Contents:
- Medical Video: Heart Attack vs. Panic Attack
- What is a heart attack?
- What causes a heart attack?
- Difference in heart attack and panic attack
- Pain in the chest
- Painful chest area
Medical Video: Heart Attack vs. Panic Attack
The New England Journal of Medicine reports that women under the age of 55 have a seven times greater tendency to have a wrong diagnosis of a heart attack, and finally after being examined, are sent home. This data is supported by studies that reveal that 40 percent of patients who experience panic attacks, feel fear of pain in the area of the chest they feel. Indeed, what is the difference between a heart attack and panic attack?
What is a heart attack?
The muscles that make up the heart need the availability of oxygen to give them nutrition. This nutrition of the heart muscle gets from the bloodstream containing oxygen, which is flowed to the heart with the help of arteries. But as a person grows older, the inner walls of the blood vessels are more susceptible to damage and narrowing.
This narrowing occurs due to the intervention of fat in the body that forms a plaque. When this plaque breaks, along with blood cells and other parts of the blood it sticks together and forms a blood clot. This blood clot then blocks the arteries in flowing blood containing oxygen, in a moment when the heart muscle begins to die, then a heart attack occurs.
In other words, a heart attack or also known as myocardial infarction, is a condition in which the absence of blood containing oxygen is flowed to the heart.
What causes a heart attack?
Generally, a heart attack is caused by coronary heart disease. Coronary heart disease is a condition in which the blood vessels in your body experience constriction. The process of plaque formation which causes blood vessels to narrow in your body, is known as atherosclerosis. Unfortunately, many patients often do not realize that their blood vessels have narrowed, even realizing that they have coronary heart disease, when the patient has a heart attack.
When your blood vessels are constricted, so that the level of entry of oxygen-containing blood decreases to the heart, you will experience angina. Angina is a symptom of a heart attack where you will feel intense pain in your chest, especially when you are doing physical activity or exercising or in conditions that cause extreme emotional changes. In addition to chest pain, you may also experience difficulty in breathing as usual, heartburn, sweating, nausea, vomiting, weakness and an irregular heartbeat.
Some unhealthy lifestyles can also trigger heart attacks, such as taking drugs, experiencing severe stress, exposure to excessive cold temperatures, obesity, high cholesterol in the body, high blood pressure, family history of heart disease and behavior smoke.
Difference in heart attack and panic attack
Panic attack is a condition where you experience extreme anxiety and fear. This anxiety and fear even occur without a specific reason. But this condition then triggers your heart to beat faster, maybe until you experience difficulty in breathing.
Some of the symptoms mentioned above cause many people to have difficulty in distinguishing heart attacks and panic attacks which tend to have some similar symptoms, such as irregular heartbeat, normal breathing difficulties, to sweating and chest pain.
An Anxiety Network International clinic director, Doctor Thomas Edwards, said there were several differences between the symptoms caused during a heart attack and a panic attack, including:
Pain in the chest
Chest pain that occurs during a heart attack will tend to increase, compared to pain in a panic attack that feels more like being stabbed. Chest pain due to panic attack will also usually be felt when you press the affected part.
Painful chest area
Are chest aches when you experience a heart attack, will slowly expand until it may be felt in other parts such as the back, neck and shoulders. While the area of the chest that is painful in the panic attack tends to only cover a small area and is followed by feelings of anxiety.
But actually there is nothing wrong with doing early detection as soon as possible, if after a few points above, you still cannot distinguish what attack you are experiencing. Being a serious condition if it turns out that the attack you are experiencing is a heart attack.
