There are a lot of well-known symptoms of heart attacks, such as radiating or shooting pain up and down the left arm, and severe chest pain. However, there are quite a few other ways in which your body can indicate there is a serious problem going on, possibly with your heart. These are known as hard to recognize heart attack symptoms, not in the least because they can be symptomatic of a variety of other conditions as well. However, there are four so called "silent" heart attack symptoms that you should be aware of. You only have one heart, after all.

4 Hard to Recognize Heart Attack Symptoms:

1. Shortness of breath, which has been studied by The Heart and Vascular Institute at the New York City Lenox Hill Hospital. They found that, in women in particular, shortness of breath would be present for several weeks before they had a heart attack, and this was quite consistent. Physicians now state that if someone is used to being able to complete sudden activities and then suddenly find that it leaves them out of breath, there could be reason for concern.

2. Back pain, particularly irregular pain in the upper and lower back. This can be indicative of problems with the heart muscle.

3. Jaw pain, particularly when it occurs when you start to engage in physical activity. Once people stop exercising and begin to relax, the pain disappears. Many people would initially go to a dentist, but they will be unable to find anything. Unfortunately, this discomfort can be indicative of a heart attack. This is believed to be due to the fact that the nerves of the jaw and the nerves of the heart are located very close to each other. When the heart is under stress, it will send signals to any location it can get to, which can include nerves in the jaw. The back pain described earlier is also part of this, and so is neck pain.

4. Nausea and other flu-like symptoms, which many people experience a few weeks before they have a heart attack. One example of this occurred in 2012 with Rosie O'Donnell, a TV personality, who regurgitated several times before finally suffering a heart attack.

What to Do When Experiencing Hard to Recognize Heart Attack Symptoms:

The advice is very clear: you must learn to trust your instincts. If you notice any of the above symptoms, or you feel out of sorts in any other way, you should travel to your nearest emergency room. It may be nothing, and it is highly likely that your symptoms are linked to something far less sinister. However, even that will need resolving, and there is always that off chance that it is a heart attack, which will require immediate treatment.

Consider, for a moment, that 90% of patients who have had a heart attack will say, afterwards, that they knew all along that there was something wrong with their heart. This really shows that people need to learn to go to the doctor.