But sometimes heart attacks don’t come in the form of a whopping elephant sitting on your chest. Sometimes they come in the form a quiet whisper and are called a silent heart attack. People that suffer a silent heart attack, may experience subtle signs like fatigue, dizziness, light-headedness, and flu-like symptoms. The symptoms will gradually get worse. As one blood vessel becomes blocked, it causes a bruise on the heart. If you ignore it, another blood vessel can close off causing another bruise. It will continue to get worse and worse until the entire heart dies. This can happen over a long period of time.
So be aware of these sneaky symptoms and listen to your body! It also helps to know your risk. Uncontrollable risk factors include: male gender, older age, family history of heart disease, post-menopausal and race (African Americans, American Indians, and Mexican Americans are more likely to have heart disease than Caucasians). Controllable risk factors include: smoking, high LDL or "bad" cholesterol and low HDL or "good" cholesterol, high blood pressure, physical inactivity, obesity, uncontrolled diabetes, high C-reactive protein and uncontrolled stress and anger. Do your best to manage those controllable risk factors…..especially if you have any of the uncontrollable ones! Remember to exercise and try to incorporate as many heart healthy foods in your diet as possible!
I hope you have a WONDERFUL weekend!
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