It's long been medical dogma - because that's what older studies found - that the cardinal sign of a heart attack is chest pain, especially "crushing" pain under the breast bone. Over the last few years, however, spurred on in part by the women's movement, researchers discovered that what happens in the typical middle-aged white man, by far the most common type of patient enrolled in most older heart attack studies, is not necessarily what happens in everyone else - especially women, of course. more >>

• The risk of a heart attack from sex or orgasms
• How can a doctor tell if yo've had a heart attack?
• Steps in heart attack prevention
• Understanding what causes a heart attack

High blood pressure (hypertension) is often called the "silent killer" because people don't feel any different unless their blood pressure is really high, which is partly why most people who have been diagnosed with high blood pressure do not treat it adequately. more >>

• Your blood pressure may be higher than you think
• What causes high blood pressure?
• Why you should know your blood pressure level