Silent heart attacks often go unnoticed: sometimes only recognized years later

Created: 11/19/2022, 7:00 p.m

By: Laura Knops

Chest pain and shortness of breath are typical signs of a heart attack.

But the symptoms are not always so obvious.

Tightness in the chest, severe pain and shortness of breath can indicate a heart attack.

But not every heart attack is immediately recognized as such.

Heart attacks can be clinically completely inconspicuous.

According to doctors, the number of undetected heart attacks is significantly higher than that of detected heart attacks.

But although the symptoms of a silent heart attack are initially mild, such an attack is no less dangerous.

In the long term, those affected suffer from a similarly high risk of death as a typical symptomatic heart attack.

Silent heart attack: those affected often have no symptoms at all

In the case of a silent heart attack, there are no or only very mild symptoms.

Since the symptoms are usually not clear, such a heart attack often goes unnoticed and in some cases is only recognized after days, months or even years.

The consequences are no less dramatic.

Parts of the heart muscle gradually die off due to the circulatory disturbance.

Over the long term, a silent heart attack increases the risk of dying from heart disease by a factor of three.

But although men are much more likely to be affected by a silent heart attack, the diagnosis is more likely to be fatal in women.

A heart attack without symptoms usually goes undetected for a long time.

© Science Photo Library / Imago

In contrast to a classic heart attack, classic symptoms such as severe chest pain, shortness of breath and pain in the arm only rarely occur if the heart attack does not take place.

Complaints that indicate a silent heart attack are usually so unspecific that those affected pay no further attention to them.

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Silent heart attack: Consequences only become noticeable years later

Since the symptoms can also disappear again after some time and only get worse very slowly, those affected usually do not take the first signs seriously.

Affected patients rarely consult a doctor.

However, if the consequential damage goes unnoticed, this can become particularly dangerous in the long term.

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According to the German Heart Foundation, the following complaints are among the typical symptoms of a silent heart attack:

• fatigue

• slight shortness of breath

• malaise

• feeling weak

• dizziness

• unconsciousness

Silent heart attacks are usually detected incidentally.

By then, weeks, months and even years have usually passed.

The German Heart Foundation therefore recommends counteracting risk factors for a heart attack such as obesity, high blood pressure, smoking, lack of exercise and high cholesterol levels as early as possible.

This article only contains general information on the respective health topic and is therefore not intended for self-diagnosis, treatment or medication.

In no way does it replace a visit to the doctor.

Unfortunately, our editors are not allowed to answer individual questions about clinical pictures.