Why you need to know all about the symptoms of heart disease?
Why you need to know all about the symptoms of heart disease?
Introduction
One of India’s famous choreographer Remo D’Souza was saved by his quick thinking wife. Remo experienced sharp pain and dismissed it as indigestion. When the symptoms persisted, Remo’s wife used her Apple Watch to carry out a quick check. Based on the results, he was wheeled in for treatment and intervention saved him. The number of cases that end up in unfortunate outcomes is because of lack of awareness of symptoms of heart disease. Lets take a good look and understand how to identify possible symptoms in time.
What are the common heart disease symptoms?
Depending on the type and intensity, symptoms of heart disease may differ from patient to patient. However, there are certain symptoms that are common to the various types of heart disease. These include the following:
- Pain in the chest – Known as angina, this is a sensation of pressure, tightness, or pain in the chest. This could also be experienced as some kind of discomfort, and is often experienced after some kind of physical activity.
- Difficulty breathing – You may experience difficulty breathing, even after slight exertion or even when you are resting.
- Overall tiredness – This fatigue may be experienced during or after light physical activity.
- Heartbeat changes – You may experience abnormal, irregular heartbeats, or fast paced heartbeats. Your heart may experience some kind of a pounding sensation.
- Swelling – You may also experience swelling in your legs, or abdomen as a result of fluid retention.
- Dizzy feelings – Another symptom is a lightheaded feeling, or a feeling like fainting.
- Losing consciousness – Medically known as syncope, this sudden loss of consciousness is also a possible symptom.
- Pain – This pain or discomfort may be experienced in some parts of the body. The pain may radiate to your shoulders, your arms, or back.
- Feelings of nausea – You may experience a sensation of indigestion, and feel nauseous, along with pain in the abdomen.
- Profuse sweating – If you are suddenly breaking out in to a cold sweat, this is typically linked to some issue in the chest.
What are the early signs of heart disease?
As outlined in the introduction, most people fail to recognize the early symptoms of heart disease. This is because some of the early symptoms are similar to symptoms of other conditions. This results in dismissing the symptoms as consistent with other conditions, resulting in possibly serious outcomes. By understanding and recognizing these symptoms early, you can seek timely medical intervention. Symptoms that can be considered as early signs include the following:
- Discomfort in the chest – This could be experienced as mild pain, or pressure in the chest, and could be intermittent in nature.
- Difficulty breathing – You may feel short of breath either during light physical activity or while resting.
- Overall tiredness – Feelings of unusual tiredness may be experienced after some moderate physical activity.
- Heartbeat – This may change to irregular heartbeats or could start racing.
- Swelling – Early signs include swelling that is mild and in your legs.
- Dizzy feelings – This is another early symptom, when you feel faint without any plausible reason.
- Indigestion – These are difficult to identify, as the symptoms are similar to that of patients experiencing indigestion.
- Pain – You may also feel some kind of discomfort or pain in the shoulders, or back.
- Disturbed sleep – Another early symptom is difficulty in falling asleep or staying asleep.
While the above symptoms are not exclusive to heart disease, a combination of these factors can help identify the cause as heart disease.
What are the symptoms of heart disease in women?
Women typically experience similar symptoms as that of men, however, there are certain symptoms that are slightly different. A major difference is intensity of the symptoms – as women tend to have subtle or less intense symptoms. Here is a good look at symptoms of heart disease in women.
- Pain in the chest – While this symptom is common to both men and women, the actual experience is slightly different. Men experience severe pain, while women feel it as some kind of pressure or tight sensation. It is relatively mild in terms of pain and discomfort.
- Difficulty breathing – This symptom may be experienced by women even without chest pain, unlike most men.
- Pain – The sensation of pain is more or less the same among men and women.
Other symptoms commonly experienced by men – Women experience other symptoms such as vomiting, overall tiredness, excessive sweating, indigestion and a lightheaded feeling. Other common symptoms include pain in the upper part of the body and difficulty in remaining asleep
What are the early signs of heart disease in males?
Information about early symptoms of heart disease in men are explained in the previous sections. Here is a quick look at the key differences in symptoms between men and women.
Men experience the following typical symptoms
Common symptoms such as tightness in the chest, pain in the arm, and difficulty breathing. The discomfort in the chest may be experienced as a squeezing sensation, and could either be intermittent or constant. Pain may also radiate to the upper body such as the arms, shoulder, back, neck, jaw, or stomach.
Women experience the following typical symptoms
Atypical symptoms may include nausea, indigestion, tiredness and anxiety. Other symptoms experienced by women in include dizzy feelings, sweating, vomiting and pain in the neck, upper back, or abdomen.
The pain in the chest may be experienced as some of dull and heavy pain. Difficulty breathing during physical activity. Younger women are unlikely to have the kind of chest pain that men experience. However, this changes after menopause and the symptoms are more intense.
Genetic testing to follow up on symptoms
After identification of symptoms as that of heart disease, it is necessary to follow up with diagnostic tests to rule out or confirm your suspicions. Blood tests, ECG/EKG, Echocardiogram, X-Ray and Troponin Tests all help to closely look at various markers of heart disease. An important part of the tests are the genetic tests to look for genetic component of the heart disease.
Advanced genetic testing facilities are presently available in Tamil Nadu and this helps identify if you are at risk due to genetic reasons. For instance, this will identify if you have inherited certain conditions. This will also identify if you have congenital conditions with future or lifetime risk of heart disease.
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Dr. Srinivasan is a cardiologist in Chennai, with extensive experience in the field. He completed his MBBS from Madurai Kamaraj University, followed by an MD in General Medicine and a DM in Cardiology from The Tamil Nadu Dr. M.G.R. Medical University (TNMGRMU).