Heart attack signs cover a far wider range than the sudden chest-clutch shown in films. A heart attack can begin quietly, in ways mild enough to be mistaken for something less serious. That quiet start when someone may be having a heart attack can lead people to wait when waiting is the worst choice. Any ordinary Australian can act quickly, which can decide whether someone reaches hospital in time.
Chest Pain and Tightness
Chest pain is the most common heart attack symptom. It can feel like pressure, heaviness, tightness, or squeezing in the centre of your chest rather than a sharp stab. Some people describe it as a heavy weight pressing down or a tight band around the chest. The pain may hold steady or come and go in waves, and it can last several minutes or longer. It can persist even while you rest, so chest discomfort that lingers warrants a call for help.
The Spreading Ache
The spreading ache is one of the more telling heart attack signs. Pain can radiate into one or both arms, the shoulders, the neck, the jaw, or the back. Jaw pain that feels like a toothache, or an ache running down the left arm, can both trace back to the heart when blood flow to the heart muscle drops.
Breathlessness
Breathlessness is one of the heart attack signs that can appear on its own. Shortness of breath during light activity, or even while resting, can mean the heart is struggling to pump enough blood around the body. It may feel like you cannot draw a full breath, or that breathing takes far more effort than normal for no reason.
Cold Sweat and Nausea
Cold sweat and nausea are heart attack signs that are often blamed on something else, like a stomach bug or a hot day. A sudden, clammy sweat with no obvious cause can come from the body’s stress response to a heart under strain. Nausea, vomiting, or indigestion can appear at the same time, which is part of why some heart attacks are taken for food poisoning or reflux.
Dizziness and Sudden Fatigue
Dizziness and sudden fatigue rarely feature in the popular image of a heart attack. Light-headedness, a loss of balance, or a sense that the room is spinning can occur when the heart cannot hold blood pressure steady. An unusual, heavy tiredness can also set in, and may begin hours or days before sharper symptoms.
Heart Attack Warning Signs in Women
Women experience the same heart attack signs as men. Chest pain is the most common symptom for both. However, they are more likely than men to have symptoms like pain in the jaw, shoulder, neck or back, nausea, breathlessness, dizziness, or fatigue.
Women under 50 present more often with these symptoms, which can lead to dangerous delays when the signs are read as something minor. This is one reason a heart attack in a woman can be missed or treated late.
The Signs That Mean Call an Ambulance Now
Some heart attack signs call for an ambulance without delay. The safest rule is to treat any suspected heart attack as one of them. Call Triple Zero (000) and ask for an ambulance if chest pain or discomfort lasts more than ten minutes, is severe, or comes with breathlessness, sweating, nausea, or pain spreading to the arm, jaw, neck or back.
After calling, help the person sit or lie down and stay still. If a doctor has prescribed angina medicine, they can take it as directed. An adult who is not allergic to aspirin can take one tablet.
If the person becomes unconscious and stops breathing normally, the situation has moved to cardiac arrest. Start CPR straight away with hard, fast presses in the centre of the chest, and use an automated external defibrillator (AED) if one is nearby, following its voice prompts until help arrives.
Heart Attack Risk Factors
Heart attack risk factors raise your chance of a heart attack long before any heart attack signs appear. Most heart attacks trace back to heart conditions like coronary heart disease, where fatty plaque narrows the coronary arteries that supply the heart.
The factors you can act on to prevent a heart attack include high blood pressure, high cholesterol levels, smoking, diabetes, being overweight, low physical activity, and a diet heavy in saturated fat, salt and alcohol. Smokers are close to twice as likely to have a heart attack as people who have never smoked.
The heart health factors you cannot change include your age, your family history of heart disease, and your background, since Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander people carry a higher risk from an earlier age.
Save a Life with First Aid Training
Heart attack signs can be quiet, appear anyway on your body, and are easy to dismiss until too much time has passed. A bystander who gives CPR and first aid in the minutes before an ambulance arrives raises a person’s chances of survival. First aid training gives you the practised, steady hands to do exactly that. Your choice to train could be the reason someone you love reaches hospital in time.
FAQs
What is the Difference Between a Heart Attack and Cardiac Arrest?
A heart attack is a blockage problem in the heart like a blood clot, while cardiac arrest is when the heart stops pumping suddenly. A heart attack can trigger a cardiac arrest.
What Are the Symptoms of Coronary Heart Disease?
Coronary heart disease develops slowly as plaque builds up in the coronary arteries, and many people have no symptoms in the early years. When the arteries narrow enough, the first signs are often the same as heart attack symptoms: chest pain or breathlessness that comes on during exertion and eases with rest. For some people, a heart attack is the first symptom they ever notice.
What Is a Silent Heart Attack?
A silent heart attack causes little or no obvious pain, and can pass for tiredness, indigestion, or a strained muscle. It still damages the heart, and is sometimes found only later during a routine check or a scan for another reason.
