February is heart month so we will concentrate on heart disease and take time to educate ourselves about this vital organ. Because seconds count during a heart attack, the lack of knowledge could be deadly.

Many people don’t experience the usual chest pains that often happen with a heart attack and for that reason don’t realize they could be having a heart attack. Forty-three percent of women having a heart attack don’t have any chest pain at all. Because of that they wait longer to go to the ER then men do. Your odds of surviving a heart attack improve by 23 percent if you get treatment within 3 hours and 50 percent if it’s within 1 hour.

 Here are some other heart attack signs:

• Nausea or dizziness or feeling of indigestion
• Mild pain, not in the chest but in the shoulders, back, neck or jaw
• Extreme exhaustion and sometimes breathless
• Dripping with sweat and pale
• Sleeplessness and anxiety
• Tightness, squeezing and heaviness in the chest.

It never hurts to be seen even for mild symptoms as blood tests can be done and an EKG to find out if your heart is in trouble or not.

If symptoms should get severe call 911 immediately. Also keep aspirin handy at home, at work, or in your purse. Chew and swallow one aspirin with water as soon as symptoms start. This can help the blood clotting.

“Life is a gift to all of us. The way we live our lives is our gift to those who come after us. Let’s make our gifts fantastic ones.”