Symptoms of heart disease?

Answer 1

Need To Know:

I think the most troubling fact about heart disease is that, until most heart disease progresses to an advanced, acute stage, there are no symptoms.

Studies conducted since the Viet Nam war have shown that, if you are male and American, you already have heart disease, and I'll wager that you have had no sypmtoms. So far.

The findings during Viet Nam showed soldiers, 19 and 20 years old and in the peak of health, already had fatty streaks and plaques forming in their coronary and femoral arteries. Since then have been studies like the PDAY (Pathological Determinants of Athersclerosis in Youth) study have shown that heart disease can and does start in children in the developed West.

Here's one link about it:

http://www.coronaryheartdisease.org/other-study.htm

And to all appearances, these children do not seem to have heart disease, but they do.

Here's another website:

http://members.cox.net/forrestx/arterynarrowing.htm

That further discusses the early start to heart disease.

The studies are so significant that this website, about 3/4 of the way down the page in the paragraph "Estimating Artery Narrowing," says:

"Deposits are considered to initiate at year 1 of age. But because cholesterol usually is low during childhood the amounts of deposits accumulating then usually are small."

But they are there. We've seen them as young as 8.

So heart disease exists without any symptoms.

Therefore, what do you bet that you have it, too? If you eat at MacDonald's or have sausage for breakfast, if you drink sodas or have processed foods, you have heart disease.

The good news about this, though, is that you can do something about it. Thanks to the work popularized if not pioneered by Dr. Dean Ornish, we know that we can reverse heart disease. Look him up on the Net for some very good information.

Now, if the disease progresses to the acute stage, the symptoms often are different for women from those of men.

It also depends on what heart disease you're talking about. There are several.

Men, of course, show the classic symptoms of shortness of breath during exertion, and often chest pain at the same time. A fast heartbeat, heaviness or pressure in the chest, strange beats--skipped beats, a couple of hard thumps a few times a day--dizziness, fatigue, or even fainting, a pain radiating to the neck, left arm, or back, or nausea.

Women, though, can show slightly different symptoms: a hot sensation in the chest or back, or even a temporary, almost "indigestion" feeling anywhere above the waist during exertion, which are very easy to disregard. After all, they go away when the exercise stops.

However, women are more likely to have artery spasms that cause chest pain, and to have blockages in the many tiny arteries of the heart than are men, who are more prone to major-vessel blockage. So chest pain can very well mean heart disease of merely different types in men and women.

When a heart attack occurs, the major symptoms are basically the same in men and women:

Shortness of breath (doctors call it "The elephant sitting on your chest")

Pain or pressure in the chest, left arm, shoulder, neck or jaw that lasts longer than 5 minutes.

Fainting (this one is tricky. Better to be safe and call 911 whenever this happens).

Sudden nausea or vomiting, sudden sweating for no apparent reason.


Now, there are types of heart disease that are not aterial, such as Congestive Heart Failure, which causes swelling in ankles, legs, and stomach, or a cough that produces a white mucus, or fatigue, or rapid heartbeats.

Valve disease will show as:

Shortness of breath
Weakness or dizziness
Quick weight gain (I mean really quick--two pounds in one day, for example)
Irregular heartbeats

All of these symptoms will be present in heart muscle disease ("cardiomyopathy"), too. In the case of cardiomyopathy, however, the irregular heartbeats can lead quickly to fibrillation, which stops the heart.

Pericarditis, inflammation of the sac around the heart, will give you

a low-grade fever,
rapid heartbeat, and
stabbing pains in the center of the chest which are worsened by lying down and relieved by leaning forward.

Sick Sinus Syndrome causes a slow heartbeat that may even stop for a half a minute, causing fainting.

Asynchrony, the top part of the heart does not beat in rhythm with the bottom part, will do teh same thing.

Neither of these cause any pain. the person may feel a little breathless, but usually just gets dizzy and passes out.

I hope your question is merely academic and not prompted by any of these symptoms. If you do have any two or three of any catagory of them, I would take them to a doctor.

Good luck.

Answer 2

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Answer 3

Bit too vague to give a useful answer.

Chest pain or discomfort of course, and breathlessness. But the answer is complex, in a male even totally unrelated symptoms such as ED can be an early marker for heart disease.

If you have any symptoms that worry you see your GP!

Answer 4

Men and woman can have different symptoms. Woman are more likely to die of a heart attack. Woman's symptoms may be more vague:fatigue, nausea, vomiting, shortness of breath Typical symptoms are epi-gastric discomfort, pain-described as squeezing, tightness, sharp, dull, pressure in chest. Also may have pain in left or right arm, pain in the teeth, jaw, or neck. Can occur in ages as low as the 20's. Sometimes the pain can occur at rest, usually when doing something. Can last a minute or longer with complaints of pain. Sometimes there are no symptoms-that's why it's important to have check up's with docs.

Answer 5

The signs or symptoms of heart diseases might not be constant for each kind of heart diseases. The foremost symptoms of heart diseases are
1.Shortness of breath (dyspnoea): dyspnoea is usually observed in patients with coronary failure. it's additionally a warning call of heart attack.
2. pain: Chest pain (angina) could be a classic symptom of coronary failure and arterial blood vessel illness (CAD). In some cases, chest pain is related to inflammation of the tissue covering the heart called pericardium.
3. Swelling of feet: Swelling within the feet and ankles is seen in folks with symptom coronary failure wherever the blood pumping capability of the center reduces.
4. Cold sweat: an individual who is probably going to urge a coronary failure sooner could begin sweating abundantly with none physical exercise.
5. Fatigue : it's one amongst the common symptoms of coronary failure and coronary failure in girls is unexplained overall weakness and fatigue. Fatigue is additionally common within the older population or folks with polygenic disorder who are suffering from heart disease should examine once will fatigue means that rather more than fatigue.
If you have got any of the higher than signs, you must consult a medical specialist and find your heart check up done before any complication arises.
For any doubts and enquires you can send ur doubts at
http://doctorbenedict.com/ask-dr-benedict/

Answer 6

angina (pressure-like pain on the chest), breathlessness, left arm and shoulder pain and numbness, fatigue, oedema(legs and lung swelling), falls. these symptoms differ according to the stage and type of the heart disease. i.e at early stage it occurs after vigorous exertion while in mid and late stages it can occur after climbing few steps or even while sleeping. however some indigestion and other causes an mimk (fake) these symptoms
Advice : consult your doctor asap if the symptoms occur more than once.

Answer 7

breathlessness
a tight chest
go and see a doctor you do not want symptoms, you want to be checked out before that because by the times symptoms come it will be kinda too late. by then you will get a heart attack or stroke or something.
if you are getting any symptoms in your heart area i suggest you go see a doctor asap.
good luck
x

Answer 8

My Mum had ischemic heart disease, her symptoms were pains in her jaws and rapid heart beat. This is also known as the silent heart attack.

Answer 9

what about the British heart foundation? Or have you tried wikipedia and looked up heart disease?

Answer 10

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