Heart disease remains the leading cause of death worldwide, claiming millions of lives each year. Among its most devastating manifestations is cardiac arrest—a sudden, unexpected stoppage of heart function that, if not treated immediately, is almost always fatal. Recent research has illuminated a crucial, often overlooked fact: the warning signs of cardiac arrest can differ between men and women. Recognizing these differences is not just a matter of academic interest; it can mean the difference between life and death.

Cardiac arrest is often sudden, silent, and deadly — claiming more lives globally than most people realize. But a growing body of research shows that its early warning signs may not be the same for everyone. Specifically, men and women often experience different symptoms before cardiac arrest occurs — and recognizing these differences may mean the difference between life and death.

Sometimes called sudden cardiac arrest, occurs when the heart abruptly stops beating. This cessation halts blood flow to the brain and other vital organs, causing a person to lose consciousness within seconds. Without rapid intervention, such as cardiopulmonary resuscitation (CPR) or use of an automated external defibrillator (AED), death can occur within minutes.

Unlike a heart attack—which is caused by a blockage in the arteries supplying the heart—cardiac arrest is primarily an electrical problem. The heart’s rhythm becomes dangerously abnormal, most commonly due to ventricular fibrillation, causing it to quiver instead of pumping blood effectively.

A recent study published in The Lancet Digital Health has revealed groundbreaking findings that could reshape how we understand and respond to cardiac arrest. Researchers have now confirmed that while chest pain is the most prominent pre-symptom in men, women often experience shortness of breath in the hours leading up to a cardiac arrest episode. The data comes from community-based studies including the PRESTO study in California and the SUDS study in Oregon, which collectively examined how sex-specific symptoms could be harnessed to improve early detection and survival.

According to the study, half of all individuals who experience sudden cardiac arrest have a warning symptom within 24 hours prior to the event. However, these symptoms are not uniform across genders. For women, shortness of breath emerged as the most prominent warning sign, while men most commonly reported chest pain. Other symptoms, such as palpitations, flu-like sensations, and even seizures, were also noted in a smaller subset of patients.

Shortness of Breath vs Chest Pain

In the recent study, researchers found that over 50% of individuals who suffered cardiac arrest had at least one warning symptom within 24 hours. Men most commonly reported chest pain, while women more frequently experienced shortness of breath. A smaller percentage of both groups experienced palpitations, flu-like symptoms, or seizures.

“This is the first community-based study to evaluate sex-specific warning symptoms using real-time emergency medical service (EMS) documentation,” said Eduardo Marbán, Executive Director at the Smidt Heart Institute.

Dr. Sumeet Chugh, the study’s lead investigator, emphasized the impact: “Harnessing these symptoms could guide who needs immediate emergency response. That insight could change survival rates.”

What Exactly Is Cardiac Arrest?

Cardiac arrest, sometimes confused with a heart attack, occurs when the heart stops beating abruptly due to an electrical malfunction. This sudden stoppage halts blood flow to the brain and other vital organs, often causing loss of consciousness within seconds. If not treated immediately — typically through CPR or defibrillation — death can occur within minutes.

It’s different from a heart attack, which is caused by a blockage in the coronary arteries. However, heart attacks can trigger cardiac arrest by disrupting the heart’s electrical system.

Cardiac Arrest vs. Heart Attack

The terms “heart attack” and “cardiac arrest” are often used interchangeably, but they refer to distinct medical emergencies. A heart attack is caused by a blockage that prevents blood from reaching a part of the heart muscle, leading to tissue damage. Cardiac arrest, on the other hand, is an electrical malfunction that causes the heart to stop beating altogether.

While a heart attack can increase the risk of cardiac arrest—by disrupting the heart’s electrical system—not all cardiac arrests are preceded by a heart attack. Other causes include arrhythmias, enlarged heart (cardiomyopathy), severe blood loss, valvular heart disease, and electrolyte imbalances.

Why Younger People Are at Increasing Risk?

