Can You Have Small Heart Attacks and Not Know It
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En español | Despite its depiction in the movies, a heart attack doesn't always produce pain or pressure so intense it causes a person to clutch their breast and plummet to the flooring. Most people who have a heart attack experience a much less dramatic version. And some have no symptoms at all — or symptoms that are so subtle they're mistaken for something else entirely.
These so-chosen silent heart attacks account for about 20 percent of all heart attacks, according to the American Heart Association. Some experts estimate that number is even higher — closer to 50 pct.
What is a silent eye attack?
A eye set on happens when the arteries that deport blood to the eye go blocked, thereby depriving the heart muscle of oxygen and nutrients. If a person having a heart attack feels hurting or pressure, it's because of this blockage, says Eduardo Marban, M.D., executive director of the Smidt Heart Institute at Cedars-Sinai Medical Center in Los Angeles.
Symptoms of a silent heart attack
Few people actually exhibit no symptoms. But signs of a heart attack can be muted or confused with other conditions. Here'south what to look out for:
- Shortness of jiff
- Weakness or fatigue
- A general feeling of unease or discomfort
- Sweating
- Nausea or vomiting
- Lightheadedness or dizziness
- Balmy pain in the throat or chest
- Hurting in the back or arms, like a sprained or pulled muscle
The aforementioned matter happens during a silent eye attack — blocked arteries arrive so that oxygen-rich blood can't reach the heart. The only difference is the problem goes unnoticed. "It'due south non necessarily that there were no symptoms; it may just be that the patient didn't recognize them as middle symptoms and wasn't concerned," Marban says.
For example, information technology'south not uncommon for silent heart attacks to be written off every bit indigestion, a sprained or strained musculus, fatigue, or "just feeling run-down," Marban says.
People who afterwards realize they've had a silent heart assault may also call back experiencing shortness of breath at the time, or a full general state of discomfort that led to a night of lost sleep, says Robert Lager, M.D., an interventional cardiologist at MedStar Washington Infirmary Centre in Washington, D.C. Nausea, sweating, dizziness and an overall feeling of unease are besides signs of a silent heart attack.
If yous experience whatsoever of these symptoms, "don't sit around and wonder" what could be wrong. "Fourth dimension is muscle," Lager says, referring to the impairment that decreased blood period tin inflict on the middle. "The longer one waits to become evaluated, the more than probable that in that location will be irreversible impairment."
That said, some people truly experience no symptoms — understated or otherwise — when they have a heart assault. Diabetics who have nervus problems that interfere with hurting signals (called neuropathy), for example, are at higher risk for having a literal silent centre set on, Lager says. Women and older adults are likewise more probable to have an event without warning signs.
Is it a heart attack … or something else?
Silent heart attacks don't simply fool patients; they tin can exist misdiagnosed in wellness intendance settings, as well. Shortness of breath may be mistaken for a pulmonary trouble, for instance. And pain in the shoulder or arm tin can exist misdiagnosed as an orthopedic result. "So there are lots of dissimilar forms of symptoms that are referred pain from the middle that can be very confusing and sometimes can be misleading," Lager says.
One way to tell if the symptoms you lot're experiencing are due to a centre assault or another condition is to know that the alert signs of heart trouble are "not positional," Lager says. This means that the sprain-like hurting in your cervix and arm won't get better if you stretch it or shake it out. And shortness of breath or sweating won't subside if you accept it easy and prevarication down.
"That'due south a really skilful rule of thumb," Lager says. "If you're not sure if you're having a symptom, see if you lot can manipulate it in some way. Can you press on the chest? Can you change your position? Can y'all stand or sit down down? Does it brand a difference, positionally? Because the centre has no gyroscope; it doesn't know where it is in infinite. And it doesn't matter if yous put the heart upside down or right side up, information technology's going to requite you the same signals if information technology's in trouble."
Another matter to go on in mind: Any symptom that results from the loss of oxygen to the middle will by and large get worse if you increase demand on the heart. "So if someone has chest discomfort at rest and gets up and walks around, you're increasing the heart'southward demand for oxygen, and then the symptoms usually will get worse if it'due south a heart upshot," Lager says.
The risks factors for silent heart attacks are the same as those for a center attack with symptoms. The most mutual include:
- Age (for men, 45 and older; for women, 55 and older)
- Diabetes
- Backlog weight
- Loftier claret pressure
- Loftier cholesterol
- Lack of practice
- Prior heart attack
- Tobacco apply
- A family unit history of heart affliction
The dangers of having a heart attack and not knowing
Many people who take had a silent eye set on observe out most it after the fact — sometimes months or years later — commonly during a routine electrocardiogram, or EKG. Symptoms that arise afterward can too bring patients in to see a health intendance provider. Lager says people who accept suffered a silent heart attack may discover a faster heart rate or increased exercise intolerance, for example.
Usually when someone finds out they had a silent eye assault, the harm has already been washed. But identifying a past heart assail tin assistance you and your dr. mitigate risks for future cardiac events. After all, a silent center attack tin increase risk of heart failure by 35 percent, one report shows. It too increases the likelihood of sudden death, stroke and having another heart attack.
Dangerous centre arrhythmias are some other business organisation your dr. may monitor for if you had an undetected center assail in the past. These can develop when parts of the heart muscle are scarred from the loss of blood. And another worry: Because "our claret gets thicker under stress," Lager says, blood clots are also more than likely to crop up afterward you've had a middle attack.
"One time the diagnosis is made, either of a recognized centre attack or a silent heart assault, everything is put into a college risk category in terms of the complications that can ensue," Marban says. "So information technology's not something that we should only consider a curiosity and do nothing near. … Detecting a heart assail and acknowledging it is the first pace towards putting the patient back on the kind of effective therapy that we know is helpful."
Don't ignore out-of-the-blue problems
The take-home message, Lager says, is to pay attending to a alter in patterns in your trunk.
"If yous're someone who occasionally has some chest discomfort that's mild, transient and occurs in sure anticipated patterns, so it's not nearly the same equally someone who has new symptoms never felt before," he says.
And if y'all're prone to indigestion and just ate a spicy repast, the called-for feeling in your chest is probable heartburn. Simply if it comes on out of the blue and the symptoms get worse, especially as you walk around or exercise, "that'southward a real warning sign that it'south non gastrointestinal," Lager says.
Source: https://www.aarp.org/health/conditions-treatments/info-2021/silent-heart-attack.html
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