In March of 2025, I experienced a heart attack with non traditional symptoms. There was no chest pain, there was no shortness of breath. Instead, I had sudden onset intense fatigue and burping (but I have an hiatal hernia and this was not unusual). I did have some mild pain in my left shoulder but – immediately before the heart attack I was doing shoulder stretches for impingement syndrome and it felt exactly like the usual impingement syndrome issue (and may have been that).
We returned to our town – and I passed out for a couple of minutes driving back into town. My wife took me to our local small town ER, where I walked in on my own. They quickly triaged me (wasn’t busy, fortunately), said there was something wrong with my heart and rushed me into the ER where a rapid response team came from everywhere. A battery of tests later, I was loaded onto a medical helicopter and airlifted to the cath lab at a regional medical center, 23 miles away. The cath team was waiting for me and probably had the procedure underway within 3 minutes of my being taken out of the helicopter.
After discharge from the hospital they hand you an inch thick set of paperwork covering medication, diet, lifestyle issues you must address – even if you were already doing those.
The implication is if you had only been doing these “right things” you would not have a heart attack. This message is reinforced every day by media that run stories saying “Eat these 3 things to avoid blocked arteries.” and so on.
The result is we blame the patient. Yet diet, for most, is a tiny factor – if any at all. But it does a wonderful job of shaming the patient.
The result is that many, if not most patients, feel shame, humiliation and embarrassment. This feeling of embarrassment may even extend to their family members – embarrassed by the failures of their family member.
The moment you’re labeled a “heart patient,” something changes. You may feel smaller. Fragile. Like you’ve failed in some way.
And in that quiet shift, for so many people, there’s one emotion that rises up before anything else: shame.
That shame doesn’t come from your heart. It comes from the story we’ve been told about heart disease.
That’s the stigma, and it’s time we break it.
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When people internalize the idea that their diagnosis is solely their fault, they carry unnecessary self-judgment.
Blame and shame are a normal, human response, but they’re not productive.
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Heart Disease Is Not a Moral Failure
If you only take one thing away, I want you to know this: heart disease is not a moral failure. It’s not proof that you didn’t try hard enough or a sign you’re weak.
Let’s Talk About the Shame No One Mentions After a Heart Diagnosis | Hello Heart Blog
No surprise, patients feel ashamed and embarrassed. We are flawed individuals deserving of scorn.
This issue is now well known – but the media morons perpetuate with their dumb fluff pieces written by English Lit majors who know nothing.
The media pushes this nonsense that causes harm to heart patients.
It is suggested that post heart attack patients respond by saying ‘My cardiologist did not find I did anything wrong” – which is the case for me.
My cardiologist said she saw nothing in my records or background that indicated I was going to have a heart attack. Ten years of medical records, annual lipid profiles, blood pressure readings, a carotid artery ultrasound, a prior echo stress test and an echo cardio gram done to understand my migraine/visual aura/scotoma issue (found to be caused by B-12 deficiency). The last echo done just 9 weeks before my heart attack said my heart was normal for my age.
BUT – per the media – having a heart attack was my fault. If only I’d eaten avocadoes six years ago … or something.
Another way to see the absurdity of these news articles is to note that relatively few people have heart attacks – estimated at perhaps 6% of the population will have one or more heart attacks. That implies the other 90+% are doing everything right? (About half the US population is estimated to eventually have some form of heart disease – but most will not have heart attacks.)
You can read about more of the post heart attack mental health issues here: The emotional aftermath of a heart attack – Harvard Health and Effects of a Heart Attack on Mental Health.
Note – in the following chart risk factors overlaps so this will not sum to 100%. The highest risk factors are high blood pressure, smoking, diabetes and high cholesterol (notably LDL). The other risk factors are much less, although may be more common (e.g. obesity).
UPDATE
We are back to blaming and shaming the patients: Heart Disease Is Preventable. So Why Does It Kill So Many of Us?
If lifestyle is the control knob, why do only 7-9% have a heart attack? 90+% of the country does not lead a heart healthy life but they won’t have heart attacks.
These bozos drew a circle so wide it encompasses nearly the entire population – Scientists make questionable claim about heart attack risk factors – Coldstreams
A recent study that my colleagues and I published in 2025 identified that more than 99% of people who had a heart attack, stroke, or heart failure had at least one cardiovascular risk factor in the years prior. These results leave no doubt that unlike many other diseases, cardiovascular disease is preventable. But we keep failing to recognize and treat risk factors earlier, such as hypertension, high cholesterol, diabetes, chronic kidney disease, and tobacco use.
Reluctantly he writes in almost the last paragraph:
But we also must recognize the hard truth that sometimes, risk for developing cardiovascular disease isn’t entirely within a person’s control. An individual’s risk for cardiovascular disease is impacted by so much more than their own biology, including the environment around them.
I had none of those risk factors. Their study ignores the wrong advice promoted for decades – go back to the 1980s. Eliminate all fat. Sugar is okay as long as you are not diabetic. Official statements from dietitians speaking at our company meetings.
But yeah, let’s continue to shame and humiliate those who’ve had heart attacks and didn’t have the usual risk factors.
While we are at it, let’s shame and humiliate those who have cancer, shall wee?
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