Rosie O’Donnell’s recent heart attack has shed light on heart health for women – and most importantly, how the symptoms for heart attacks in women are different from heart attack symptoms for men.
Comedian Rosie O’ Donnell says on her blog she had a heart attack last week and didn’t know it. But the symptoms she describes were classic heart attack symptoms — for a woman, that is.
Here’s the American Heart Association’s guide for signs of a heart attack for women:
• Uncomfortable pressure, squeezing, fullness or pain in the center of your chest. It lasts more than a few minutes, or goes away and comes back.
• Pain or discomfort in one or both arms, the back, neck, jaw or stomach.
• Shortness of breath with or without chest discomfort.
• Other signs such as breaking out in a cold sweat, nausea or lightheadedness.
• As with men, women’s most common heart attack symptom is chest pain or discomfort.
But women are somewhat more likely than men to experience some of the other common symptoms, particularly shortness of breath, nausea/vomiting and back or jaw pain.
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