Symptom 4: Sweating and Cold Sweats: Unusual Responses to a Heart Attack
Sweating, or specifically, breaking out in a cold sweat, can be a subtle sign of a heart attack. This form of perspiration, unrelated to physical exertion or external temperature, can be particularly unsettling. Picture yourself sitting calmly in a cool room, but your body is acting as though you’re running a marathon under the hot sun.
This ‘cold sweat’ presents as a sudden, clammy sweat that leaves the skin moist and cold. Unlike regular sweat that often occurs under the arms or on the palms and soles, cold sweat can be more generalized, drenching the entire body. It is an excessive sweating that seems out of proportion to the environment or the individual’s activity level.
The body’s response to this is interesting. In an attempt to counter the clamminess, goosebumps might appear, resulting in a peculiar combination of sweating and chills. This combination is an unusual one, absent in regular perspiration induced by heat or exercise, thus serving as a potential clue to underlying heart trouble.
Moreover, this intense sweating can also be episodic, meaning it could occur in sudden, transient bursts rather than as a continuous stream. For instance, an individual might experience an abrupt ‘hot flash,’ during which they break out into a sweat, only for it to resolve a few minutes later, leaving them as abruptly chilly as they were hot a moment ago. (4)
