What are the early symptoms of heart disease?

What are the early symptoms of heart disease?

Rose Marie Robertson, MD, FAHA, FACC, FESC (Chief Science Officer and Past President of the Board of American Heart Association) gives expert video advice on: What do I do if I think I'm having a heart attack?; How can I examine myself for heart disease?; What questions should I ask my doctor if I am diagnosed with a heart condition? and more...

The early symptoms of heart disease depend on what heart disease we're actually talking about, if we're talking about coronary artery disease or blockages in the arteries that supply the heart. The early symptoms will really be primarily angina pectoris. Angina, the chest pain or discomfort that comes from insufficient blood flow and that will often be there when you try to do something strenuous. So, the most strenuous activity of the day will often bring it on rather than milder activities. In general, that discomfort in the chest, a tightness, a heaviness, a pressure will come on as you begin to exercise and will go away as you rest. It sometimes is pretty subtle. It's not a severe pain but the pain can be in the chest, often right in the middle under the breast bone, but it can also be in the arms. Commonly in the left arm, but it can be in either arm or in the neck, shoulders or even the jaw. People have sometimes had teeth removed because of pain that was thought to be from a tooth and actually was from the heart. For other forms of heart disease the symptoms that we're looking for really relate primarily to how well the heart is pumping and how well it can pump blood around to the body. So we would look for things like early fatigue that seemed unusual. Sometimes shortness of breath that seemed unusual and sometimes fluid retention or ankle swelling, edima in the ankles that you could push your finger into and leave a dent that occurred unusually, not for example at the end of a very long day of standing up all day, but ones that seemed to be a new sort of symptom. Any sort of new symptom ought to be brought to the attention of your doctor, particularly if its angina. You shouldn't wait till the next day to tell your doctor if you think you have chest discomfort that might be from your heart.