People with unusual shortness of breath are more likely to die from heart disease than those with angina (pain beneath the breastbone, for example on exertion), or with no symptoms, say researchers at the Cedars-Sinai Medical Center, California. They followed up 17,991 people who’d had heart tests. Those with breathlessness but no heart disease were four times as likely as those with no symptoms to die from a heart problem in the next few years. And their risk of sudden cardiac death was more than twice that of those with angina. If you get unusuallly breathless, ask your GP if you need an exercise tolerance test to see how exertion affects your heart. If tests indicate heart disease, make lifestyle changes, and consider taking medication (eg, to lower high cholesterol and blood pressure, and thin blood).
07
Mar
