What is a silent heart attack?
"A silent heart attack is one where there are minimal symptoms if any suggesting a possible heart attack," says Dr. V. Rajasekhar, Senior Consultant Interventional Cardiology & Electrophysiology, Certified Proctor For TAVR & Clinical Director, Yashoda Hospitals Hyderabad.
"Also there may be symptoms that may seem innocuous and suggest an alternative diagnosis such as heartburn or indigestion," the expert adds.
A heart attack is called 'silent' when the classic signs of a heart attack like chest pain and pain in the arm and neck are not experienced by the individual.
Silent heart attack signs are brief and mild
Many people who have silent heart attacks do not experience the sign.
As per a 2015 study published in the Journal of the American Medical Association and cited by Harvard Health, a follow up study on almost 2,000 people between 45 to 84 years old, who never had any cardiovascular disease, found that they had a heart attack in 10 years. These people had myocardial scars due to heart attacks.
"Most surprising was that 80% of these people were unaware of their condition. Overall, the prevalence of myocardial scars was five times higher in men than in women," the study found.
What are the risk factors?
"There is no way one can assess the risk of silent heart attack," explains Dr. V. Rajasekhar.
The risk factors for a silent heart attack are the same as for any heart attack such as: diabetes, hypertension, old age, smoking, obesity, sedentary lifestyle, family history of heart disease, high cholesterol, says the expert and adds that older people especially those with diabetes tend to have silent attacks more often.
What are the classic signs of heart attack one should be aware of?
It is very important to identify the signs of heart attack so that one gets timely medical help which is extremely crucial to save one's life:
Signs like chest pain, discomfort in the chest, feeling weak, fainting, pain in jaw, neck or back, discomfort in arms and shoulders and difficulty in breathing are the classic signs of heart attack.
"Most heart attacks involve discomfort in the center or left side of the chest that lasts for more than a few minutes or that goes away and comes back. The discomfort can feel like uncomfortable pressure, squeezing, fullness, or pain," the US CDC explains the nature of the chest pain during heart attack.
How to prevent heart attacks?
While the question seems elusive, the purpose of answering this is because it is a very commonly asked question.
The need of addressing this question is because the majority of heart attacks happen due to unhealthy lifestyle.
Lifestyle habits like less physical activity, random sleeping hours, smoking tobacco, binge drinking, not having sufficient nutritional foods, more dependency on food deliveries and takeaways, eating unhealthy oils and not screening health regularly gives scope to life threatening diseases to progress.
The takeaway message
"That is why those with multiple risk factors should undergo preventive health screening to identify silent heart problems and get them treated. Also several medications and treatment measures exist that will help reduce the risk of heart attack," explains Dr. V. Rajasekhar.
"Equally important is for individuals with risk factors not to ignore symptoms that seem like acidity or heartburn and get a cardiac evaluation because some of them may turn out to be heart attacks," the expert urges.
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