The rise in sudden cardiac deaths among young adults is particularly concerning. While some cases are linked to undiagnosed heart conditions such as hypertrophic cardiomyopathy or ventricular arrhythmias, others may be triggered by intense exercise, drug use, or even severe viral infections. These factors can cause the heart to beat irregularly or stop altogether, often without warning. Several factors are contributing to the alarming rise in heart disease and sudden cardiac arrests among young adults:

Genetics and lifestyle: While you can’t change your genes, factors like smoking, poor diet, lack of exercise, and unmanaged stress play significant roles in heart health.

Steroid abuse: Especially among gym-goers and bodybuilders, the use of steroids and growth hormones can damage heart muscles and disrupt rhythms.

Undiagnosed conditions: Conditions like hypertrophic cardiomyopathy or dilated cardiomyopathy (often linked to viral infections like COVID-19) may go unnoticed until it's too late.

Post-COVID heart risks: Myocarditis and lung fibrosis can lower oxygen supply and impair heart function, increasing cardiac vulnerability.

Severe stress: Though rare, emotional trauma can induce cardiac events, especially in those with pre-existing conditions.

Recognizing the Symptoms Before It’s Too Late

For women, these symptoms may present more subtly — and are more likely to be mistaken for stress or anxiety. That’s why public health messaging must evolve to include gender-specific information. While some cardiac arrests strike without any warning, many cases are preceded by symptoms that are often misread or dismissed:

• Chest pain or tightness
• Shortness of breath
• Palpitations or irregular heartbeat
• Fainting or dizziness
• Extreme fatigue
• Nausea or stomach pain
• Sudden sweating or lightheadedness

What You Can Do Today to Prevent Cardiac Arrest?

Preventing cardiac arrest begins with understanding your risk factors and taking proactive steps to protect your heart health. Experts recommend the following:

Routine screening: Start annual checks for blood pressure, cholesterol, and blood sugar levels after age 18.

Know your numbers: Aim for total cholesterol <200 mg/dL, LDL <100 mg/dL, fasting glucose <100 mg/dL, and blood pressure <130/80 mmHg.

Get vaccinated and treated for viral infections: Viruses like COVID-19 can lead to myocarditis and long-term heart damage.

Stop smoking and avoid exposure to secondhand smoke.

Maintain physical activity but with caution. People over 40 or with a family history should consult a doctor before starting high-intensity workouts.

As cardiac events among young people rise and symptoms continue to vary across genders, researchers believe integrating biometric data, wearable tech, and AI-powered health tools can offer early detection solutions in the near future.

United States has seen a nearly 90% drop in heart attack deaths since 1970, thanks to decades of medical advancements and aggressive prevention efforts. However, this victory masks a darker trend: a steep rise in deaths from other, more complex forms of heart disease. According to a new study by Stanford University, Americans are now dying in greater numbers from conditions like heart failure, arrhythmias, and high blood pressure-induced heart disease—silent killers that are surging while heart attack deaths decline.

Back in 1970, 91% of all heart-related deaths were caused by ischemic heart disease—conditions primarily linked to blocked arteries and culminating in heart attacks. By 2022, that number had dropped to 53%, with acute heart attack deaths falling from 354 per 100,000 to just 40 per 100,000.

What fueled this change? The answer is medical innovation and public health progress. The 1960s and 1970s brought the first wave of change, as emergency responders learned CPR, hospitals opened specialized cardiac care units, and doctors began using coronary angiography to map blockages in the heart’s arteries. The introduction of balloon angioplasty in 1977 allowed doctors to physically open clogged arteries, saving countless lives.

The following decades saw the arrival of clot-busting drugs, coronary stents, and cholesterol-lowering statins. Aspirin therapy became standard for heart attack patients. By the 2000s, “door-to-balloon” protocols ensured that patients received life-saving treatment within 90 minutes of hospital arrival. Meanwhile, public health campaigns slashed smoking rates from 40% in 1970 to just 14% by 2019, and doctors became more aggressive in controlling blood pressure and cholesterol.

Why Are Deaths Surging from Other Heart Conditions?

This success came with consequences, the Stanford study, published in the Journal of the American Heart Association, analyzed over 37 million heart disease deaths across five decades. While ischemic heart disease deaths plunged, deaths from other cardiovascular causes surged by 81% overall.

