Women and heart attacks

Heart disease remains the number one cause of death in this country, among men and women. But the symptoms of a heart attack are often quite different between the two sexes. So would you know what a heart attack feels like?

You may be surprised.

Jo Blacketor is well known in the South Bend community. She was an outspoken member of the South Bend School Board and just this past year she ran for state representative.

These days, she has a new campaign and a new lease on life. At age 49, Jo Blacketor survived a heart attack.

"I didn't know when I had the heart attack that I was having it until certain symptoms became pretty obvious," she says.

Jo and thousands of women like her assume that all heart attacks will give you these classic symptoms:

• Chest pain
  
• Heaviness in the chest
  
• Shortness of breath
  

For Jo, it was different. "I had like stretched muscles in my back, I kind of felt like I'd pulled a shoulder muscle the left shoulder muscle so I kind of let it go."

Jo's pains got worse. She also had pain in her jaw and neck and arm. Remembering a strong family history of heart disease, Jo knew she had to get to the ER.

Her cardiologist, Dr. John Katsarapolous, explains, "The common symptoms are chest pressure, heaviness, shortness of breath in men and women. But in women, more complain of palpitations and fatigue shortness. They are less likely to have the classic chest pain in the center of the chest. Shoulder pain, arm pain, neck pain jaw pain."

Dr. Katsarapolous goes on to say, "More and more women I run into, they put themselves on the back shelf. You need to put yourself on the front shelf or you won't be around to be the kind of mother, daughter or woman that you want to be. "

Both men and women typically suffer from the following symptoms when they have a heart attack:

• Chest pressure
  
• Heaviness in the chest
  
• Shortness of breath
  

Only women typically complain of the following symptoms when having a heart attack:

• Palpations
  
• Fatigue
  
• Shoulder pain
  
• Arm pain
  
• Neck pain
  
• Jaw pain