On any given day, you might find yourself in a few situations that make you question whether you’re experiencing the signs of heart problems.
Perhaps you climbed a flight of stairs only to find yourself panting at the top, or it took you slightly (okay, several minutes) longer to finish a run you used to speed through.
Maybe you even noticed your heartbeat racing and thought, ‘Am I out of shape?’, ‘Is it anxiety?’, ‘Or is something more serious going on?’
If you’re younger it’s probably nothing to be concerned about—but in some cases, an underlying cardiovascular issue could be at play.
Heart problems you’re born with, AKA congenital heart defects, can impact how effectively yours can pump blood. And it’s possible to develop coronary artery disease (CAD) – the most common type of heart disease—in your 20s, 30s, or 40s, although it doesn’t happen as often.
That’s when clogged arteries block blood flow to the heart, which can lead to a heart attack (when part of the heart muscle is damaged or dies). There are also other cardiovascular problems, like an irregular heartbeat, called an arrhythmia, or heart failure, meaning your heart can’t pump enough blood to the rest of the body.
Some people live with these issues long before they see a doctor. That’s because you might feel nothing much at all, shrug off symptoms, or—more often if you’re a woman—a health care provider may not take those symptoms seriously or misdiagnose them.
So much so, a new report, published in the journal Heart is demanding action from the NHS after outlining that sexist attitudes mean women are often under-diagnosed, are not involved in enough clinical trials and often do not get the same access to lifesaving treatment because there remains a perception that heart disease is a man’s disease.
Again, feeling like your heart is acting wonky doesn’t always mean you have full-on heart disease.But knowing the (sometimes subtle) signs to watch for can help you spot a problem before it becomes, you know, a really big problem.
Here are six red flags and potential signs of heart problems to be aware of, even if you’re young.
1. You’re feeling exhausted or short of breath for seemingly no reason.
Because your heart pumps life-giving oxygen and nutrients to your body, any slowdown in that process can make you feel like you’re trudging through mud.
Not only that, but when your heart isn’t functioning correctly (particularly in the case of heart failure), fluid can back up in and around your lungs and make it harder to take a deep breath.
Heart disease can show up a little differently depending on who you are, says Nikki Bart, MD, PhD, a heart failure and heart transplant cardiologist at St. Vincent’s Hospital Sydney. “Women are more likely to have more subtle signs,” she tells SELF. “For example, if a woman is going to have a heart attack, she won’t always experience crushing chest pain. She’s much more likely to have shortness of breath and fatigue.”