Symptoms A middle-aged man gets crushing chest pain while shoveling snow. He’s short of breath, light-headed, and sweating. He has the telltale signs of a heart attack. Yet, instead of calling for an ambulance, he goes inside, sits down and waits to see if the symptoms go away.People delay going to the hospital, waiting hours sometimes before they seek help for what is a life-and-death emergency. Every minute counts in a heart attack. The longer the delay, the greater the chance of damage to the heart and the lower the chance of surviving.
Heart attacks begin with the sudden, crushing chest pain that often is shown on TV or in the movies. In one study, for example, one-third of the patients who had heart attacks had no chest pain. These patients were more likely to be older, female, or diabetic. A heart attack happens when arteries get completely blocked and the heart is deprived of oxygen because blood can't get through the blockage. When the heart is deprived of oxygen, its cells start to die. The chest pain that most people associate with heart attacks symptoms is the heart's way of calling out for help when it starts dying.
Fatigue
A symptom brought on by a great deal of conditions, fatigue is a common symptom among people with heart conditions, and will often come before a heart attack. This kind of fatigue is particularly bad, making it almost impossible to get anything done for a matter of weeks, or even months, before a heart attack.
Dizziness
If you're having a heart attack, every second counts. Unfortunately, people are often reluctant to call for help because they don't realize that they're having a heart attack. This is due in part to the misleading effect of the "Hollywood heart attack." In the movies, heart attacks are typically portrayed as someone becoming woozy and dropping to the floor clutching their chest, often quite dramatically. Real life is somewhat different.
Pressure on the chest
Another sign of a coming heart attack is pressure on the chest. Many people who have experienced a heart attack have reported discomfort around the chest, or extreme pressure that makes them struggle to breathe.If you feel like you have a band around your chest getting tighter and tighter, seek medical attention immediately.
Racing Heart
When your pulse speeds up, it's an obvious indicator that your heart disease is working overtime. Your pulse reflects your heart's pumping speed: Each beat of your heart pushes blood through your body, and you can feel the pressure of each push in places like your wrist or your neck.
Sweating
A strange, yet common, early warning sign of a heart attack is excessive sweating. The sweating may occur during the day and night, and occur even when you’re not warm or exercising.
Nausea and stomach problems
Despite a heart attack primarily affecting the cardiovascular system, it is common to experience stomach problems, nausea and sometimes indigestion as a result of an impending heart attack. This occurs as a result of fatty deposits and plaque in your arteries blocking your blood from being pumped around the body properly.