Can You Have a Heart Attack Without Shortness of Breath

Here'due south a surprising fact: nearly half of people who accept a centre attack don't realize it at the time. These so-chosen silent heart attacks are only diagnosed later the event, when a recording of the heart's electrical activity (an electrocardiogram or ECG) or some other test reveals evidence of damage to the heart.

One explanation for this phenomenon may be a college-than-average tolerance for pain. Some people mistake their symptoms as indigestion or musculus hurting, while others may feel pain, but in parts of their upper body other than the heart of the chest, says Dr. Kenneth Rosenfield, who heads the vascular medicine and intervention section at Harvard-affiliated Massachusetts General Hospital.

Dissimilar sensations?

"Many people don't realize that during a middle assault, the classic symptom of chest pain happens only almost half of the time," he says. People sometimes draw heart attack symptoms every bit chest discomfort or pressure level, while others say they feel an intense, crushing sensation or a deep anguish similar to a toothache.

Certain people are less sensitive to pain than others, or they may deny their pain and "tough information technology out" because they don't desire to appear to be weak. Not everyone has a good sense of their ain pain tolerance, however, and a host of other factors (such as your emotional state) can affect hurting perception. Of note: people with diabetes may be less sensitive to pain because the affliction tin can deaden nerves (a condition known as diabetic neuropathy), theoretically raising their run a risk for a silent centre attack.

Where information technology may injure

During a middle attack, the location of the hurting tin also vary quite a scrap from person to person, notes Dr. Rosenfield. It may occur in the arm, shoulder, neck, jaw, or elsewhere in the upper half of the body. "I had one patient who had earlobe hurting, and another who felt pain in his wrist," says Dr. Rosenfield. Other nonclassic symptoms people oft don't attribute to a heart assail include nausea, vomiting, and weakness.

During his career, Dr. Rosenfield has seen many thousands of people who've had center attacks. "There'due south no question that women are more probable to feel nonclassic centre attack symptoms, but it'southward important to recollect that men can have those symptoms, too."

Heart attack symptoms Although the most common sign of a centre assail in both men and women is the classic one — discomfort in the eye of the breast that spreads through the upper body — this symptom doesn't always occur. Some people experience nonclassic symptoms, and these may be slightly more frequent in women and in older people.
Classic symptoms	Nonclassic symptoms
Pressure, agonized, or tightness in the centre of the chest Pain or discomfort that radiates to the upper torso, particularly shoulders or neck and arms Sweating	Shortness of breath Weakness Nausea or vomiting Dizziness Back or jaw pain Unexplained fatigue

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Source: https://www.health.harvard.edu/blog/heart-attack-not-know-2017041711596

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