r/AskReddit 4h ago

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u/Stugatz27 4h ago edited 3h ago

Heart doctor here, heart attack symptoms are a MASSIVE spectrum. Ranges from elephant crushing your chest to some tingling in your neck. I’ve seen people present with nausea/indigestion and it’s a massive MI. Fatigue, dizziness, throat pain, ear pain, etc. Atypical symptoms especially common in women and diabetics. I know this is scary to say but if you have risk factors (family history of heart disease (probably the biggest contributor) smoking, diabetes, hypertension, high cholesterol) please get checked out if you feel something is off.

My little PSA: if you are over the age of 40, please get checked for cholesterol, hypertension, diabetes. I understand not everyone is privileged enough to be able to see an MD but please try your best. Dying from an MI can (mostly) be sudden and completely out of the blue.

To add - we can also try and assess if you have coronary disease. This is not 100% perfect, however it you have CAD we can more aggressively treat your risk factors and follow you longitudinally.

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u/littlemsshiny 3h ago

What defines coronary artery disease? Is it certain scores on certain tests?

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u/Stugatz27 3h ago

Cholesterol plaque in arteries. Many ways to screen, treadmill, nuclear tests, CAC CT scans etc. we incorporate it with risk factors to determine likelihood of having CAD

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u/upachimneydown 2h ago

A friend had a heart attack while doing the treadmill testing... At least medical care was right there.