**Women and Heart Attacks: Heart Attack Signs and Symptoms

At my recent first aid training, they made this point two times, "Men have more heart attacks than women, women have more fatal heart attacks than men."  It would seem those two statements are contradictory, but the reason for this is that heart attacks often generate different symptoms in women than men, symptoms that are harder to recognize as a heart attack, and so women get help less often than men.  These are the list of heart attack symptoms:
First Signals: Pain or discomfort, which can come and go; it can range from a mild ache to unbearable pain,  Usually last longer than two minutes.  (Pain can by in chest, shoulder, inner arm, neck, jaw)
Lesser signals: Pain between should blades, stomach pain, no pain or discomfort but generalized weakness. (Pain between shoulder blades, abdomen)
Other signals: Sweating, nausea, vomiting, shortness of breath, generalized weakness, heartburn.
Women more often have the lesser symptoms, which are not always associated with heart attack.
Risk factors over which you have no control: Heredity, male vs female, increasing age, diabetes, race.  Risk factors over which you have some control: cigarette smoking, high blood pressure, high cholesterol level, obesity, bad diet including overindulgence or excessive caffeine, and lack of exercise.
The universal sign for heart attack is when someone places their fist or hand to their chest.  They can be sleepy, agitated, restless, having bizarre behavior, violent, anything that is not normal for them.  The individuals heart is not working properly, so lack of oxygen to the brain may result in abnormal behavior.
If someone is having heart attack the best response is to call 9-11.  They need help as soon as possible.  The quicker the help the better the chance of survival and lessening the damage to the heart.