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Am I Having a Heart Attack?

Some signs are surprising — especially for women

by: Elizabeth Agnvall | from: AARP Bulletin | February 11, 2011

En español | If you Googled this article because you think you're having a heart attack — stop. Call 911. Then chew an aspirin.

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Spending precious minutes searching for information about heart attack symptoms as you experience them is not wise, doctors say, because "time is heart muscle."

If you think you're having a heart attack, call 911 immediately. — Photo by Ocean/Corbis

"If you think you're having a heart attack, that's not the time to try and figure out whether you're right," says Gordon Tomaselli, M.D., president-elect of the American Heart Association, who adds he has patients who have done exactly that.

And yet, among the most commonly searched subjects online is "heart attack signs," according to the search engine Google. In fact, the number of searches for that term has increased by a whopping 90 percent in the last five years or so, according a company spokesperson. Searches for "Am I having a heart attack?" alone have risen by more than 35 percent since 2008, the company says.

One reason people are searching online for emergency information is that it's not always easy to tell whether you're having a heart attack — even doctors have a tough time knowing without tests. If you suspect you're having a heart attack, call for an ambulance immediately. And don't be embarrassed if it turns out you're not.

"It's not always straightforward," says Tomaselli. "If you develop the classic symptoms — pressing chest pain, sweating, nausea — then you're pretty clear that there's a big problem that needs to be dealt with quickly." But, he says, many people, especially women, may develop completely different symptoms when experiencing a heart attack.

Common symptoms in men and women

You should pay particular attention to the following signs if — like more than half of all Americans — you are over 50, have high blood pressure, have high cholesterol, are a smoker or have a family history of heart disease. A heart attack occurs when the blood supply to the heart is blocked, damaging the muscle. Chewing aspirin (either one regular or two baby) helps the heart by thinning the blood.

Chest pain: Most people do call 911 or get to the hospital if they feel like they've got an elephant sitting on their chest, but even this most common heart attack symptom may be hard to recognize. It may just feel like a squeezing that lasts more than a few minutes or goes away and comes back. "It may be a chest fullness that they don't recognize as pain," says Tomaselli, who is also chief of cardiology at the Johns Hopkins School of Medicine. "Sometimes it doesn't particularly hurt. It's an uncomfortable sensation." If chest pain lasts more than five minutes, go to the emergency room.

Next: What symptoms are more common to women than men? >>