Heart health: symptoms and how to recognize a heart attack According to some data from the United States, a person dies every 36 seconds from vascular problems and heart attack is certainly one of the most dangerous conditions. Also in Italy the percentage of heart attacks is equally important. According to the Veronesi Foundation every year 120,000 occur with a mortality of 11%. The De Gasperi foundation indicates that diseases of the cardiovascular system are the leading cause of death in Italy with more than 230,000 deaths per year (2017 Istat data). How to recognize a heart attack: pay attention to these symptoms. What are the warning signs that people with a particular tendency to heart disease need to look out for? There are several but all important if they occur together.

The first symptom to be evaluated carefully is chest pain.

A pain often described as a strong pressure, such as a persistent punch, which can also be confused with other conditions (a severe pain in the stomach, for example) also because it often appears after strong emotions, fright and general distress conditions. But which in some cases can also be completely isolated. Often, however, it is accompanied by some unmistakable symptoms. Such as pain and / or burning in the jaw, arms, hands. Attention, often we tend to recognize a heart attack only for the pain in the left limb but the symptom can embrace both.

The characteristic symptoms of heart attack are:

• chest discomfort (in the form of a sense of pressure or pain)
• shortness of breath
• discomfort in the upper body (can affect arms, shoulders, neck, back)
• nausea, vomiting, dizziness, lightheadedness, increased sweating.

In women, unlike men, the following occur more easily:

• shortness of breath
• nausea / vomiting and back or jaw pain.

Heart attack: what to do if you think you or someone you know might be having a heart attack:

• call the unique emergency number (possible within 5 minutes of the onset of symptoms);
• if symptoms disappear completely in less than 5 minutes, call your doctor anyway;
• reaching the hospital by ambulance, driving your own car could delay treatment;
• take a nitroglycerin pill, if your doctor has prescribed this type of medication.

Approximately 17 million people worldwide die each year from cardiovascular disease, largely heart attacks and strokes, and many more people could recover from these episodes if they received timely help – of all the people who die from heart attacks, about half die within an hour of experiencing the first symptoms and before reaching the hospital.

Heart attack: beware of arm pain

Discomfort, pain, discomfort, heaviness that affect an arm (more often the left) or both: these are the symptoms that could affect the upper limbs in the event of a heart attack; sufferers sometimes describe it as a feeling of numbness or tingling, which can spread from the chest to the limb. However, it is not an always present symptom and, sometimes, it is limited to being perceived at the shoulder level.