[Vocabulary] Heart problem/cardiac problem which one of them is a more frequently used term?

[Aamir Tariq]

If somebody is having a heart disease, what do you people normally say?

Like if "John is suffering from a heart diseases" how would we say it?

John is having a heart problem.
John is having a cardiac problem.

John has a heart problem.
John has a cardiac problem.

Or if there is any other way of saying the same thing in a more natural way, tell me about it.

Tell me if native speakers use "cardiac" or is it a medical term used by doctors?

Regards
Aamir the Global Citizen

 

[Roman55]

It would usually not be natural to say, 'is having' unless the person is having a heart attack at the time of speaking. If it is an ongoing condition, use 'has'.

 

[Rover_KE]

What have you found from Ngrams?

 

[Raymott]

For me, it's a medical term. But even doctors use the term "heart" because that's what the public understands.
As well as "cardiac", there is also "coronary", which applies specifically to arteries that go around the heart (like a crown). So "heart attack" usually refers to a myocardial infarct, due to a coronary occlusion.

 

[Aamir Tariq]

So "heart attack" usually refers to a myocardial infarct, due to a coronary occlusion.

"myocardial infarct" sounds very medical to me. Is it understandable to native speakers, and do they use this term in normal conversation?

 

[Raymott]

Only the more interested lay people would use this term. With the advent of the internet, more people know the medical terms, but not as many are fluent in the correct use of them.
I've noticed that Spanish and Italian speakers understand them better, since the terms derive from Latin.

 

[emsr2d2]

I know what a "myocardial infarction" is but only from watching the TV series, ER, for 15 years!

 

[Aamir Tariq]

I know what a "myocardial infarction" is but only from watching the TV series, ER, for 15 years!

All you people are well educated on this forum and many of you are linguists, I was wondering if an average native speaker was familiar with these terms. Like I know a guy from Australia on facebook he was dropped out of school and he doesn't even write correct spellings when he writes English, even though he is a native speaker, So are such terminologies comprehensible to people like him?

 

[GoesStation]

I wasn't a TV watcher when I joined our local fire department and rescue squad. That was the first place I heard (and used) myocardial infarction, though we almost always abbreviated it to M.I.

 

[Aamir Tariq]

I wasn't a TV watcher .

What is a TV watcher? it sounds like someone who watches TV but from what you have written it seems like a TV show. Is it a slang word? I have never heard it before.

 

[GoesStation]

I meant "a person who watches TV."

 

[Aamir Tariq]

A TV watcher is someone who watches TV. It's not a common expression, but is as easy to understand as football player or ​child molester.

Yes it is I wasn't reading closely, I was sitting at a distance. That's why I got it wrong.

 

[kilroy65]

If somebody is having a heart disease, what do you people normally say?

You could say s/he has a heart condition.

 

[emsr2d2]

All [STRIKE]you[/STRIKE] the people on this forum are well educated [STRIKE]on this forum[/STRIKE] and many of you are linguists so I was wondering if an average native speaker was familiar with these terms. [STRIKE]Like[/STRIKE] I know a guy from Australia on facebook. He [STRIKE]was[/STRIKE] dropped out of school and he doesn't even [STRIKE]write[/STRIKE] spell correctly [STRIKE]spellings[/STRIKE] when he writes English, even though he is a native speaker. [STRIKE]So[/STRIKE] [STRIKE]are[/STRIKE] Wouldsuch [STRIKE]terminologies[/STRIKE] terminology be comprehensible to people like him?

I think you need to ask your Australian friend if he knows what it means. It's entirely possible that he knows the meaning of "myocardial infarction" and similar terms. Just because he dropped out of school and doesn't spell very well doesn't mean he hasn't picked up lots of knowledge during his lifetime. There are some very intelligent people who didn't finish school and who can't spell very well.

 

[jutfrank]

'Myocardial infarction' is an academic (medical) word, and as such would not be used by the general public, however intelligent or educated. I would be confident enough to presume your Australian friend, like the majority of people, would not understand much, if anything at all, from the term.

Many medical terms have very different but equivalent common terms in English, and all common terms have an equivalent medical term. This synonymy is partly what contributes to the vastness of English lexicon.

 

[Aamir Tariq]

I think you need to ask your Australian friend if he knows what it means. It's entirely possible that he knows the meaning of "myocardial infarction" and similar terms. Just because he dropped out of school and doesn't spell very well doesn't mean he hasn't picked up lots of knowledge during his lifetime. There are some very intelligent people who didn't finish school and who can't spell very well.

You are absolutely right but I don't understand most of the things he says, because the language he uses is very informal and full of slang words.

 

[emsr2d2]

Try asking him "Do you know what a myocardial infarction is?" His answer shouldn't deviate much from either "No" or "Yes, it's a heart attack". You should understand those OK.