Early Signs Of Heart Attack: When Should You Become Concerned About Excessive Sweating?

Many different signs and symptoms can signal a heart attack. Sadly, some of them also appear in other situations, leading to confusion and a wrong self-diagnosis. Excessive sweating is one such symptom, because it has many different triggers, so people don’t always recognize it as a warning sign of a heart attack.

What causes excessive sweating?

It’s perfectly normal for the body to sweat. In fact, sweat is a natural mechanism that your body uses to regulate temperature, like when you’re feeling extremely hot, or when you’re working out and your body temperature rises. While it’s unpleasant for many, sweat is a very healthy bodily function, but can sometimes be a warning sign for other medical problems.

For a long time, sweat was considered an embarrassment and one that leads to social anxiety in the end. While sweating is normal, excessive sweating means that your body is producing more sweat than normal, compared to the environmental temperature and your current effort level.

If you’re experiencing excessive sweat without an underlying medical condition, it means you have primary hyperhidrosis. It sounds more alarming than it actually is: it just means that the nerves that normally trigger your sweat glands are overactive, causing you to sweat even when not needed. There’s also a good chance that primary hyperhidrosis is hereditary.

Sweating as a sign of heart attack

One particular study revealed that one-third of people who have a heart attack don’t show any signs of chest pain as a primary symptom. The study analyzed 1,073 patients and grouped 12 different symptoms into clusters. They analyzed which of these symptoms were less likely to signal people they were having a heart attack, and thus delaying seeking medical help, while also studying which signs were alarming and caused them to visit the emergency room.

These findings showed that people who experienced several signs of a heart attack at once were more likely to seek help within a period of three hours. Older people were the ones who turned to medical help sooner (about 2.5 hours faster compared to younger adults). It seems that people over the age of 67 begin to feel anxiety and fear about the permanent damage that a heart attack could cause.

The symptoms that alarmed people were dyspnea, confusion, and fainting. The results of this study indicate that people are also alarmed by symptoms other than chest pain, which is believed to be the most convincing sign of a heart attack.

Cold sweating

During a heart attack, some people may experience cold sweating. This is described as sweat accompanied by a chilling sensation in the body, and it’s abnormal because it isn’t triggered by the actual temperature of the surrounding environment.

Generally speaking, cold sweating is related to the body’s fight or flight response. As you’ll read below, most of the problems that are associated with cold sweating eventually lead to improper blood and oxygen circulation inside the body, which in turn leads to a cold sweat.

The body normally sweats during exertion, but cold sweating doesn’t occur when you’re exercising. Cold sweats can be caused by other problems, aside from heart attacks, such as:

• Anxiety and stress. When you’re overwhelmed with emotions like these, the body can prevent oxygen from reaching your brain, which can lead to tension, cold sweating, and tense muscles.
• Migraines. Cold sweats are sometimes triggered by the body responding to pain caused by a migraine. This is a severe type of headache, which can be extended over a longer period of time, and brings forth problems such as confusion, light and sound sensitivity, blurry vision, or difficulty in speaking.
• Infections. Infections and sepsis can both lead to cold sweating. Because your body has to deal with a serious viral or bacterial infection, inflammation is likely to occur, making it difficult for your organs to get the oxygen and nutrients they need.
• Hypotension. Unlike hypertension, hypotension is when a person’s blood pressure levels are too low.
• Hypoglycemia. When your blood sugar drops below a certain level, it causes your body to react the same way it does when it doesn’t have enough oxygen.
• Hypoxia. This is a term used to characterize the lack of oxygen in someone’s organs. This usually occurs when people climb to really high altitudes or inhale a great deal of smoke.
• Menopause. Women of a certain age end their menstrual cycle, and experiences changes in the two hormones called estrogen and progesterone. Cold sweats are one of the most frequent signs of a woman going into menopause, alongside got flashes, insomnia, weight gain, and a decrease in sex drive.
• Shock. When the body goes into shock for whatever reason, it prevents proper blood and oxygen circulation, thus leading to cold sweat.

Conclusion

Sweating is a perfectly normal bodily function, which is needed to regulate temperature when you’re feeling too hot. While it’s normal to sweat when your body wants to cool down or when you’re making an effort, sweating without a reason might be a cause for concern.