Symptoms of a Heart Attack: What to Watch For

On TV, heart attacks are obvious. They cause crushing chest pain. Actors clutch their chests and collapse with theatrical flair. In reality, heart attacks are often not so easy to spot. “Heart attacks often feel like heartburn,” says William A. Norcross, M.D., a professor of family and preventive medicine at the University of California, San Diego, School of Medicine. “Many people dismiss them as no big deal.” But there are key differences between heartburn and heart attack.

Heartburn pain is localized in your chest, but heart attack pain often radiates up to your neck and out to a shoulder and arm. Heartburn does not cause lightheadedness, faintness, sweating, nausea, or shortness of breath, but heart attacks often do.

Heart attacks are so common that everyone should recognize their symptoms and know how to respond to them:

• Pain, squeezing, pressure, or fullness in your chest that lasts more than a few minutes, or comes and goes.
• The pain often spreads up to your neck or out to a shoulder or arm.
• Sweating, lightheadedness, shortness of breath, or nausea.
• Few heart attacks produce all these symptoms. The most frequent is persistent chest pain.

If you think you—or anyone—might be having a heart attack, get emergency medical help immediately:

• Insist on taking action. Frequently, people make light of chest pain by saying, “Oh, it’s just heartburn.” That may be true, but if it’s a heart attack, rapid response can mean the difference between life and death. “You wouldn’t believe the number of people—especially men—who dismiss their chest pain, and wind up dead.” Dr. Norcross says. If the chest pain turns out to be heartburn, you may have to endure some teasing. Don’t feel embarrassed, Dr. Norcross says: “Without sophisticated tests, sometimes even doctors have trouble telling the difference between heart attack and heartburn. Better safe than sorry.”

• Don’t panic. “Keep your wits about you,” Dr. Hill says.

• Call 911, say, “Suspected heart attack,” give your name, address, and phone number, and then follow the operator’s instructions.

• If you can get the person to an emergency room quickly on your own, do that. If possible, call ahead and let them know you’re bringing in someone with a suspected heart attack.

• If not, ask the 911 operator to send an anbulance.

• If the person with the suspected heart attack can swallow without difficulty, give an aspirin, says cardiologist Carl Pepine, M.D., a professor a the University of Florida Health Sciences Center in Gainesville.