What is the difference between heart attack and stroke or are they essentially the same ?

Hi Timothy

No they are not the same. A heart attack involves the heart and could be, and most often is, caused by a blockage in the arteries of the heart which then starve the heart of blood causing it to stop (arrest).

A stroke is the same sort of thing, only in the brain, where a blockage may starve the brain of blood and cause damage or death. A stroke might also be the result of a leak in one of the blood vessels of the brain, causing the same result. A stroke might be hardly noticed or may be devastating depending on which area of the brain is affected and how severe the stroke is.

Yes, a stroke is caused by a blocked artery causing a decrease in blood/oxygen to the brain.
Conversely, a heart attack is caused by a blockage that prevents blood/oxygen from reaching the heart.

Heart attack is a fatal condition that occurs as a result to damage in the heart muscle and causes a lack of blood flow. Usually, a heart attack happens when a clot forms in the artery that supplied the muscle in the heart with blood. This clot blocks the flow of blood which results in a heart attack.

A stroke blocks the artery that supplies blood to the brain. When the brain does not receive the blood, it begins to die. Strokes usually affect only one side of the body.

Hello,
I was looking for the difference between them on internet and found some interesting information there which is that Myocardial infarction (MI) or acute myocardial infarction (AMI), commonly known as a heart attack, is the interruption of blood supply to a part of the heart, causing heart cells to die. This is most commonly due to occlusion (blockage) of a coronary artery following the rupture of a vulnerable atherosclerotic plaque, which is an unstable collection of lipids (fatty acids) and white blood cells (especially macrophages) in the wall of an artery. The resulting ischemia (restriction in blood supply) and oxygen shortage, if left untreated for a sufficient period of time, can cause damage or death (infarction) of heart muscle tissue (myocardium).
Classical symptoms of acute myocardial infarction include sudden chest pain (typically radiating to the left arm or left side of the neck), shortness of breath, nausea, vomiting, palpitations, sweating, and anxiety (often described as a sense of impending doom).....