You know the warning signs: chest pain, shortness of breath, pain down your arm, nausea, fatigue.
But what if none of that happens? What if your heart attack comes with no pain and for no reason at all?
Heart disease kills more women than all cancers combined. And here’s something many people don’t know — women’s heart attacks often look nothing like men’s.
The American Heart Association says women are more likely to feel fatigue, back or jaw pain, nausea, or indigestion, without any chest pressure.
In fact, 1 in 3 women who have a heart attack never feel chest pain at all.
Research also shows that 1 in 5 heart attacks now strike adults under 40, and 1 in 5 is silent, with no warning signs.
Marcus Wright is a reminder that heart disease isn’t just for older people. He was training for a marathon when his heart nearly stopped.
“It was on one of my runs. When I stopped, my chest started hurting, but at 27, you’re like, ‘Oh, that’s probably nothing,’” he recalled.
But that pain turned out to be more than anyone expected; he was having a heart attack.
“Marcus first came to us when he was in his late 20s; that’s extremely unusual,” said Sara Koenig, a researcher at The Ohio State University.
The problem? His “good” cholesterol wasn’t good at all. Doctors say even your “good” cholesterol can turn bad, and genes may play a bigger role than anyone realized.
“Even though it was there, it wasn’t doing its job,” Koenig explained.
Doctors discovered a rare gene mutation that blocked the body’s ability to use HDL, the “good” cholesterol.
“We really want to understand how good cholesterol could be misfunctioning, how we can identify poorly-functioning good cholesterol in the population and then how we can treat it,” Koenig told Ivanhoe.
Other little-known risk factors include kidney disease, pregnancy complications, chronic inflammation, stress, lack of sleep, even loneliness can raise blood pressure and trigger heart events.
Doctors say the biggest mistake they see is waiting, thinking it’s stress, indigestion, or just fatigue. But every minute matters when your heart is in trouble.