Your heart is one of the most precious organs of your body and needs to be protected at all costs. Looking at the ongoing surge in heart disease cases, it has become important for every individual to become cautious about their well-being. While most heart disease symptoms are clear and obvious, there are a few that may get ignored or go unnoticed.
If you are looking for informed opinions and advice regarding and its symptoms schedule a consultation with our cardiac care experts today.
The only way to make recovery from heart disease easier is to detect the problem early. If you get yourself diagnosed at an early stage of almost any heart disease, you can return to normalcy without going through immense struggle and pain. It is, therefore, important to be conscious of the smallest symptoms associated with heart disease.
If you or any of your loved ones have been experiencing even one of the symptoms discussed here, make sure you seek immediate medical help or schedule a consultation with us.
Chest Pain Or Discomfort
One of the biggest and most prominent heart disease symptoms is chest pain or discomfort. Most heart-related diseases put undue pressure on your heart to pump blood throughout your body. This additional pressure often results in chest pain or discomfort. For example, coronary artery disease makes your heart put in extra effort in pumping your blood as your coronary artery gets narrowed or blocked because of plaque buildup. This may result in stabbing pain in the chest, which should be a cause for alarm.
Shortness Of Breath
Your heart is responsible for carrying oxygen to different organs of your body. Heart disease interferes with this circulation, often leading to a lack of adequate oxygen in your body. This makes your body respond by breathing faster and more profoundly, leading to shortness of breath. Breathing difficulty is a common symptom associated with almost every heart disease, and should never be ignored.
Fatigue
Most heart diseases end up getting your heart overworked. Whether your arteries get narrowed or your heart muscle gets affected, your heart puts in a lot of effort in pumping your blood. This leads to fatigue or excessive tiredness in patients. Normally, people suffering from heart disease get easily tired while performing physical activities. However, if you feel fatigued even while resting, you may need to consult your cardiologist at the earliest.
Irregular Heartbeat
Dynamic electric signals coordinate your heartbeats on a regular basis. They are responsible for maintaining your hearts rhythm and stable beats. When you encounter a heart disease, these electric signals stop working properly, leading to irregular heartbeats. Your heart loses rhythm and you may experience heart palpitations. During most heart diseases, the patient may experience slow heartbeats, fast heartbeats, or a combination of the two. As you seek help, your cardiologist will treat your condition to ensure that your heart beats in a steady rhythm.
Dizziness Or Lightheadedness
Your heart is responsible for carrying blood and oxygen to your brain. During heart disease, this blood flow may get interrupted due to multiple reasons. As your brain faces even a momentary shortage of oxygen-rich blood, it may lead to complications like dizziness or lightheadedness. Most heart-related diseases make patients lose their balance and prompt them to sit still for some time. In severe cases, the lack of adequate blood flow to the brain may also cause the patient to faint.
Nausea Or Vomiting
Heart disease also has a direct impact on your digestive system. Most heart conditions lead to the release of metabolites such as lactic acid and pyruvic acid that stimulate the autonomic nerve peripheral receptors. This reaction leads to complications like nausea or vomiting. Most heart patients make the mistake of ignoring such symptoms by assuming them to be caused due to relatively trivial conditions. However, if they persist with other telling signs of cardiovascular disease, make sure you seek immediate cardiac care.
Pain, Numbness, Or Tingling In Arms And Legs
This symptom is most common in peripheral artery disease. Here, your peripheral artery gets narrowed or blocked due to the buildup of fatty deposits (plaque), restricting normal blood flow from your heart. This prevents your blood from reaching regions in your arms or legs, leading to pain, numbness, or tingling. While feeling numbness in your arms and legs is not always problematic, prolonged symptoms should never be ignored. If the pain and numbness persist without any noticeable reason, make sure you approach your cardiologist without any delay.
Pain Or Discomfort In The Neck, Jaw, Or Upper Back
This is another heart disease symptom that is often ignored by attributing it to relatively trivial causes. Most heart diseases make the pain and discomfort in your chest spread to your neck, jaw, or upper back. This is because of the inability of your heart to pump blood effectively in these reasons. From heart attack to heart failure, several cardiovascular diseases involve pain and discomfort in these regions apart from your chest. As this pain often spreads upward from the chest, it is important to be conscious about the same and consult your cardiologist if it doesn't go away.
Heart Palpitations
Heart palpitation refers to a sensation that your heart is pounding, racing, or fluttering in an abnormal way. Heart disease interferes with your hearts capability and rhythm of pumping blood, leading to irregular heartbeats and palpitations. These palpitations are often short-lived and go unnoticed by the patients. While these symptoms alone do not lead to dire circumstances, it is important to consult a doctor if heart palpitations are accompanied by other symptoms discussed above. It is also important to seek medical help if the palpitations continue for too long, especially while resting.
Fainting Or Loss Of Consciousness
As heart disease interferes with the flow of oxygen-rich blood to your brain, it leads to dizziness and lightheadedness. If such interrupted blood flow continues for too long, complications like fainting or loss of consciousness may occur. Even if you had been taking symptoms like dizziness lightly, never make the mistake of ignoring the problem if the patient faints. Consult a doctor immediately and get the issue diagnosed.
Persistent Cough
A persistent cough is another common heart disease symptom that is often overlooked by patients and their loved ones. When your heart becomes incapable of pumping blood effectively due to heart disease, all returning circulations to your lungs from your heart get backed up. This leads to a phenomenon called & congestive heart failure, a major reason behind a persistent cough. If your cough does not go away despite medications and other heart disease symptoms are present, you should consult a cardiac specialist without any delay.
Loss Of Appetite
As heart disease interrupts your digestive system, you may feel an unexplained loss of appetite along with symptoms like nausea and vomiting. This is primarily because of inadequate blood circulation across your digestive system.
Difficulty Sleeping
Not many people know that difficulty sleeping is also a symptom of heart disease. When your heart becomes incapable of pumping blood normally, it may lead to a drop in the blood oxygen levels in your body. This is often accompanied by increased adrenaline levels, leading to difficulty sleeping. Patients may also experience interruptions in their sleep due to other symptoms such as pain, discomfort, or difficulty breathing.
All of these heart disease symptoms, if not treated, can lead to life-threatening complications. If you or your loved ones are experiencing even mild symptoms, it is advisable to schedule a consultation with our healthcare professionals to obtain an honest and personalized opinion about the condition.
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