Tag: early warning heart attack symptoms

Open wide! Cardiac symptoms diagnosed in the dental chair

~ Carolyn Thomas ~ 13 Comments

by Carolyn Thomas    ♥   @HeartSisters

Mary Kay Osborne is a heart patient from Hammondsport, New York. She replied recently to my blog post about early heart attack warning symptoms, and mentioned something that snagged my attention.
That post had listed “jaw or teeth pain” as one of several possible early cardiac warning signs – especially in women’s heart attacks, as quoted in Dr. Sheila O’Keefe-McCarthy’s research. Mary Kay replied that she had experienced a number of early warning signs before her first coronary stent was implanted at age 57, including pain in her jaw and teeth:
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“I started experiencing symptoms almost eight months before I suspected they were signs of heart issues. The fatigue and anxiety were terrible. And I began having a lot of pain in my jaw and teeth. I had a couple of teeth extracted that I don’t think I needed pulled. My dentist never told me there was an infection – just that they needed to be pulled. But afterwards, I still had pain in the area of the tooth extractions, like phantom pains. The emotional stress was terrible.”  ……

Continue reading “Open wide! Cardiac symptoms diagnosed in the dental chair” →

Can early warning symptoms predict a heart attack?

~ Carolyn Thomas ~ 34 Comments

by Carolyn Thomas  ♥ @HeartSisters  

Did you know that you might experience early warning signs that mean you could be on your way to having a heart attack?

I would have answered NO to that question until I reflected (after the fact!) on the puzzling symptoms that I’d personally experienced two days in a row during the week before my first severe cardiac symptoms hit. Continue reading “Can early warning symptoms predict a heart attack?” →

How women can tell if they’re headed for a heart attack

~ Carolyn Thomas ~ 44 Comments

by Carolyn Thomas  ♥ @HeartSisters

When nurse-researcher Dr. Jean McSweeney from the University of Arkansas for Medical Sciences interviewed hundreds of heart attack survivors, she discovered something surprising: 95 percent of the women she interviewed actually suspected something was very wrong in the months leading up to their attack.

But even these early warning prodromal symptoms didn’t necessarily send women rushing to the doctor, as reported in Dr. McSweeney’s study published in the medical journal, Circulation.(1)  And for those women who did seek help early, doctors often failed to identify their problems as being heart-related.

If you experience the warning symptoms listed below – especially if the feelings are new, worse, unexplained, or you have other heart disease risk factors – call your doctor.  And if they’re severe, or you have any signs of an impending heart attack, call 911.  Continue reading “How women can tell if they’re headed for a heart attack” →