11 signs you might be headed for a heart attack

There are many risk factors that can affect your chances of having a heart attack, ranging from your family health history to so many of the lifestyle choices you make. A few of these ­– like your genetics and your age ­– are out of your control. But you have lots of influence over many behaviours that can affect your risk of heart disease.

Some of the major risk factors for heart attack are smoking, being overweight, not getting enough exercise, type 2 diabetes, and eating a diet that’s not heart healthy. That means an unhealthy eating pattern over time, including consuming too many kilojoules, sugary foods and drinks, as well as not choosing healthy fats over saturated fat.

But some behaviours might not be so obvious. Maybe you get mad easily or you spend most of your time in front of a computer. Or it could simply be that you live in a smoggy place or don’t get enough sleep every night.

These are some things that are associated with a higher risk of heart attack, rather than a proven cause. (They’re not the same as risk factors, like diet.)  However, the more of these things that you do, the more your risk may add up.

Tend to morph into the Incredible Hulk when you’re upset? Those fiery emotions may increase your risk for a heart attack, according to research published in 2015 in the European Heart Journal.

Researchers at the University of Australia questioned 313 patients who had suspected heart attacks about their anger levels before the onset of symptoms. They found that patients were 8.5 times more likely to have a heart attack in the two hours following an intense outburst of anger, defined as ‘very angry, body tense, clenching fists or teeth’ compared with other times when they were less angry.

The findings suggest that if you have an episode of intense anger, it could increase your risk of heart attack in the subsequent hours.

Read on to find out how to argue healthily with your partner.

Yes, that includes working on your computer. A study published in the Journal of the American College of Cardiology in 2011 found that people who watch TV or work on a computer for four or more hours a day have more than double the risk of a cardiovascular disease event, like a heart attack, than those who spend less than two hours looking at a screen.

Long periods of sitting deplete the body’s supply of lipoprotein lipase, an enzyme that breaks down fat and prevents clogged arteries. If you spend most of your day plopped behind a desk, take a brief walk after every 20 minutes or try a standing desk. You can burn 30 per cent more kilojoules when you stand than when you sit.

Many adults struggle to get the recommended seven to nine hours of sleep each night, but consistently missing that mark could be bad for your heart. A study published in the Scandinavian Journal of Work, Environment & Health found that Japanese men who got less than six hours of sleep were five times more likely to have a heart attack than men who slept seven or eight hours a night.

This is what happens to your body when you don’t get enough sleep.

Smog is just as bad for your heart as it is for your lungs. For a 2016 study published in Environment International, researchers used hourly aid pollution measurements in South Boston to determine how exposure to particulate matter (small combustion particles that come from fuel burning and vehicle emissions) affected patients in this area who had heart attacks.

They found that exposure to high concentrations of air pollution increased the likelihood of a heart by 48 per cent in the two hours before patients first experienced heart attack symptoms. The risk went up to 69 per cent when people were exposed to high levels of air pollution for 24 hours before the onset of symptoms.

Several studies have found that the risk of heart attack goes up the first few days after daylight saving time starts. A study by Swedish researchers found about a 6.7 per cent greater risk of a heart attack in the first three days after we spring forward. US researchers tracked hospital records and found a 24 per cent increase in heart attacks on the Monday after the spring time change. The risk slowly dropped the rest of the week.

Since the total heart attack counts for those weeks were not drastically different from other weeks, researchers determined that the time changes didn’t necessarily make the heart attacks happen, but rather made them likely to occur sooner than they otherwise would have. This is probably due to disrupted sleep-wake cycles and increased stress at the start of a new week of work.

Duke University School of Medicine conducted an 18-year-study of nearly 16,000 men and women between the ages of 45 and 80 who had been married at least once. Every two years, researchers assessed the participants’ material status and overall health.

Divorced women were 25 per cent more likely to have a heart attack than those who stayed married. Women who had two or more divorces were 77 per cent more likely to have a heart attack.

As for the men, the risk of heart attack stayed the same regardless of whether they were married or divorced – at first. But if they divorced at least twice, their heart attack risk increased by 30 per cent.

Don’t miss these secret signs your marriage is headed for divorce.

Studies show that both extreme cold and extreme heat can put people at risk for heart attacks. Using data from cardiac patients in the Worcester Heart Attack Study, a study in the journal Epidemiology found that exposure to temperatures lower than -8°C in the two days prior to a heart attack increased patients’ risk by 36 per cent.

On the other end of the spectrum, British researchers found that once the temperature reaches 20°C, each increase of 1°C increased the risk of heart attack by 2 per cent over the next one to six hours.

Having a flood, bushfire or earthquake devastate your area not only affects you mentally and emotionally but physically as well. Researchers at Tulane Medical Center in New Orleans studied the number of patients that were admitted with heart-related problems in the years after Hurricane Katrina hit the area in 2005.

They found that the number of people admitted to the hospital for heart attacks increased three-fold in the 10 years after Katrina, compared to the number of admissions in 2003 and 2004. Patients were also more likely to have heart attack risk factors after the hurricane, including high blood pressure, coronary artery disease and diabetes.

Check out these tips for keeping your pet safe during a natural disaster.

The three or more years you spend in university may be good for more than a diploma. A study published in the International Journal for Equity in Health analysed data from more than 267,000 Australian men and women.

The results showed that people with no certifications or degrees were more than twice at risk of a heart attack compared to those with a university degree or higher. Bottom line: the more time you spend in school, the lower your risk for a heart attack.