Risk factors and symptoms for heart attack
January 17th, 2008 by Doris
Risk factors for heart attack and coronary artery disease include:
- Bad genes (hereditary factors)
- Being male
- Diabetes
- Getting older
- High blood pressure
- Smoking
- Too much fat in your diet
- Unhealthy cholesterol levels, especially high LDL (“bad”) cholesterol and low HDL (“good”) cholesterol
Higher-than-normal levels of homocysteine, C-reactive protein, and fibrinogen may also increase your risk for a heart attack. Homocysteine is an amino acid. C-reactive protein and fibrinogen are linked to inflammation. Fibrinogen is also involved in blood clotting.
Symptoms
Chest pain is a major symptom of heart attack. However, some people may have little or no chest pain, especially the elderly and those with diabetes. This is called a silent heart attack.
The pain may be felt in only one part of the body or move from your chest to your arms, shoulder, neck, teeth, jaw, belly area, or back.
The pain can be severe or mild. It can feel like:
- Squeezing or heavy pressure
- A tight band around the chest
- Something heavy sitting on your chest
- Bad indigestion
Pain usually lasts longer than 20 minutes. Rest and a medicine called nitroglycerine do not completely relieve the pain of a heart attack.
Other symptoms of a heart attack include:
- Shortness of breath
- Nausea or vomiting
- Anxiety
- Cough
- Fainting
- Lightheadedness – dizziness
- Palpitations (feeling like your heart is beating too fast)
- Sweating, which may be extreme