Heartburn or Indigestion
People often experience minor indigestion and other gastrointestinal symptoms before a heart attack. However, heart attacks are more common among the elderly, who also tend to have more indigestion issues, so these symptoms are often written off as heartburn or something else connected to eating.
A case where 40% of heart attack patients admitted to a Cardiac Monitoring Unit had been misdiagnosed as “indigestion” by the patients and their doctors.
Heartburn and heart attacks are challenging to distinguish despite having different causes. For example, heart attacks may cause GERD-like symptoms such as nausea, burping, and vomiting. Burning pain or discomfort in the chest may also be another indication.
According to Dr. Bauman, medical director at INTEGRIS Health Systems, if you belch and the symptoms go away, it is likely not connected to your heart but to your esophagus. However, you probably have a heart attack if other symptoms are present, such as breathlessness and sweating.
In this circumstance, the symptoms almost seldom appear on their own; instead, they are almost always accompanied by additional symptoms evident during a heart attack. Dr. Hogan added that if ‘heartburn’ doesn’t occur around eating, a person should anticipate heart problems.
