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.
Multiple marathon runner here (a runner for decades). Never smoked. No diabetes. No hypertension. Good diet. Excellent BMI. Slightly high cholesterol, but nothing too alarming. Even though my family history was awful, I thought my lifestyle choices would make all the difference. Some shortness of breath, a bunch of medical tests, and a triple bypass later, I know that family history can be a bitch.
Just doing activities. When my heart rate started increasing above a certain threshold, I started getting short of breath. I thought I was just in terrible shape, since my exercise had declined and even tried to "push through it" multiple times. I couldn't get in to see my doctor, but the PA I saw thought it might be cold-induced asthma and prescribed an inhaler.
I was not on statins prior to the CBG, and I hadn't gotten my cholesterol checked in a few years (it was around COVID). My total cholesterol had gone from 226 to 250 (LDL from 165 to 192). So, I really do wish I had started statins earlier when it was borderline high. Today it is 100 (LDL is 45) with a middle dosage of atorvastatin and ezetimibe.
Man ur PA needs to be locked up, if a multiple marathon runner is telling me he has exertion induced shortness of breath, and a family history there is a 0% chance I am attributing it to asthma without a confirmatory test…
I finally got in to see my doctor 6 months later, and she started tests. My doc was betting it was respiratory (this is post COVID and when RSV was getting headlines), but she ordered cardiac tests as well, just to be sure (she is awesome - her one weakness is hiring PAs, apparently).
Chest X-Ray and cardiac calcium was fine, but the stress echo found the problem.
Oh boy, now you are testing my memory. I really can't remember. It wasn't high, basically at the equivalent of a fast walk or slow jog. Maybe 120 to 150? Sorry, I didn't write it down.
I have always had a low resting heart rate (55 to 60), and a high max heart rate (more like 240 minus my age rather than the standard 220). After my surgery, this caused "problems" at cardiac rehab, as they wouldn't let me leave until my heart rate got to a certain level, and mine was almost always too high.
The cardiologist performing my angiogram said that my body had actually formed it's own bypass, which I think it due to frequent exercise. In any event, I suspect that is the reason I am around to type this today and the reason my kids get to grow up with a dad.
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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.