Acting on these less obvious clues and warnings could save your life.

When you catch a bad cold, you know it, and so does nearly everyone around you. But what if you have heart disease? It’s possible to go for years without noticing you have clogged arteries that leave you just a heartbeat away from a heart attack.

Heart disease may have no symptoms in its early stages. By the time symptoms occur, they might not set off a warning bell. Even in a full-blown heart attack, symptoms may appear somewhere other than the center of the chest. They may seem so mild or so tame that they’re mistaken for something minor, like indigestion. Some people who have “felt bad” for weeks find out they’ve had heart attacks.

Is It a Heart Attack?
One thing’s for sure: You don’t want to waste critical minutes after a heart attack debating whether to trouble someone to rush you to the hospital. The more you know about the symptoms of heart disease, the more likely you are to get lifesaving care early enough to do the most good.

Symptoms of a heart attack may include one or more of the following:

• Chest discomfort that lasts a few minutes or that goes away and returns. You may feel an uncomfortable pressure, squeezing, or fullness in the center of the chest that may or may not cause pain.
• Discomfort or pain in other areas of the upper body, spreading to the jaw, neck, back, or one or both arms or shoulders.
• Light-headedness, nausea, weakness, or a cold sweat. Some people experience a sense of impending doom.
• Shortness of breath, often with or just before chest discomfort.

Many heart attack patients say that until they had a heart attack, they believed the symptoms would be worse than what they actually experienced. Women in particular tend to miss the signs because they’re less likely than men to have chest pain and because many women still assume they have little risk for a heart attack. The reality? Heart disease, not cancer, is U.S. women’s number one cause of death.

Don’t expect only sudden, dramatic, severe chest pain like you’ve seen in the movies. Difficulty breathing, for example, may be the only sign.

Could It Be Heart Disease?
Symptoms of chronic heart disease can also be subtle. They may include:

• Angina. Also called angina pectoris, this is the discomfort felt when the heart isn’t getting enough blood. Angina usually crops up when there’s an increased demand for blood to the heart. That can take place during physical exertion, stress, or digestion, for instance. You may feel angina as pressure or squeezing pain in the chest, sometimes radiating to the arms, shoulders, neck, jaw, or back. The discomfort or pain may be aching, heavy, exhausting, sharp, or burning. It may come and go. If you have such symptoms, see a doctor promptly—especially if you have chest pain at rest, which could signal a heart attack.
• Shortness of breath. This isn’t just a possible symptom of a heart attack. It can also warn of heart failure, in which the heart fails to pump enough blood to the body. If you feel unusually out of breath during physical activity—or especially while at rest or in combination with chest pain—don’t hesitate to seek medical aid.
• Arrhythmia. If you regularly experience skipped or quickened heartbeats or a fluttering feeling in your chest, talk with your doctor.

Are You At Risk?
Even without symptoms, you can face a high risk for heart disease. To help ensure a healthier future, try to control your risk factors.

You can’t do anything about some risks. They include your age (more than 80 percent of deaths from coronary heart disease happen at age 65 or older), your sex (men are at higher risk for a heart attack than women), your family history (having a parent with heart disease), and your ethnicity (for example, being an African-American or Mexican- American).

Controllable lifestyle risks include:

• Smoking tobacco
• Being physically inactive
• Being overweight or obese

The Role of Inflammation
Much as inflammation in the joints can in time lead to arthritis, an inflammatory process in the blood vessels can play a part in developing coronary artery disease. The heart-healthy benefits of some medical treatments for heart disease and some lifestyle changes appear to be linked to their ability to control inflammation.

When in doubt about your risks, talk with your doctor. A heart attack can be the first sign that you have heart disease. If you have an unsettling hunch that something might be wrong, don’t second-guess your symptoms or your risks. Ease your mind by getting the prompt medical care that’s called for.

By Polly Turner, a feature writer for Vitality.

© StayWell Custom Communications. Information is the opinion of the sourced authors and organizations. Personal decisions regarding health, diet, and exercise should be made only after consultation with the reader's own medical advisers. This material may not be reproduced for redistribution without written permission from StayWell Custom Communications.