What are the symptoms of coronary artery disease?

Condition analysis:
People with coronary artery disease may have a wide variety of symptoms, however, many do not have symptoms. When symptoms occur, the most common is chest pain or chest discomfort (angina). It may feel like squeezing or pressure. The discomfort may be in your shoulders, neck, jaw, throat, arms or back. Or it may feel like indigestion. You may be short of breath.

Others may experience:
-- Irregular or quickening heartbeat
-- Light-headedness, dizziness, fatigue or extreme weakness
-- Nausea, vomiting or a cold sweat

Chest pain is the most common symptom of coronary artery disease. However, women are more likely than men to have atypical symptoms including shortness of breath, nausea and vomiting, unusual fatigue, and pain in the back, shoulders, throat, neck, jaw and abdomen.

Instructions:
Spinach. Make yourself a salad using spinach instead of the usual iceberg lettuce and get a good start on meeting your folic acid needs (1/2 cup has 130 mcg of folic acid). Along with the other B vitamins, B6 and B12, folic acid can help prevent heart disease.

Strawberries. Oranges aren't the only fruit loaded with vitamin C. You can fill up on 45 milligrams of the heart healthy vitamin with 1/2 cup of summer's sweet berry. Vitamin C is an antioxidant vital to maintaining a happy heart. Strawberries are also a good source of fiber and potassium, both important to heart health.

Sweet potatoes. With double your daily requirements for vitamin A, a heart-protecting nutrient, sweet potatoes are a smart choice for fending off heart disease.