Heart Failure

Heart failure deaths have increased by a staggering 146% since 1970. Heart failure occurs when the heart muscle, often weakened by a previous heart attack or years of high blood pressure, can no longer pump blood efficiently. Patients may survive the initial cardiac event, but face years—sometimes decades—of chronic illness, frequent hospitalizations, and a gradual decline in quality of life.

The rise in heart failure is partly a consequence of longer life expectancy. In 1970, the average American lived to 70.9 years; by 2022, that figure had climbed to 77.5. More people are surviving their first heart attack, but the damage to their heart often sets the stage for future problems.

Dangerous Arrhythmias

Perhaps most striking is the 450% increase in deaths from arrhythmias—disorders that cause the heart to beat too fast, too slow, or erratically. Many arrhythmias are survivable with prompt treatment, but some, like ventricular fibrillation, can be instantly fatal if not treated within minutes. As more people live with damaged or weakened hearts, the risk of developing life-threatening rhythm disturbances rises.

Hypertensive Heart Disease

Deaths from hypertensive heart disease—heart problems caused by years of uncontrolled high blood pressure—have jumped 106% since 1970. High blood pressure silently damages the heart’s structure and blood vessels over time, leading to heart failure, arrhythmias, and sudden cardiac death. Today, almost half of American adults have high blood pressure, up from 30% in 1978.

People are living longer and surviving their first heart attack—but this extended lifespan means their weakened hearts face greater long-term stress, eventually leading to chronic conditions that are harder to manage and treat.

Why A New Cardiac Crisis Looming in US?

The decline in heart attacks has ushered in a new era of complex, chronic heart disease—one that reflects the long shadow of survival.

Dr. Sara King, lead author of the Stanford study, explains, “There have been great strides made in helping people survive initial acute cardiac events that were once considered a death sentence. But this evolution also means we’re seeing more patients dying of conditions like heart failure and arrhythmia years later.”

This shift underscores a critical reality: Surviving a heart attack is not the end of the battle. It’s often the beginning of a lifelong struggle with a heart compromised by disease and further burdened by modern lifestyle challenges.

While we’ve outpaced one killer, we’ve inadvertently empowered three others. The study shows a direct correlation between rising chronic diseases and the surge in non-heart-attack cardiac deaths:

• Obesity rates have skyrocketed from 15% in the 1970s to over 40% in 2022.
• Nearly 1 in 2 American adults now has type 2 diabetes or prediabetes.
• High blood pressure, a silent but deadly force, is present in nearly 50% of U.S. adults, up from just 30% in 1978.

These three conditions fuel the development of heart failure and arrhythmias, compounding long-term cardiac risk even in those who never experience a traditional heart attack.

Improved diagnostic tools have also contributed to the numbers. Conditions like heart failure with preserved ejection fraction—where the heart pumps normally but fills inefficiently—and pulmonary hypertension—high blood pressure in the lungs—are now more readily diagnosed.

While early detection is essential, it also reveals just how widespread and complicated these cardiac conditions have become.

How to Protect and Prevent Modern Heart Conditions?

As the nature of heart disease evolves, so too must our approach to prevention. The American Heart Association’s “Life’s Essential 8” offers a blueprint for reducing risk: eat a healthy diet, manage weight, quit smoking, exercise regularly, improve sleep, and control cholesterol, blood pressure, and blood sugar. These steps are more important than ever, not just for preventing heart attacks, but for reducing the risk of the chronic conditions that now claim so many lives.

Eat healthy: Emphasize whole foods, low sodium, and healthy fats.

Be active: Aim for at least 150 minutes of moderate exercise weekly.

Quit smoking: Tobacco remains a top preventable cause of heart disease.

Manage weight: Obesity is a strong predictor of heart failure and diabetes.

Control cholesterol: Statins and lifestyle changes can dramatically reduce plaque buildup.

Reduce blood pressure: Early treatment can prevent hypertensive heart disease.

Lower blood sugar: Address prediabetes before it leads to full-blown disease.

Sleep well: Quality sleep is increasingly recognized as vital for heart health.

