周围的灯光渐渐暗下，你坐在自己最中意的电影院里，备好了爆米花、花生米和一瓶超大的汽水，准备好观赏一部正邪大战。为了全人类的利益，剧中的英雄把身家性命都豁出去了，甚至不惜失去自己唯一的真爱。他克服了重重困难，最终战胜了疯狂的敌人。正当他孤身一人、精疲力竭之时，英雄的爱人来到身旁，想要带回她生命中这个不可或缺的男人。突然，我们的英雄紧紧抓住胸口，弯下腰并艰难地呼吸着。随后，他双膝跪地，跌倒在爱人的怀里。临死之前，他吃力地最后一次告白说：“这一切都是为了你”。随即，他那疲惫的、破碎的心脏便永远停止了跳动。影幕落下，此时观众个个满脸泪花。

If only all heart attacks were like they are in the movies. Unfortunately, that's not how they typically go down. A heart attack isn't very complicated. Your heart, like all muscles, needs blood to function properly. Blood is carried throughout the body through blood vessels and larger arteries. When the coronary arteries that supply blood to your heart get blocked, you're likely to have a heart attack. These arteries become blocked because of a buildup of something called plaque. Plaque may build if:

You're overweight 

you don't exercise

your diet has too much fat and cholesterol

you're stressed

 you smoke

you drink alcohol in excess 

you have a history of heart disease in your family 

要是所有心脏病发作都能像电影里所表现的那样该有多好啊。遗憾的是，典型的心脏病发作却不是那个样子的。心脏病其实并不复杂。如同所有肌肉一样，心脏需要血液才能正常地工作。血液通过大的动脉和血管，流淌在全身上下。当为心脏提供血液的冠状动脉发生阻塞时，就很可能会犯心脏病。动脉阻塞是由于一种叫做斑块的东西长期堆积而造成的。以下是导致斑块堆积的几个原因：

身体超重

缺乏运动

饮食中的脂肪和胆固醇过高

压力太大

吸烟

饮酒过量

心脏病家族史

These factors put you at risk for plaque buildup, called atherosclerosis, and eventually a heart attack. Once that plaque builds up, it can rupture and completely block the artery, cutting off the blood supply to your heart.Some of the common symptoms of a heart attack  are:

 sweating

shortness of breath

chest pressure

chest pain

prolonged squeezing in your chest area

pain shooting through arms, shoulders, back or jaw 

nausea and vomiting 

Women

上述因素导致斑块的积累,形成动脉硬化，最终导致心脏病发作。一旦斑块堆积，则会损伤并完全阻塞动脉，造成心脏缺血。以下是心脏病发病的普遍症状。

不断出虚汗

气短

胸闷

胸部疼痛

胸内长时间挤压

胳膊、两肩、后背以及颚部有刺痛感

恶心和呕吐

对于心脏病发作的女性来说，也许会有更多征兆，对此人们尚且无法解释清楚。这些症状有皮肤湿冷、头昏眼花、胸部灼热和莫名的疲惫。在美国，每年约120万人心脏病犯病，并且成为人们的头号杀手。近三分之一的患者还从未接受过治疗就去世了，原因就是你犯了心脏病却从未察觉。这就是所谓的“隐性”心脏病发作，它的发生率令你难以想像。

Silent Heart Attack 

Sometimes people have heart attacks and never know it. It's called the silent heart attack，when someone either shows no symptoms at all or ignores or misinterprets the symptoms until the pain goes away. Because the key to recovering from a heart attack is by restoring the blood flow to the heart as quickly as possible, silent heart attacks are even more deadly. In fact, twice as many people die from the silent type of heart attack as those who experience the typical variety [source: silentheartattack.org]

]. 

