By Katrina Turner

Strokes and heart attacks are among the deadliest conditions in the United States. And while a stroke affects your brain and a heart attack affects your heart, the main symptoms and causes for both are frighteningly similar — four things in particular that you are about to discover.

Consider these similarities:

• Both are caused by a blockage in the arteries
• Both can vary greatly from minor to fatal
• Both can happen suddenly, without warning
• These four things happen before both (click here to see stroke and heart attack symptoms)

According to the American Heart Association, heart attack is the most common cause of death in the United States. Stroke is the third-highest cause of death and is also a top culprit for long-term or permanent physical disability.

In a heart attack, the longer the heart stops pumping blood, the faster your internal organs begin to die. During a stroke, the longer your brain is deprived of oxygen-rich blood, the more brain cells are damaged beyond repair. The bottom line is, whether it’s a stroke or a heart attack, the longer it takes to get medical assistance, the greater the chance of permanent damage or death.

Timing is critical for both events, and any initial symptoms need to be reported immediately!

Unfortunately both conditions can strike without warning, meaning strokes and heart attacks happen with virtually no symptoms at all. So it’s important to learn how to recognize even the most unlikely cues.

According to cardiovascular disease expert Dr. Chauncey Crandall, the reason people don’t recognize certain symptoms of a stroke or heart attack is because they don’t even notice them. That’s why he has created a special video presentation to help the public discover four little-known stroke, heart attack, and heart disease symptoms before it’s too late to intervene and repair survive the damage.

Editor’s Note: For a limited time, Newsmax Health is making Dr. Crandall’s heart health video available at no charge. Click here to watch him explain how to identify four little-known stroke and heart attack symptoms.

Stroke or heart attack survival and recovery heavily depend on how quickly the patient acts. As a matter of fact, statistics shows the main problem resulting in disability and death stems from the time delay on the patient side. It is the amount of time between when your symptoms begin and when you see a doctor.

The elapsed time from symptom to emergency room should be less than one hour. Heart attack and stroke victims can benefit from new medications and treatments unavailable in years past. Certain new drugs can stop some strokes and heart attacks in progress, reducing and possibly reversing damage and ultimately saving a life.

However, for these treatments to be effective the drugs must be given quickly after stroke or heart attack symptoms first appear; the timeframe for efficacy is within the first 45 minutes to an hour.

That’s why knowing what to look for in terms of symptoms is critical, especially when they’re the kind that most people don’t think to associate with a stroke or heart attack. Since both strokes and heart attacks are caused by artery blockage, taking measures to recognize one will help prevent the other.