Breathless climbing stairs? You could be having a heart attack

By Dr Nishith Chandra

Heart attack can occur with the classic symptoms of severe chest pain with sweating. But, more often than not, there are other symptoms that could indicate an impending heart attack. You should not ignore these symptoms.

In fact, many patients have signs that something is wrong with their heart for weeks or even months before they actually have a cardiac event, and sometimes those signs may be subtle. These warning signs become even more important, especially if you have risk factors of heart disease, including high cholesterol, high blood pressure, obesity, smoking, diabetes or a family history of heart disease.



Here are seven signs of heart disease that you should have checked out:

1. Chest discomfort or pain (angina): It's the number one recognised symptom of heart problems (although not all chest pain is caused due to an issue with the heart). Sometimes the pain isn't intense.

Heart-related chest pain is often centred under the breastbone, perhaps a little to the left of centre. The pain has been likened to ‘an elephant sitting on the chest’ but it can also be an uncomfortable sensation of pressure, squeezing or fullness. This pain can radiate to the left arm, jaw or throat.

2. Intense sweating associated with chest pain should never be taken lightly and should prompt you to take immediate medical attention. People typically have cold sweats.

3. If you are feeling short of breath, which often gets worse with movement or exercise, it can be a sign of heart attack, which occurs when your heart can't pump enough blood to meet your body's needs. This breathlessness gets worse on lying down and gets better on sitting up.

4. Dizziness, light headedness, fainting: Any of these symptoms can indicate heart disease. This is due to reduced blood supply to the brain during the heart attack.

5. Heart arrhythmias, or abnormal heartbeats: If you feel as if your heart is fluttering in your chest, beating too fast or slow, it may be an indication of heart disease, or even a heart attack. Contact your doctor immediately and get an ECG done.

Nowadays you can even monitor your heart rate by smartwatches and fitness trackers. Apple recently introduced a watch that can even record an ECG and send it to a cardiologist for quick interpretation.

6. If it's suddenly difficult to climb stairs you climb every day or do other activities that are usually part of your routine, it can be a sign that there's a problem. Notice if you find yourself saying, "I used to be able to (climb stairs,) but now I have to stop because I get (light-headed, short of breath, palpitations)." Consult a heart specialist.


The most common mistake people do is to confuse these symptoms with gas or stomach-related problems. You can differentiate a chest pain due to a heart problem from a gas episode by noticing if you have associated sweating or breathlessness. If they are there, don’t delay; it could be due to the heart. If you are having burning in the chest following a heavy meal, but not associated with sweating or breathlessness, it could be due to gas. But if you are in doubt, it is always better to consult a cardiologist.

(The writer is Director-Interventional Cardiology, Fortis Escorts Heart Institute, New Delhi)