Don't Ignore These Overlooked Heart-Attack Warning Signs
Patrick Raycraft was nearing the final stretch of a 42-mile charity bike ride in New York when he felt two strange sensations...
The first was an intense pain in his chest... the other an aching elbow. And he'd felt them before.
Years earlier, after he'd experienced the same kind of pain, doctors had discovered a blockage in one of the arteries supplying blood to the left side of his heart. They had to use a stent to clear the blockage.
Raycraft wasn't taking any chances this time. He immediately got off his bike and called an ambulance. What happened next shows just how quickly a heart problem can turn into something even more dangerous.
Heart attacks don't always look the way you'd expect them to. Symptoms can start mildly, come and go, or even seem to improve. Today, we'll look at what happens during a heart attack, the sometimes-overlooked warning signs you should never ignore, and exactly what to do if you think you're experiencing one.
Your heart, the hardest-working muscle in your body, is about as big as your clenched fist and pumps about 2,000 gallons' worth of blood every day.
A heart attack occurs when the blood flow to part of your heart muscle becomes severely reduced or blocked, so heart tissue begins suffering damage due to insufficient oxygen. Another name for a heart attack is "myocardial infarction."
You've probably also heard of "cardiac arrest," which is different from a heart attack. Cardiac arrest happens when the heart suddenly stops pumping blood effectively, usually due to an electrical problem.
A heart attack can trigger cardiac arrest... which is exactly what happened to Raycraft during his ambulance ride.
He'd been telling the crew that he was starting to feel better. A moment later, he stopped breathing.
His heart had gone into ventricular fibrillation, a dangerous rhythm that makes the heart quiver instead of pumping normally. But thanks to 20 minutes of receiving CPR and nine shocks to his heart, Raycroft pulled through.
As it turned out, Raycroft's cardiac arrest had been caused by a heart attack resulting from the same artery becoming blocked again.
Three Types of Heart Attacks
According to new guidelines released just last month, heart attacks can be divided into three broad groups based on the cause...
- Primary heart attack: Starts with a sudden problem inside a coronary artery, typically when a blood clot forms after plaque in the artery breaks open. This is the type that Raycroft experienced.
- Secondary heart attack: Occurs when some other serious health condition prevents the heart from getting as much oxygen as it needs.
- Procedure-related heart attack: Happens as a complication of a heart procedure.
Previously, heart attacks were split up into five different types with several subtypes, so the new categories are a lot simpler. And the new definition also pays particular attention to women...
For example, the new definition recognizes several heart-attack causes other than cholesterol plaque buildup and blood clots. Those causes include a coronary-artery tear, a severe artery spasm, and an artery blocked by material traveling through the bloodstream... which happen to occur more often in women than in men.
This new definition also includes different guidelines for women and men when measuring troponin levels. Troponin is a protein released into the blood when the heart muscle becomes damaged. Since women generally have lower normal troponin levels, sex-specific cutoffs can help doctors identify heart damage that otherwise could have been missed.
'Hollywood' Heart Attacks
You've probably seen the classic heart-attack depiction on TV or in film, complete with chest grabbing and keeling over. But in real life, heart attacks aren't always so obvious...
Chest pressure, squeezing, fullness, or pain (also called angina) are the most common warning signs. Other symptoms, though, may include the likes of...
- Shortness of breath
- Pain or discomfort in other areas such as the back, neck, jaw, stomach, or arm (like Raycroft experienced)
- Nausea
- Breaking into a cold sweat
- Lightheadedness
- Unusual fatigue
Even sneakier, these symptoms don't necessarily hit you all at once... They can start slowly, feel mild, or, like in Raycroft's case, disappear and return.
Women in particular shouldn't wait to feel dramatic chest pain before seeking medical attention... A 2025 study of more than 3,200 heart-attack patients treated at two emergency departments found that men received an ECG about three minutes sooner than women and were 36% less likely to wait longer than the recommended 10 minutes.
While chest discomfort is still the most common heart-attack symptom in men and women, women are more likely to have symptoms like shoulder-blade pain, nausea, vomiting, and shortness of breath.
The bottom line? When you suspect a heart attack, don't wait. Spring into action and do the following:
- Call 911. Have someone drive you to the hospital if you can't reach emergency responders.
- Ask about aspirin and whether you should take it. Aspirin fights clot formation. That's great if it's a heart attack, but it can make things worse if your symptoms are due to major internal bleeding (like from a stroke or stomach ulcer).
- Take your nitroglycerin medicine if you have a prescription for it.
- Sit down or lie down and try to stay calm.
Most important, don't talk yourself out of getting help just because you're active, otherwise healthy, or your symptoms don't seem "bad enough."
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Here's to our health, wealth, and a great retirement,
Dr. David Eifrig and the Health & Wealth Bulletin Research Team
September 17, 2026