This causes the most common heart attack symptoms, which are chest discomfort or pain and can spread to your arms, neck, jaw or back. Unlike angina this discomfort often last for longer than 10 minutes This stops the blood flow and reduces the amount of oxygen that gets to your heart muscle. A heart attack occurs when a coronary artery, which supplies blood to your heart, becomes blocked. Your blood carries oxygen, which is needed by every cell in your body, all the time. Your heart pumps oxygen-rich blood from the lungs to the heart, and then on to the rest of the body.įor your heart to function properly, it needs a good blood supply. It’s one of your most important muscles as it pumps blood all over your body through the circulatory system.
The heart is a muscular pump that’s a little larger than your fist.