Survive a Heart Attack When You Are Alone

Listen up women everywhere and take heed! You should know what to do if you find yourself in the throes of what might be an impending heart attack.

It is important to note that I am not a medical professional. I have, however, educated myself on female heart attacks, symptoms and treatments. Based on what I have learned and also from personal family histories, female heart attack sufferers have different symptoms than males.

We should become aware of how heart attacks affect some women, what the signs are, how the symptoms present, and what to do if a heart attack occurs.

Heart attack warning symptoms for the female

The symptoms suffered by females are often not identical to those suffered by males. That heavy, overbearing chest pain may not occur when a woman has the onset of a heart attack. Likewise, a woman's warning pains may not manifest in her left arm. She may, however, experience intense pain in the jaw - yes, in the jaw!

Female heart attack symptoms

The woman may -

*Get heavy pressure, stabbing and/or squeezing in the chest with acute pain. The episode may last over 5 minutes or more. Pain may come and go. (But, it could also present with upper body pain without the acute discomfort in the chest area.)

*Experience sudden onset of radiating neck, jaw, shoulder and/or arm pain.

*Have abdominal distress and pain. Feel severe heartburn.

*Feel upper back pain.

*Become unusually tired, fatigued, weak.

*Become nauseated for no apparent reason; vomit.

*Have extreme shortness of breath.

*Break into a cold and clammy sweat.

*Experience dizziness. Become lightheaded.

*Feel unusual or unexplained fatigue.

*Get an extreme anxiety attack, usually of impending doom.

One woman experiencing a heart attack may not have any chest pain. Another may have minor chest pain and yet another woman may have acute pain in the chest. Perhaps she suffers intense sweating and becomes very nauseated. If the heart attack occurs at night and the pain awakens her, it may be from intense pain in the jaw or abdomen.

Know the various symptoms. And then act! Call immediately for emergency medical assistance 9-1-1. Waste no time because time is truly valuable and the clock is ticking - you must fight for your life!

Your chances of survival dramatically get better if you receive medical treatment fast. Now is not the time to sit and wait out the symptoms. Get immediate help from 9-1-1 or have someone get you to the closest hospital. Never drive yourself, unless there is no other alternative.

So you think you are having a heart attack

It has been a hard day and you are exhausted. All you want to do is kick back and relax when, suddenly, you feel an acute jolt of pain shoot from your chest up into your arm and jaw. Your pain is intense. You think you are having a heart attack. Even though you have CPR training, you don't know how to help yourself now. The pain is not abating and you know you have only seconds before you may become unconscious.

Remember these steps because they could save your life

Time is precious, the seconds are ticking and you do not want to lose consciousness:

1. Call 9-1-1 for help. Then settle yourself comfortably, perhaps on the floor leaning against the wall, and repeat the next steps over and over until help arrives.

2. Take as deep a breath as you can manage.

3. Cough! Cough with every ounce of strength you can muster.

4. Breathe deeply again.

5. Cough. Vigorously, Deeply. Forcefully.

6. Breathe as deeply as possible.

7. Then cough, cough, cough again.

8. Repeat the breathing and coughing in 2-second intervals. Put your whole being into the coughing effort.

9. Continue this 2-second breathing/coughing routine until help arrives. The deep breathing oxygenates the lungs and, simultaneously, the intense coughing efforts squeeze and massage the heart and maintain blood circulation.

10. Under no circumstances stop this rhythm of breathing and coughing until help arrives.

This effort may sustain your life until medical professionals can take over. Ideally, you can re-establish normal heart rhythm.

And finally, consider this:

Approximately 1/3 of women having a heart attack do not have any chest pain.

About 71% of women feel sick with flu-type symptoms. These symptoms may even occur from 2-4 weeks prior to a heart attack.

Severe shortness of breath may also occur before an actual heart attack

This article and other articles written by The Old Gray Mare can be found at www.DressYourHorse.com.