Call 999 immediately if you think someone might be having a heart attack. The faster you act, the better their chances. Symptoms of a heart attack can include: The chest pain is often severe, but some people may only experience minor pain, similar to indigestion. While the most common symptom in both men and women is chest pain, women are more likely to have other symptoms such as shortness of breath, feeling or being sick and back or jaw pain. If you have had a heart attack, it's important that you rest while you wait for an ambulance, to avoid unnecessary strain on your heart. If aspirin is available and you are not allergic to it, slowly chew and then swallow an adult-size tablet (300mg) while you wait for the ambulance. Aspirin helps to thin your blood and improve blood flow to your heart. In some cases, a complication called ventricular arrhythmia can cause the heart to stop beating. This is known as sudden cardiac arrest. Signs and symptoms that suggest a person has gone into cardiac arrest include: If you think somebody has gone into cardiac arrest and you do not have access to an automated external defibrillator (AED), you should perform chest compressions, as this can help restart the heart. To do chest compressions on an adult:
Aim to do 100 to 120 compressions a minute. Watch the video on "hands-only" CPR from the British Heart Foundation. Find out about how to resuscitate a child. Automated external defibrillator (AED)If you have access to an AED, you should use it. An AED is a safe, portable electrical device that most large organisations keep as part of first aid equipment. It helps to establish a regular heartbeat during a cardiac arrest by monitoring the person's heartbeat and giving them an electric shock if necessary. Find out more about and AED from the Arrhythmia Alliance. Angina and heart attacksAngina is a syndrome (a collection of symptoms caused by an underlying health condition) caused by the supply of oxygen-rich blood to the heart becoming restricted. People with angina can experience similar symptoms to a heart attack, but they usually happen during exercise and pass within a few minutes. However, occasionally, people with angina can have a heart attack. It's important to recognise the difference between the symptoms of angina and those of a heart attack. The best way to do this is to remember that the symptoms of angina can be controlled with medicine, but symptoms of a heart attack cannot. If you have angina, you may have been prescribed medicine (glyceryl trinitrate) that improves your symptoms within 5 minutes. If the first dose does not work, a second dose can be taken after 5 minutes, and a third dose after a further 5 minutes. If the pain persists, despite taking 3 doses of glyceryl trinitrate over 15 minutes, call 999 and ask for an ambulance. Page last reviewed: 28 November 2019 by Carolyn Thomas ♥ @HeartSisters
As the arm pain got worse, Cath brushed aside pleas from her husband and two sons to call an ambulance, and she went to bed. After all, as she told herself, she was fit, relatively young, had just lost 28 pounds, did not smoke, and drank only occasionally. So why bother the ambulance crew? Finally, however, she relented, and was shocked to learn at the hospital that she had indeed suffered a heart attack. She was also shocked to find out that in at least 10% of women’s heart attacks, there is no form of chest pain at all.(1) Nothing. Zero. Zilch. Nada. Although in many heart attacks, pain can begin in the chest and spread to other areas, even when there’s no chest pain as an initial symptom, heart attack signs may include pain or discomfort in the left, right or both arms or in the shoulders, elbows, back, neck, throat, lower jaw or stomach. Or as Mayo Clinic cardiologists call it: anything “from neck to navel”. Men having a heart attack often feel pain in the left arm. In women, the pain is more likely to be felt in either arm. The pain might also come and go. Fun fact: pain in your right arm or
shoulder appears to double the likelihood of a heart attack diagnosis compared to symptoms in the left arm.(2) In a previous post called “How Does It Really Feel to Have a Heart Attack? Women Survivors Tell Their
Stories”, a number of women interviewed also described unusual elbow pain as an early heart attack symptom. Why would a heart attack cause pain or discomfort in our arm? Here’s the technical gobbledygook reason, according to an Indiana cardiac surgeon who answered a patient’s question on HealthTap:
(And doctors sometimes wonder why their patients don’t seem to understand them . . .) Allow me to translate that HealthTap Geek-Speak for you: basically, it’s because of referred pain to the arm. For example, your heart attack may cause a sensation of pain to travel from your heart to your spinal cord, where many nerves merge onto the same nerve pathway. Your arm may be perfectly fine, but your brain thinks that part of the heart’s pain is the arm (or the jaw or the shoulder or the elbow or the neck or the upper back) calling out for help. That’s what referred pain is. When your heart muscle cells begin to run out of oxygen during a heart attack because of a blocked artery preventing oxygenated blood from feeding that muscle, they begin to send off signals of pain through the nervous system. Your brain may confuse those nerve signals with signals coming from the arm (or the jaw, shoulder, elbow, neck or upper back) because of the nerve proximity. So there are times that we can feel both chest pain and arm pain when our heart muscle is not getting enough oxygen, but there are other times that discomfort in either arm (or the jaw, shoulder, elbow, neck or upper back) may be the only symptom of a heart attack. In fact, arm pain may be one of the first indications that a heart attack is about to occur. Arm pain has also been reported as the cause of significant sleep disturbances even days before a heart attack. You might not even describe this symptom as “pain”. Instead, you may feel it as electrical, tingling, pins-and-needles, dull ache, weakness, heaviness, fullness, or a crushing feeling. These symptoms may come and go, and can also fluctuate in severity. They can hit both before and during a heart attack. And remember that heart attack symptoms don’t necessarily include any arm discomfort.  What else could it be? Arm pain on its own, of course, can have nothing to do with heart issues. Intermittent arm pain may be due to something as simple as repetitive strain injuries experienced during typing, video gaming or text messaging, especially if done while in an awkward position or while leaning forward to see the screen. ♥ NOTE FROM CAROLYN: I wrote more about arm pain and other cardiac symptoms in my book, “A Woman’s Guide to Living with Heart Disease” (Johns Hopkins University). You can ask for it at your local library or favourite bookshop, or order it online (paperback, hardcover or e-book) at Amazon, or order it directly from Johns Hopkins University Press (and use their code HTWN to save 30% off the list price when you order).
See also:How women can tell if they’re headed for a heart attack How does it really feel to have a heart attack? Women survivors tell their stories The freakish nature of cardiac pain Brain freeze, heart disease and pain self-management . How do you know if left arm pain is heart related?Seek emergency treatment if you have:. Arm, shoulder or back pain that comes on suddenly, is unusually severe, or is accompanied by pressure, fullness or squeezing in your chest (this may signal a heart attack). An obvious deformity or protruding bone in your arm or wrist, especially if you have bleeding or other injuries.. What part of your arm would hurts in a heart attack?For men: Pain will spread to the left shoulder, down the left arm or up to the chin. For women: Pain can be much more subtle. It may travel to the left or right arm, up to the chin, shoulder blades and upper back — or to abdomen (as nausea and/or indigestion and anxiety).
How long does pain in left arm last before heart attack?The American Heart Association advise calling 911 if sudden left arm pain gets worse over a few minutes or occurs alongside any of the following symptoms: discomfort at the center of the chest that lasts longer than a few minutes or goes away and then returns.
What are the 4 signs of an impending heart attack?What are the symptoms of heart attack?. Chest pain or discomfort. ... . Feeling weak, light-headed, or faint. ... . Pain or discomfort in the jaw, neck, or back.. Pain or discomfort in one or both arms or shoulders.. Shortness of breath.. |
What part of your left arm hurts when having a heart attack
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