Recognizing the symptoms of heart disease early can allow you to get the medical attention you need before you experience anything as serious as a heart attack. These symptoms generally occur from about four to six months and up to one week before an attack. If you experience any of them, tell your doctor immediately:

• unusual fatigue
• sleep disturbance
• shortness of breath
• chest pain
• indigestion
• anxiety
• pain in the shoulder blade or upper back

An actual heart attack occurs because blood and the oxygen it carries cannot reach the heart. Without that oxygen, the tissue of your heart muscle can die. While it’s important to recognize the warning signs of an attack, women often experience these signs in ways you might never associate with heart disease. These so called "atypical" symptoms are actually fairly common and include:

• back, neck or jaw pain
• nausea
• vomiting
• indigestion
• weakness
• fatigue
• dizziness
• light-headedness

One study indicates that women are more than twice as likely as men to experience nausea, vomiting or indigestion as a symptom of heart attack.¹

Like men, women may also experience the most common warning signs for an attack, including:

• chest pain
• shortness of breath
• sweating
• pain in one or both arms