When your blood supply is blocked, you have a heart attack.įat, calcium, proteins, and inflammatory cells build up in your arteries to form plaques. If you have coronary artery disease, those arteries become narrow, and blood can’t flow as well as it should. Your coronary arteries give your heart this critical blood supply. Your heart muscle needs a constant supply of oxygen-rich blood. The symptoms go away if you rest or take nitroglycerin that your doctor has prescribed. If you instead have “stable” angina, which is the most common kind, your symptoms usually happen with predictable triggers (such as a strong emotion, physical activity, extreme high or low temperatures, or even a heavy meal). Doctors call that “unstable” angina, and it’s an emergency that could be related to a heart attack that is about to happen. Pain or discomfort in the shoulder, arm, back, neck, or jawĬall 911 if it gets worse, lasts more than 5 minutes, or doesn't improve after you've taken nitroglycerin.Pressure, pain, squeezing, or a sense of fullness in the center of the chest.The sensations may occur with normal activities or exertion but then go away with rest or when you take nitroglycerin.

And while it can happen with a heart attack, it can also happen for other reasons. It’s a symptom, and sometimes it can signal a heart attack. You can think of a heart attack as a problem within the heart’s arteries, and a sudden cardiac arrest as the heart’s electrical system suddenly not working right, causing the heart to stop pumping.Īngina also isn’t a heart attack. MINOCA stands for myocardial infarction with non-obstructive coronary arteries.Ī sudden cardiac arrest is actually not a heart attack.

MINOCA: A heart attack in which no blockages are seen in the main coronary arteries.

NSTEMI: A heart attack where a coronary artery is narrowed enough to greatly reduce blood flow but is not totally blocked.

STEMI: A heart attack where a coronary artery is completely blocked.

Types of heart attacks: When someone has a heart attack, you may hear some of these terms used: Although they are more likely as you get old, there are many risk factors – including high blood pressure, high levels of LDL (“bad”) cholesterol, diabetes, and whether you smoke – that you can change. Heart attacks happen to both men and women. It happens every 40 seconds to someone in the U.S., according to the CDC. More than a million Americans have heart attacks each year. This is more common in people who have diabetes. With some heart attacks, you won’t notice any symptoms (a 'silent' myocardial infarction).

Discomfort in the neck, shoulder, or upper back.

Women are more likely to have these heart attack symptoms:

Symptoms can be different from person to person or from one heart attack to another. Severe weakness, anxiety, fatigue, or shortness of breath.Sweating, upset stomach, vomiting, or dizziness.Fullness, indigestion, or a choking feeling (it may feel like heartburn).Discomfort that goes into your back, jaw, throat, or arm.Discomfort, pressure, heaviness, tightness, squeezing, or pain in your chest or arm or below your breastbone.

Area of rest synonym