Some people who suffer heart attacks — especially young women — don’t realize what’s happening because they think they’re safe from the deadly ailment and the symptoms aren’t what they expected. According to a study published in the Journal of the American Medical Association, some women tend not to recognize heart attacks because they weren’t accompanied by chest pain.
Fitsugar takes note of the study, reported by CBS News, among many other outlets, and suggests looking out for symptoms that could be signs of heart attacks.
Shortness of breath, nausea, lightheadedness, a cold sweat and numbness in the jaw, arms or back — which may or may not be accompanied by chest pain — could be signs that you should seek immediate medical attention.
Younger Women Getting Heart Attacks Without Realizing It, Study Says [Fitsugar]
Heart attacks in women: greater death risk, fewer feel chest pain [CBS News]
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Shortness of breath, nausea, lightheadedness, a cold sweat and numbness in the jaw, arms or back — which may or may not be accompanied by chest pain —
All signs that I’ve arrived at work for the day.
Does it also include numbness in the brain?
Only if Cat is a manager.
I’m not incompetent enough to be management.
Don’t sell yourself short, Cat! You can be as incompetent as you want to be! Reach for the ground!
My mother suffered these symptoms and only mild chest pain for 3 days before her fatal heart attack. She was told to take some Pepto and would not go to the ER. Please take this advice seriously. Heart attack symptoms in women can be very subtle.
My secretary had the same symptoms, and went to the ER. They took her blood pressure and did an EKG. They were normal, so the ER sent her home. She went to a different ER a couple of hours later, which also wanted to send her home. She insisted that they run the blood tests anyway. Good thing, because she was indeed having a heart attack.
The insurance company tried to fight her on payment for the first ER trip, because since the ER sent her home, it clearly wasn’t an emergency.
because doctors never make mistakes and insurance companyies don’t look for every imaginable way possible to not pay items that are covered…..(sarcasim)
What blood test determines if you’re having a heart attack?
(Not snark. I’m genuinely interested.)
It’s a blood gas test, and I believe it checks the level of oxygen in your blood.
Certain proteins are released into the bloodstream when heart muscle is damaged.
Troponin and Creatine Kinase Iso enyzmes, http://labtestsonline.org/understanding/analytes/cardiac-biomarkers/tab/glance
My mother suffered these symptoms and only mild chest pain for 3 days before her fatal heart attack. She was told to take some Pepto and would not go to the ER. Please take this advice seriously. Heart attack symptoms in women can be very subtle.
Having recently had my 3rd attack, I can tell you that those symptoms don’t always hold true.
This last one I had, all I felt was an odd thump in my chest. Not really a pain, just a thump. Like somebody had tapped on my chest (similar to when a doctor is thumping to check your lungs).
Went to the doctor about it, they checked me, and RUSHED me to the coronary care unit.
I think the subtly to symptoms make it hard for a lot of people to justify seeing a doctor.
Shortness of breath, nausea, light-headedness, and a cold sweat can be signs of having a cold. Sporadic issues with numbness in the arms and back are pretty common for those who have done a lot of physical labor in their lives.
It’s just a tough balancing act — If you’re mostly sure you just have a cold and your pinched nerve is flaring up, it’s hard to stomach spending $2,000 to be checked out at the ER.
Agreed. If I had *all* these things at once I might clue in that something was seriously wrong, but if I’m nauseous and light headed (for instance), I’m going to think I have a mild case of stomach flu. It’s pretty scary, really, b/c obviously people can’t and won’t go to the ER for every little twinge, but you can’t know which twinge is serious and which isn’t.
Yeah, it’s tough, especially as we get older and our bodies start catching up with ourselves. I have a pinched nerve in my next that flairs up a few times a year, resulting in sporadic tingling or pain in my left arm and back. That coupled with all of the nasty illnesses kids bring into the house, it’s pretty common to have a few of those symptoms.