隐性心脏病发作

有时人们心脏病发作却对此全然不知。所谓的隐性心脏病发病就是指，有些患者没有表现出任何病症，或者忽视或是曲解了自己的病症，强忍着疼痛。正是由于控制心脏病的发作的关键是尽快恢复心脏供血，因此隐性心脏病发作的致命率变得更高的。实事上，死于隐性心脏病发病的人是典型心脏病人的两倍之多。

What's going on here in most cases is something called ischemia -- when blood that normally flows to a part of the body is temporarily restricted. When this happens to the heart it's called cardiac ischemia. A temporary loss of blood flow to the heart causes chest pain, or angina, which is basically a warning sign that something bad could happen shortly. This is where things get a little tricky. Sometimes there's no angina. This is called silent ischemia and it leads to the silent heart attack. That's the trouble with silent ischemia -- there are no symptoms.

上述大多数情况发生的都是缺血现象，即某个身体部位暂时血液流通不畅。而发生在心脏， 就叫心脏缺血。心脏临时缺血就会造成胸部疼痛即心绞痛，它一般预示着危险的临近。但情况并非如此简单。有时心脏缺血时没有心绞痛现象，这就是隐性缺血，并会导致隐性心脏病发作。这也就是为什么对付隐性缺血更加麻烦——没有任何征兆。

In other cases, the heart attack isn't completely pain free, but the symptoms are overlooked or misinterpreted as heartburn, standard angina that goes away, a pulled muscle or even overall fatigue. This is largely explained away by the fact that some people have higher pain thresholds, and others are embarrassed by the fact that they may be in trouble and just want to wait until the pain subsides. One odd symptom that's never been fully explained in regular and silent heart attacks is a feeling of impending doom. In silent attacks, this is often misinterpreted as stress or anxiety.

在其他情况下，虽然心脏病发作会引起疼痛，但人们没加注意，或是将其误以为是心灼热、短时的心绞痛，肌肉拉伤或甚至是过度劳累。这很大程度上是由于一些人更能忍受疼痛，其他人则害怕自己也许会发生什么状况，而让自己难堪，于是干脆忍着，直到疼痛感慢慢消失。无论是一般心脏病发作还是隐性心脏病发作，一个共同的症状就是患者觉得自己快不行了，但其原因尚不明确。而隐性心脏病的患者却常常误以为这是由于压力或是焦躁导致的。

It may be hard to comprehend, but about 25 percent of all heart attacks are silent. This is probably due in part to how heart attacks are portrayed in movies and on television. A study by the British Heart Association shows that one in four people in England get their information on heart attacks from what they see on the big and small screen [source:The Guardian]. Besides the fact that they can kill you, silent heart attacks also increase the risk of dementia for men. A Dutch study reports that men who experienced silent attacks are more than twice as likely to suffer from dementia as those who have never had an attack at all. If it doesn't kill you, you may not even realize you had an attack until your doctor discovers the damage at your next physical.

隐性心脏病发作大约占到所有心脏病犯病总数的25%，这事实也许会让人很难接受，其原因部分可能是由于电影和电视上对心脏病发作的描述。英国心脏协会的一项研究表明四分之一的英国人都是从大大小小的荧幕上了解到有关心脏病发作的信息的。除了致命以外，隐性心脏病同样会提高人们患痴呆病的风险。荷兰的一个研究发现，隐性心脏病患者得痴呆病的概率是从未有过心脏病发病史的人的两倍还多。如果你侥幸逃过一劫，或许直到下次身体检查，医生发现你心脏所受到的损伤之后，你才会意识到原来自己上次是心脏病发作。

If you're at risk for a heart attack, you should get checked out for silent ischemia. Your doctor will ask you questions about your own and your family's medical history and put you on a treadmill to jog while your heart function is monitored by an electrocardiogram (ECG) machine. In this test, doctors are looking at how your heart rate and blood pressure increase during exercise, a good indicator of how your blood is flowing. You'll also likely get a blood test for cardia­c enzymes. These are proteins that are released when the heart is damaged. Aside from this preventive screening, your best course of action is to know the symptoms of a heart attack and pay attention if you experience any of them. Call paramedics immediately if you feel chest pain, have shortness of breath or are unusually fatigued and they'll walk you through the proper course of action. Ignoring these signs because of embarrassment or shame can kill you.