It happens in the movies all the time. A man looks down at his left arm and twitches his fingers, wondering what's going on with the discomfort and stiffness he is feeling. Soon enough he complains about a chest pain to someone nearby before collapsing, the other person rushing to his aid and calling an ambulance.
We all know that the man probably just had a heart attack. The symptoms of stiff left arm followed by chest pain are in our cultural lexicon. But heart attack symptoms for women don't work quite the same way. In fact, a new study is reporting that 2 out of 5 women who have a heart attack do not experience chest pain at all.
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The symptoms that we all need to be well aware of instead include pain the jaw, neck, shoulders or back, stomach discomfort or sudden trouble breathing.
Researchers think that not realizing these harder-to-recognize symptoms may be leading to a heart attack is one reason why women have a higher risk of dying from a heart attack when they're in the hospital than men.
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Since being Latina can be a risk factor for heart disease, along with factors such as obesity, diabetes, high blood pressure, high cholesterol or a family history, we all need to know what the true heart attack symptoms for women are. Since it's Heart Health Month, today is no better time to learn and memorize them.
Are you at risk for heart disease? Have you made an effort to learn the symptoms for heart attacks in women?
Image via comedy_nose/flickr
