Symptom 2. Shortness of Breath: Your Body’s SOS Signal
Breathlessness or shortness of breath, known medically as dyspnea, is another crucial symptom not to be dismissed. It’s that feeling you get when you’ve run a marathon, but instead, you’ve just walked up a flight of stairs or done another low-intensity activity.
A healthy body should accomplish these tasks without leaving you panting. Therefore, experiencing breathlessness during everyday activities or when you lie down can point to underlying heart trouble. When the heart isn’t pumping efficiently, it struggles to meet the body’s oxygen demands, causing you to gasp for breath.
Shortness of breath can indicate several heart-related conditions. It’s often a sign of heart failure, which means your heart isn’t pumping blood as well as it should. It can also be a warning sign of an arrhythmia (abnormal heart rhythm) or even a heart attack.
The symptom could also show up when you’re at rest or sleeping, prompting you to wake up gasping for breath. This form of breathlessness is known as paroxysmal nocturnal dyspnea. It can indicate that fluid is building up in your lungs, often a symptom of left-sided heart failure. (2)