Several years ago, I thought I was having a heart attack. I had trouble breathing, massive chest pain, dizziness, etc. — It turned out to be costochondritis and I was given a prescription for ibuprofen and a $1,500 bill. While it was definitely reassuring to not be dying from a heart attack, that bill really stung and I kicked myself for assuming the worst and not just seeing my regular doctor.
Could also mean you’re PMS-ing and overdid it at the gym.
With healthcare costs and ER co-pays as sky-high as they are, I can see why a lot of women would not seek medical attention with such mild symptoms.
When I lived in the UK where healthcare was “free” at the “point of use” (taxpayer-funded and no ER or GP co-pays), I did go to the ER when I thought I was having a heart attack. Turns out it was acute gastritis, but they took me seriously. Until we have a system like that here in the US, unfortunately, women will continue to ignore relatively mild symptoms like this…or will seek immediate medical attention and get soaked with an enormous bill.
The biggest problem is that many Doctor’s ignore the symptoms too. Also, even women identified as having heart attacks who are admitted to the hospital are more likely than men to die because the staff often miss escalating symptoms that are quite different and more subtle.
I had a patient (I’m a paramedic) whose only symptoms were confusion and vomiting. The EKG showed signs of a heart attack. Frequently I do EKGs on patients with the complaints listed and many people are surprised that they might be symptoms of a heart attack. Only a certain percentage of heart attacks will show up on an EKG before or while the damage is being done, so while it may show a normal EKG, something might still be going on heart-wise. Unfortunately the best way to tell cardiac damage is bloodwork and I don’t have that capability in the field. I guess I consider the people who have crushing scary chest pain lucky, since that’s a big bright flashing sign that few dismiss.
Have you ever done a R sided EKG, and caught anything?
No I haven’t, but I do one on almost everyone, and sometimes posterior V8 or V9 too. I honestly haven’t had a STEMI patient in months, which sucks because when they show up we can activate the cath lab before we arrive at the hospital and get the needed care started early. When you have to wait for bloodwork, it adds 30-60 minutes. :-
I’ve known a few colleagues who “accidentally” called something a STEMI that wasn’t because they were confident enough that with the symptoms they were seeing, they’d rather have the cath lab activated in case it was an NSTEMI, and it was worth the “Oh, was I wrong? whoooooops, must have been noisy leads”.
I had a heart rate of 196 give or take a few for about 2 hrs before I gave in and went to the ER. They were amazed I drove myself there, and that I hadn’t passed out yet. My bp was about 130/64 and pulse ranged 185-196 and stayed that way for about 2 hrs before I went to the ER… turned out I had AVNRT, if you know what that is, and my heart was locked at that rate, and it took adenosine to slow it down. That drug sucks, let me tell you! I ended up in the cath lab for an ablation a few days later to troubleshoot and eliminate the source of the arrhythmia. Ended up wired for audio and video over that one…. 5 lead, 12 lead, defib set, the works. Not my idea of a good time.
Where can I vote for Consumerist for Best Medical Blog?
Phil also blogs for Kindergarten: Life Preparedness
Phil is never going to live that crap down…
And thanks to my insurance company, I probably wouldn’t go to the ER unless I had all of these at once, plus some more, because their bean counters tell us that if you go to the ER for a non-emergency (in their eyes), you’re liable for the entire cost. That could be thousands of dollars, depending on the tests run.
One memorable time, I hurt my foot and couldn’t walk. I didn’t have crutches at the house, so I used a garden hoe to hobble around. Called insurance company, and they said I needed to see my primary care physician because it wasn’t an “emergency”. Silly me, I guess I should have X-rayed my foot at home instead of bothering someone. Good grief.
In a lot of ways, it’s almost easier to have a HDHP/HSA instead of a PPO.
When you know you’re on the hook for the first $5,000 or $10,000 in medical bills, you make the decision on when and where to go. If you’re willing to pay extra to go to the ER, then go to the ER. If you don’t want to spend the cash, then see your doctor.
There’s nothing worse than shelling out $10,000 to $15,000/year in premiums and then have a claim denied by your insurer. It just adds insult to injury.
