Swollen ankles
Professor Newby advised: “This shouldn’t be ignored, especially if the ankles get really big, as it can be a marker of heart failure, but it is also very common and has lots of other causes. It could just as easily be from tablets you are taking – for example, blood pressure medication can lead to swollen ankles.”
Extreme fatigue
If you are tired and you have been working long hours or staying up late, it is probably not related to the heart – but if you start experiencing extreme tiredness and your lifestyle has not altered Professor Newby advises to contact your GP.
“Many of my patients tell me they’re tired, whether they’ve got heart failure or not, whether they’ve got angina or not! It’s a difficult one, because it’s so non-specific.”
Irregular heartbeat
There has been a lot of discussion surrounding this as a factor of heart disease. Common in many people, Newby discussed: “[He] did an audit of the heart monitors we give out to people for investigation and from about 700 people, we found only about 20 that had atrial fibrillation [which can increase your risk of stroke].