Traditionally speaking, heart attacks happen to older people and more to men not women. Also, smoking, lack of exercise and poor diet are usual causes. However, new trends are telling us differently. Spontaneous Coronary Artery Dissection (SCAD) is a type of heart attack that is quite uncommon but accounts for 40% of heart attacks in women under the age of 50 and 90% of patients are women. Averagely, it affects women in their early 40s but may even affect teenagers. The fact that it occurs in women that are relatively young, fit and healthy is why it is misdiagnosed most of the time. SCAD usually occurs when there is a tear in the wall of an artery, leading to blockage in blood flow. It is still unclear what exactly causes it but at times the strain of childbirth, physical/emotional stress and fibromuscular dysplasia (an unusual narrowing or widening of the arteries) may be linked. Research is still being conducted on how best to treat it but symptoms include chest pain/discomfort, nausea, lightheadedness and pain in the arms, jaw, neck or back. It is worthy of note that the symptoms of a heart attack, including SCAD may persist over a few days unlike what we watch in movies where it seems to happen suddenly. The longer the symptoms persist, the more the heart’s condition deteriorates. Also, having suffered SCAD once, it might come back so it’s best to live a stress-free life afterward. With SCAD, the method of diagnosis is an angiogram which is basically an X-ray test that uses special kind of dye and a camera to take pictures of blood flow in the coronary arteries. For the typical heart attack, however, a full bloodwork and electrocardiogram is what is used for diagnosis. The moment you suspect you might be having a heart attack, I advise you get to the hospital immediately.