Public health experts also stress the need for better management of chronic diseases like diabetes and hypertension, as well as continued investment in heart disease research and innovation.

Supporting brain health isn’t just about preventing memory loss later in life—it's also about improving overall wellbeing, reducing the risk of stroke, and even managing cholesterol and blood pressure.

The good news is that there are simple, everyday actions that can strengthen the brain and help protect it from conditions like dementia. A professor of neurology at UCL and chief medical officer at Alzheimer's Research UK, as reported by SurreyLive, shares six effective ways to boost your brain this summer.

Keep Learning Something New

Challenging your brain with new skills helps strengthen neural connections and build what experts call "cognitive reserve." This means your brain becomes more resilient to the changes and damage that come with age. Whether it’s learning a language, picking up a musical instrument, or even trying a new hobby like painting or knitting, continuous learning keeps the brain flexible and adaptive.

The key is to choose something enjoyable. If it feels like a chore, you’re unlikely to stick with it. Sustained engagement in a skill encourages repeated use of specific brain areas, reinforcing those connections and helping your brain stay sharp over time.

Make Movement a Daily Habit

Exercise benefits both body and mind. It lowers risk factors like high blood pressure, high cholesterol, and obesity—all of which are linked to cognitive decline. Physical activity also improves mood, energy levels, and sleep quality, all of which contribute to better brain health.

Ideally, aim for some form of movement every day. This could include brisk walking, cycling, swimming, or even dancing. For maximum benefit, try to engage in more vigorous activity—something that raises your heart rate—for at least 20 minutes, three to four times a week.

Take Regular Walks

You don’t have to be a marathon runner to protect your brain. Even light-to-moderate physical activity like walking has significant long-term benefits. Walking regularly supports circulation, heart health, and brain function. It’s a low-impact, sustainable way to stay active, especially for those who are new to exercise or managing joint issues.

Walking outdoors also offers mood-boosting benefits, and doing it with a friend or in a group adds a valuable social dimension, which also helps protect cognitive health.

Stay Socially Connected

Maintaining strong social ties can be as important as diet and exercise when it comes to brain health. Social isolation has been linked to a higher risk of dementia and cognitive decline. Regular interaction with family, friends, or community groups helps keep the brain engaged and offers emotional support, feedback, and a way to gauge your mental sharpness.

Whether it’s meeting a friend for coffee, joining a club, or simply making a phone call, consistent connection with others plays a powerful role in keeping the mind active.

Monitor Your Blood Pressure

High blood pressure is a major contributor to vascular damage in the brain, which can lead to strokes, cognitive impairment, and forms of dementia. Managing blood pressure early—especially in your 30s and 40s—has a significant impact on brain health later in life.

Regular blood pressure checks, a heart-healthy diet, stress management, and exercise all contribute to keeping blood vessels strong and reducing the risk of long-term brain damage.

Use Brain Health Tools for Personal Insights

There are simple online tools available to help assess your brain health. These digital check-ins typically ask questions about lifestyle factors such as diet, physical activity, alcohol use, smoking, and sleep habits. Based on your responses, they offer personalized recommendations to improve your brain health over time.

Every night, you check your sleep tracker hoping for that perfect score—only to wake up feeling more tired than rested. Sound familiar? In our quest to optimize everything—steps walked, calories burned, hours slept—we’ve turned health tracking into a full-time job. But while these devices promise better health, they may be quietly sabotaging our sleep. As it turns out, obsessing over numbers could be fueling a new form of insomnia—and your smart watch might be part of the problem.

In a culture obsessed with optimization, the wearables we once praised for boosting wellness may now be quietly sabotaging it. As health tracking becomes more pervasive and personal, an unexpected consequence is emerging: insomnia. Increasing evidence suggests that over-tracking our health—particularly sleep—is rewiring our brains to be more anxious, not more aligned.

While technology has allowed us to bridge gaps between medical monitoring and daily habits, it's also intensified our need for control, turning once-intuitive processes like sleeping into anxiety-laden performance metrics.

