Early Heart Attack Symptoms
Knowing the Symptoms
Could Save a Life

Being aware of early heart attack symptoms could save your life or that of someone you know, especially if you are in a situation where hospitals and doctors are unavailable. Knowing whether someone may be having a heart attack is not hard to determine if you know the signs, and if properly prepared you may even be able to prevent or combat the actual heart attack.

Your action, particularly if you are successful, is also going to raise group morale, ease tensions and return some sense of safety and security to those with you in a time of crisis.

Group Members

When an emergency event occurs, you are likely to take your family and get out of dodge as quickly as possible but along the way, you might run into others also trying to survive. As a result, your group is likely to grow since people feel there is safety in numbers and a larger group means a more diverse skill set, along with a wider array of ideas.

In the event your group does grow beyond your family, it is a good idea to know if anyone has an existing health condition or is on medication. If possible, you should try to stock up on supplies before journeying too far from commercialized areas.

Warning Signs

Once you know the current health conditions of your fellow group members, you can keep an eye on those with existing ailments, particularly those with heart-related illnesses. However, you should keep in mind that anyone can have a heart attack if they experience enough stress and life-changing conditions, such as a drastic change in diet or exercise habits. For this reason, you need to be aware of early heart attack symptoms but most importantly, you need to know that a heart attack can, and often does, occur slowly not instantaneously.

To start, most people having a heart attack are unaware of it, as they attribute the initial minor discomfort or pain to indigestion, a pulled muscle or a cramp. In some cases, the victim might have symptoms most people would never even think to attribute to a heart attack, such as a toothache, headache or pain in the jaw and yet, these are all, at times, early heart attack symptoms. Additionally, people who are having a heart attack may also experience:

• Vomiting or nausea
  
• Sweating
  
• Pain in either arm, though it is more common in the left
  
• Heartburn
  
• Chest pain or pressure
  
• Upper back pain
  
• General feeling of illness
  
• Shortness of breath
  

In some instances, especially among people with diabetes, the victim experiences no early heart attack symptoms at all but when the heart attack occurs, it is just as deadly as in those who do experience symptoms.

Response to Early Heart Attack Symptoms

It would be difficult for even a medical professional to respond to a patient having a heart attack without modern medicines and equipment, but that is not to say the situation is hopeless. For starters, if someone is experiencing signs of a heart attack, give them aspirin, as it thins the blood and eliminates strain from the heart muscles. If you do not have aspirin, you can use cayenne pepper, which thins the blood faster than all other herbs and foods, though turmeric, garlic and apple cider vinegar also work.

Still, these tend to take time to work and if someone is having a heart attack, time is not on their side. For this reason, it is beneficial to not only stock up on or grow these herbs but to also consume small amounts of them per day to prevent the possibility of a heart attack.

Try to keep them cool by removing clothes, providing an ice pack or a cold wet cloth and give them something to drink, preferably a beverage with electrolytes, sodium and potassium, such as Gatorade.

If you are preparing for a disaster, you probably already know or plan to learn CPR, which is another life-saving tactic if you cannot prevent or combat early heart attack symptoms.

Another way you can prepare is by purchasing an automated external defibrillator, or AED, which is a device that sends an electrical charge to the patient’s heart to get it pumping again. Prior to using this device, should you ever need to, you need to know how it works and how to use it properly so that you do not do more damage. Still, having the knowledge and equipment better prepares you for a disaster and should one ever arise, everyone is sure to want someone like you on their team.

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