Angina pain is often described as squeezing, pressure, heaviness, tightness or pain in the chest. It may feel like a heavy weight lying on the chest. Angina may be a new pain that needs to be checked by a health care provider, or recurring pain that goes away with treatment.
Angina is chest pain caused by reduced blood flow to the heart muscles. It's not usually life threatening, but it's a warning sign that you could be at risk of a heart attack or stroke. With treatment and healthy lifestyle changes, it's possible to control angina and reduce the risk of these more serious problems.
Angina usually feels like pressure, tightness or squeezing in your chest. This can feel painful or like a dull ache. You might also feel it in your shoulders, arms, neck, jaw, back or stomach.
Angina can be confused with gallbladder disease, stomach ulcers and acid reflux. It usually goes away within a few minutes with rest or with the use of nitroglycerin. Angina is not the same as a heart attack although the symptoms may be similar.
Diagnosing angina
Your doctor can suspect a diagnosis of angina based on your description of your symptoms, when they appear and your risk factors for coronary artery disease. Your doctor will likely first do an electrocardiogram (ECG) to help determine what additional testing is needed to confirm the diagnosis.
Anything that causes your heart muscle to need more blood or oxygen supply can result in angina. Risk factors include physical activity, emotional stress, extreme cold and heat, heavy meals, drinking excessive alcohol, and cigarette smoking.
Doctors have long known that mental or psychological stress can lead to angina (chest pain or discomfort caused by inadequate blood to the heart). Now, new research reveals a direct correlation between angina and stress-related activity in the brain's frontal lobe.
Angina pectoris tends to be accompanied by thrombosis [18]. Therefore, drinking an adequate amount of water may help reduce blood coagulation and result in a lower OR for angina pectoris.
Regular exercise improves your body's ability to take in and use oxygen, which means you can do daily activities more easily and feel less tired. It can also help reduce your angina symptoms (like chest pain and shortness of breath) by encouraging your body to use a network of tiny blood vessels that supply your heart.
Ingestion of either 1 or 2 cups of caffeinated coffee increased the exercise duration until onset of angina (8 and 12%, respectively, p less than 0.05), whereas decaffeinated coffee had no effect.
If it's angina, your symptoms usually ease or go away after a few minutes' rest, or after taking the medicines your doctor or nurse has prescribed for you, such as glyceryl trinitrate medicine (GTN). If you're having a heart attack, your symptoms are less likely to ease or go away after resting or taking medicines.
An attack of unstable angina is an emergency and you should seek immediate medical treatment. If left untreated, unstable angina can lead to heart attack, heart failure, or arrhythmias (irregular heart rhythms). These can be life-threatening conditions.
How long does unstable angina last? Episodes of unstable angina can last for 15 minutes or more. Without treatment, you can have many episodes of unstable angina. If you have unstable angina, you have heart disease and you're at risk for a heart attack, heart failure or heart rhythm problems.
Angina and anxiety attacks are separate health events. But there are similarities between experiencing angina and experiencing a panic attack, including chest pain and shortness of breath. You can learn the differences, but if you have unexplained chest pain, seek immediate medical attention.
Panic Attacks or Angina
The symptoms can be so similar that until modern testing and understanding they have actually been confused for each other. Anxiety causes many symptoms that are directly associated with angina, and the two share a host of symptoms that are often described as nearly identical: Heart squeezing.
Many people go to the emergency room with chest pain (angina) that feels like a heart attack but is instead anxiety. It's unlikely that a young person without risk factors is having a heart attack, but you should still go to the emergency room if you experience symptoms.
Avoid foods that contain high levels of sodium (salt). Read food labels. Avoid foods that contain saturated fat and partially hydrogenated or hydrogenated fats. These are unhealthy fats that are often found in fried foods, processed foods, and baked goods.
Blood tests check the level of cardiac troponins. Troponin levels can help doctors tell unstable angina from heart attacks. Your doctor may also check levels of certain fats, cholesterol, sugar, and proteins in your blood.
Angina is rare in people under 35 years of age unless that person has other health problems which make angina more common – such as diabetes or smoking tobacco. Besides age, smoking, and diabetes, risk factors include a history of hypertension or high cholesterol.
A chest x-ray doesn't diagnose angina but may rule out other causes of chest pain. Blood tests. Blood tests look for risk factors for heart disease. CT scans.
Because angina can be related to the rate of blood flow to the heart, and because the symptoms are similar to those of a heart attack, taking an aspirin at the onset of symptoms is recommended. The aspirin prevents blood clots from forming and may reduce the size of a clot that has already formed.
Angina symptoms in women can also include nausea, vomiting, pain in the neck, jaw, throat, abdomen or back and feeling out of breath. Once the extra demand for blood and oxygen stops, so do the symptoms. These symptoms are not always recognized as a symptom of a heart condition in women.