“Good grief.”
Did you hurt your foot in a failed attempt to punt a football?
Exactly. I had severe abdominal pain and my boss took me to the ER. It could have been gallbladder. It turns out it was a virus, although they weren’t able to determine that at the time. So they submitted it to insurance as a non-emergency and insurance won’t cover a good portion of it now.
Fast forward 2 weeks, I have some weird sharp pain in my chest that comes and goes every 5 minutes and either shortness of breath or my asthma is acting up. Do I want to go to the ER so they can tell me I’m having a panic attack or muscle spasms and then insurance won’t cover it again? Nope – I wasn’t having any other symptoms so I decided to take my chances. The pain went away eventually but I’ll never know what it was.
I have all the classic symptoms of a heart attack. One day, my left arm was numb for several minutes and I tasted copper. It felt like my heart was tight. But the pain subsided. I thought it was strange to have heart problems since I was 32 and rarely eat fast food. So I went to my doctor. After several heart tests, it turned out my heart was healthier than most people. It wasn’t heart problems, but a hiatal hernia. This is when your stomach has a hernia and puts pressure on your chest and thus mimics a heart attack. I’ve learned to control this by being careful what I eat and drink. For instance, every time I have alcohol without food, I run the risk of aggravating my hiatal hernia.
But if I never got checked out, I wouldn’t have known I had this problem. Everybody should pay attention to themselves and get checked out.
I have one too. I’ve woken up in the middle of the night with crushing pain that scared the living hell out of me. I’ve gotten to where I can tell what it is now. If it starts to hurt, I have to immediately dump ibuprofen on it or the pain medicine won’t work for a long time. So I carry a bottle with me everywhere.
Having to eat less is a good side effect though. The other day I went to the cool new frybread taco place and ate a half order of taco and half dessert bread and paid for it for the rest of the day with pain and nausea.
One of my old bosses lost his wife to a heart attack. She had only been having flu-like symptoms and she went to the doctor, and they told her it was a virus and sent her home. A day or so later her daughter went over to her house to pick her up for a shopping trip and found her dead on the floor of the bedroom.
She called my boss (who was in our office that day–they lived out of state) and we had to rush him to the airport. It was very sad. She was a really really nice lady.
What if you actually do have chest pains? My sister and I both have had random heart pains most of our teenage and adult lives… I’m 29 and the other night woke up to the most excruciating heart pain I’ve ever had.. felt like it was being squeezed, almost called 911 but passed out from the pain, woke up again when my alarm went off. The last few days I swear I’ve seen nothing but article after news article about women’s heart attacks and it’s kinda freaking me out. I actually have heart pain, not all the stuff mentioned above.
Sounds like it might be angina. Or it could be anxiety (it was in my dad’s case). Do you have a sensitive PCP who could check you out and refer you further up?
This article: TROLLOLOLOLOL!
Well, it’s hard to say. Yes, it can save your life, but it can also give people the impression you’re a hypochondriac if you worry too much about it. I know, I’ve been labelled one a few times recently.
I’ve been having chest pains for months, accompanied by lightheadedness and exhaustion. Finally went in to the ER after nearly fainting one day with it, and they said I was fine, just had an irregular heartbeat.
Been seeing a cardiologist following that, and one echocardiogram, one halter monitor, and one treadmill test later, all on no health insurance, and the official response as of today is: You’re fine. No caffeine, no smoking, don’t stress, exercise regularly and drink water. Your irregular heartbeat is normal.
And I still get mild chest pains. >_
My symptom was a pain in the shoulder which gradually went away, so I didn’t even know I had had a heart attack for about ten days. I took a lot of aspirin for my shoulder, prompting my doctor to tell me that I probably accidentally saved my own life. I was also lucky to have visited the ER for an unrelated matter, where they caught the bad problem. Still can’t win the lotto though.
………. or a panic attack… which these days people seem to come into the ER with “heart attack symptoms” and walked out with a prescription for xanax.