Tune Into Your Body to Avoid a Heart Attack

By Genevieve Smith

While this may not be a fun topic to think about (reading up on it made me anxious, not gonna lie), it may be one of the most important articles you read today. This one may be a lifesaver.

Sue Palmer, 46, woke up in the early morning hours with sudden nausea, but there was more to it. Her experience is one worth paying attention to; if it could happen to her, it could happen to you. She recently published her story in the Washington Post.

She writes: 

"I suddenly became wide awake at 5 a.m. Within about 30 seconds I rushed to the bathroom and threw up. I felt very cold and climbed back into bed with my husband. A minute later, though, I knew I was going to be sick again." 

Sue wrote off her symptoms as the early onset of a passing illness, and didn’t want to make much of it. Her husband Tim worried otherwise. His father had passed away from a heart attack at age 64, so Tim was alert to Sue's potential symptoms. He decided to drive his wife to the nearest emergency room.

A doctor asked her to describe her illness. She had no chest pain. She didn’t smoke; her cholesterol was normal; her family had no history of heart problems. The doctor commented that she looked healthy, was not overweight, was in good shape. He decided to do a second EKG.

While the results of the first test appeared to be only slightly abnormal, the feedback from the second EKG was far more serious. Doctors rushed her into surgery. The next thing she remembers is waking up in an unfamiliar room.

Sue was informed that when she had arrived she, indeed, had been been in the middle of a serious heart attack:

"Plaque had ruptured in the wall of my right coronary artery, which caused the clot to form and can produce the sort of nausea that made me throw up. That was my only warning sign."

Take No Chances

Sue shared her story in The Post as a cautionary tale to others. Had it not been for her husband’s keen sense that something else may have been at play, Sue admits she would have gone back to sleep.

While it can seem overwhelming to address an unknown and sudden illness (nobody wants to feel like they are overreacting), this story is a wake up call to how important it is to be in tune with your body and react swiftly, and precautionarily, to sudden changes. You’ll be glad you did.

To learn more about your health and wellness, see your local chiropractor at The Joint Chiropractic.