Bottom Line: | | You just described a whole bunch of symptoms, many of which could be everyday ailments. It might be indigestion—I ate something too spicy…or I’m coming down with the flu. How do I differentiate between these everyday things and something that could be much more dramatic? |
| Dr. Steinbaum: | | When you think about what a heart attack is—which is actually lack of oxygen to the heart muscle—that’s when you get the symptoms. So if it is happening with exertion and with really exercising and then if it is relieved with rest, think about your heart. If you have indigestion, you take something for your stomach and it goes away, so it’s probably not your heart. If you have pain, you take an anti-inflammatory and it goes away, again, probably not your heart. But if the symptoms come back, you really should not dismiss it. And think heart first! It is better to be wrong than to be sorry. |
| Bottom Line: | | So I know that there’s sometimes confusion about the difference between a heart attack and cardiac arrest. Could you explain the difference to us? |
| Dr. Steinbaum: | | Cardiac arrest is truly sudden death, and there’s nothing we can do about it. When someone has a heart attack, it’s damage to the heart muscle. We can intervene…we can open blood flow of that artery to the muscle…and we can actually prevent people from having heart damage. So it’s a very important distinction. One there is nothing we can do about, unless maybe if it is witnessed and we can do CPR. But for people having a heart attack, it’s about intervention, getting to the doctor, getting to the hospital as soon as possible. |
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The bottom line on heart attack symptoms is that they often disguise themselves as other ailments, but if you’re dealing with symptoms that are being made worse by exertion and aren’t responding to relatively simple treatments and remedies for things like indigestion or flu, it’s probably time to be on the safe side and call your doctor.
