If you experience palpitations that keep intensifying over time, see a cardiologist.
Cardiovascular diseases (CVDs) are the number 1 cause of death globally, claiming an estimated 17.9 million lives each year, according to WHO. Four out of 5 CVD deaths are due to heart attacks and strokes.
But who has a higher risk of heart attack - women or men? Does gender play a role in the development of coronary artery disease (CAD) - the leading cause of heart attack. Are symptoms of heart attack different between women and men? This article will provide answers to all these questions and clear your doubts regarding heart attack symptoms.
Some previous studies report sex differences in symptoms while others report shared symptoms. Heart attack symptoms are often labelled as 'typical' in men and 'atypical' in women. But a new study has revealed that while symptoms can differ between the sexes, there are also many similarities.
Researchers from the University Medical Centre Utrecht in the Netherlands found that women and men share three heart attack symptoms, which are chest pain, sweating, and shortness of breath.
In addition to sharing the three most common symptoms, the research team found that majority of men and women experiencing acute coronary syndrome had chest pain: 79 per cent of men and 74 per cent of women. The study published in the Journal of the American Heart Association.
While women and men share some similar symptoms, the study found significant differences in symptom presentation between them.
Compared to men, women were more than twice as likely to have pain between the shoulder blades, 64 per cent more likely to have nausea or vomiting, and 34 per cent more likely to experience shortness of breath.
Although chest pain and sweating were the most frequent symptoms in both women and men, they occurred less often in women than men.
Whatever your gender is, if you experience heart attack symptoms, call the emergency services immediately. Symptom recognition is crucial to enable fast, life-saving treatment, the researchers added.
The symptoms of heart attacks or the severity of symptoms may vary for different people. Some people may have mild pain while others may have more severe pain. There are also people who suffer heart attack without showing any symptoms. However, experts say the more signs and symptoms you have, the greater is your likelihood of having a heart attack.
While some heart attacks strike suddenly, usually warning signs and symptoms appear hours, days or weeks in advance. Recurrent chest pain or pressure that's triggered by exertion and relieved by rest could be the earliest warning sign of heart attack. Called angina, this symptom is caused by a temporary decrease in blood flow to the heart. Other common heart attack signs and symptoms include:
(With inputs from IANS)
