Heart Attack Symptoms

Research has shown that people typically wait two hours or more before seeking emergency care for heart attack symptoms. It could be because they are uncertain about their symptoms or concerned that it might be a false alarm. But clot-busting medications and other effective treatments that restore blood flow and save heart muscle are most effective in the first hour following a heart attack.

Symptoms of heart attack include chest discomfort or pain, discomfort in the arm(s), back, neck, jaw, or stomach, shortness of breath, breaking out in a cold sweat, nausea, and lightheadedness. Most heart attacks don't involve someone clutching the chest and dropping to the floor like you might see on TV. it is also important to know that heart attack symptoms for men can be different than symptoms for women.

"The classic sign is when someone comes into the emergency room, puts their fist on their chest, and says it feels like a squeezing pressure," says Cynthia Tracy, M.D., chief of cardiology at Georgetown University Hospital in Washington, D.C. "But it is not always like that. For women, it may present as back pain, flulike symptoms, or a sense of impending doom."

"We need women to be aware of their symptoms, and we need doctors to put the pieces together and say, 'This woman is postmenopausal and her mother died of a heart attack at 47. So even though her symptoms don't sound classic, I need to investigate her for coronary disease.'"

When Bonnie Brown, 50, of Baltimore, felt a sharp pain in the middle of her chest in 1997, she thought it was indigestion and assumed the feeling would pass. But something made her tell her sister, Joan Hamilton, 53, who lived with her at the time. Joan noticed how pale Bonnie looked and insisted they call an ambulance. Soon after, doctors confirmed that she was having a heart attack.

Then, amazingly enough, Joan also had a heart attack--two weeks after Bonnie did. For Joan, her main symptom was persistent pain in the left arm. "I thought it was from lifting boxes," Joan says, "but I don't tolerate pain too well so I checked it out."

Both Bonnie and Joan used to think heart disease was only for men. Both women are part of the Red Dress Project, the centerpiece of the Heart Truth campaign, sponsored by the National Institutes of Health. The Red Dress Project features a collection of 19 red dresses from America's most prestigious designers, with the dresses symbolizing the fact that heart disease is a women's issue too.

Information on Heart Attacks and Heart Disease