In just over a decade, wearable tech has gone from a niche fitness tool to a daily ritual. Smartwatches, fitness rings, calorie-tracking apps, heart rate monitors, and meditation platforms are now mainstream. For many, tracking steps, calories, and sleep cycles has become as routine as brushing teeth. According to a recent market report, over 400 million wearable devices were sold globally in 2024 alone.

The benefits are well-documented: a 2020 meta-analysis revealed fitness trackers increased daily activity by 1,800 steps on average. Continuous glucose monitors and ECG-enabled devices have empowered users to detect conditions early. But that same monitoring—when taken to the extreme—can flip into obsession.

Why is Over-Tracking a Problem?

Why do we track everything? For many, the drive comes from a desire for control in an uncertain world. When our health data is at our fingertips, it creates an illusion of mastery. But this constant self-surveillance can backfire.

Many of us mentally convert these tools from speedometers to judges, instead of neutral data, we start interpreting metrics as measures of our worth.

And herein lies the problem: tracking tools can trigger the brain’s threat-response system when we "fail" to meet goals. Not hitting your daily sleep score, breaking a meditation streak, or seeing a drop in heart rate variability can feel like failure. This stress can lead to hypervigilance, a known contributor to insomnia.

Why is Sleep The Most Tracked and Most Disturbed?

Of all tracked metrics, sleep is perhaps the most impacted. Ironically, those who obsessively monitor their sleep often report worse rest than those who don’t.

This condition even has a name: orthosomnia—a sleep disorder characterized by anxiety caused by trying too hard to sleep well, often triggered by the pursuit of perfect sleep data. When you’re constantly checking whether you slept well, you're already creating sleep anxiety. Sleep is meant to be automatic. Tracking turns it into a task.

Tracking health can lead to what psychologists call "displacement control"—where control is exerted in one measurable area (like steps or calories) to compensate for larger life uncertainties. For instance, someone feeling anxious about job instability may over-monitor their sleep and food intake, falsely believing that optimization here will lead to control elsewhere.

Moreover, wearables often misclassify sleep stages, leading to unnecessary worry. Many clients think they’re not getting deep sleep because their tracker said so, even if they feel rested.

When Tracking Becomes Harmful?

Not sure if you’ve crossed the line? Watch out for these signs:

• Feeling anxious when you forget your wearable or app
• Needing to validate a workout or meditation session with data
• Changing lifestyle choices solely to optimize metrics
• Worsening sleep or stress despite health-focused habits
• Experiencing guilt or shame when goals aren’t met

Healthy Habits to Avoid Over tracking Your Health

1. Take Intentional Tracking Breaks

Schedule device-free days. Go for a walk without counting steps. Eat without logging calories. Sleep without checking your "score." Reconnect with how your body feels rather than what data says.

2. Focus on Function, Not Perfection

Your sleep tracker should guide improvement, not demand perfection. Take metrics as suggestions, not mandates.

3. Learn About Sleep, Don’t Fear It

Understanding normal sleep patterns can prevent panic. For instance, 50% of sleep is light sleep—and that’s perfectly normal. It’s also healthy to take 20–30 minutes to fall asleep.

4. Ditch the Sleep Obsession

You don't need a device to sleep well. Maintain consistent sleep and wake times, limit screen exposure before bed, and avoid stimulants late in the day.

5. Redefine Success

Rather than focusing on streaks or scores, define success by how your habits impact your energy, mood, and life quality.

What About the Benefits of Tracking?

Wearable tech isn’t inherently harmful—it’s the way we use it that matters. When mindfully integrated, it offers helpful insights. Experts agree the best use of trackers is as feedback tools, not judgment tools.

Experts suggest using sleep data to see trends, not fixate on nightly stats. If a trend shows you sleep better on days you meditate or eat early, use that info to enhance—not control—your habits.

As AI continues to evolve, the next wave of health tech may shift toward emotional intelligence—offering mental wellness insights and personalized coaching rather than rigid metrics. Until then, the responsibility lies with us to set boundaries.

We’re still learning how to live in harmony with tech. It’s not about rejecting the tools but about reclaiming the authority they slowly chip away from us. You don’t need to monitor every heartbeat to live a healthy life. Sleep, eat, move, and breathe with balance. Trust that your body, not your data, knows what wellness feels like.