19/03/2026
It’s 2:00 AM. You’re feeling a strange heaviness in your chest, and your first thought is: “Was it the late-night Jalebi-Gathiya?”
In India, we have a habit of blaming almost every discomfort on ‘Gas.’ We take an antacid, we wait, and we hope it goes away. But as a cardiologist, I’ve seen too many patients wait too long because they didn't want to "bother" anyone with what they thought was a stomach ache.
Acidity is a nuisance, but a heart attack is an emergency.
- Gas usually feels like a sharp, "poking" pain that moves around.
- Heart pain feels like a heavy stone sitting on your chest.
- Gas gets better with a burp; Heart pain doesn't care about antacids.
It is always better to have a "useless" ECG than to miss a critical window. An ECG at my clinic takes 2 minutes—peace of mind lasts a lifetime.
Read this guide, save it, and share it with your family group. You never know when these 4 slides might save a life.