Angina symptoms or Something else ??
I was told by my heart doctor that I have angina, but I feel that is not the whole answer to all my symptoms. Currently I constantly have chest pain/pressure, also occurs down my left arm, shoulders, neck, jaw, throat, back, stomach. I also get diarrhea, constipation, lots of gas and burpping especially after I eat or drink. Poor appetite, intesinal sounds, feels like a lump in my throat, short of breath. Eating or drinking makes symptoms worse, No pain medicatin helps. I need some kind of relief…..any info is appreciated.

Additional Details
The more I read up on the symtoms the more it sounds like a digestion problem, Any info on how to treat digestion problems at home is very much appreciated.

You have the symptoms of Coronary Artery Disease condition and ofcourse angina is further development of CAD. here is the link for for signs, symptoms, diagnosis and latest treatment of Angina…
Source(s):
http://abc-of-treatment.com/readarticles…

Angina – The Pain Is In The Heart Itself
By Michael Russell

A pain originating from the heart muscle itself is called Angina. This occurs when the blood vessels taking blood to the heart (coronary arteries), become partially blocked with fatty plaques caused by atherosclerosis (heart disease). The blood flow is only sufficient when the heart is at rest, but during activity, when the heartbeat can increase from 75 to 190 beats per minute, the heart muscle cannot get sufficient blood flow in it and causes mild to severe pain. This is why angina is brought on by exercise but will subside when the activity stops and the person rests. Angina will become worse over a period of time and less activity will provoke the pain. If the angina suddenly worsens and you experience symptoms even while at rest, the cause could be a blocked artery resulting in a heart attack. If this occurs, seek medical assistance immediately. Angina is not easy to diagnose from symptoms alone, as other conditions such as indigestion, show similar signs.

Signs and symptoms

• Pain can be mild or severe
• The pain is most often described as heavy, crushing, tightness and choking
• Pain originates from the center of the chest, can radiate up the neck and down the arms.  Most often it is the left arm.
• Shortness of breath
• Perspiration

There are no specific tests for angina, but your doctor will probably begin by asking three simple questions. What causes the discomfort? What does it feel like? What helps to ease the pain? The doctor may also suspect possibly angina if there are other cardiovascular risk factors such as – smoking cigarettes, family history of heart attacks, high blood pressure and cholesterol levels, age and diabetes. The doctor will perform a physical examination on the patient paying special attention to the heart and any abnormal sounds or beats.

Routine tests include an electrocardiogram (ECG), blood pressure measurements, blood and urine tests and a chest X-ray. The doctor may require during the ECG the patient walks on a treadmill (exercise bike) while hooked up to a machine that records the heart’s electrical activity. The level of exercise is slowly increased until the patient feels pain and there is a change to the ECG pattern. Further tests may include a coronary angiogram. This entails a fine tube inserted into your heart via an artery in your groin. A special dye is then inserted into the arteries clearly displaying any narrowing (blocked) arteries on the X-ray images.

Angina responds well to drug treatment. The most common drugs used to treat angina are the following:

• Nitrates – These drugs come as fast-acting sprays or tablets that are placed under the tongue to ease the pain during an angina attack. Long-acting tablets taken daily reduce the need for the sprays.

• Beta-blockers – These tablets lessen the workload of the heart by allowing it to beat slower and less forcefully than usual. These tablets prevent pain and slow down the gradual worsening of angina.

• Calcium antagonists – Helps to dilate the arteries allowing more blood flow through them. They lower blood pressure; reduce the heart’s workload to help prevent pain.

A standard treatment is a low, daily dose of aspirin to prevent anymore atheroma from building up in the heart arteries.

Once an artery has become blocked or narrowed by plaques of atheroma, there are two levels of intervention needed for reinstating blood supply to the heart muscle. The intervention chosen will depend on how badly the artery is blocked or narrowed. 1) Angioplasty – This procedure is performed only when the arteries are not completely blocked. A fine tube (catheter) is inserted into the heart. On the tip of the tube is a tiny balloon, which is then inflated and deflated a few times to squash the plaque and widen the artery. This procedure is performed under local anesthetic and is carried out on an outpatient basis. 2) Bypass surgery – This procedure is carried out only if the arteries are completely blocked or very narrow. A new route for the blood supply is made using a bypass graft. For the bypass graft, surgeons have two options – they either use an existing artery that lies within the chest or they use a piece of vein removed from the leg.

Sometimes a person may have up to four blockages to bypass. Bypass surgery is performed under local anesthetic and can take from three to five hours to complete the surgery. Today it has become one of the most frequently performed surgical procedures.

Michael Russell
Your Independent guide to Heart Disease

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How to Determine the Difference Between Angina and a Heart Attack
By Christopher Ruane

Many people with chest pain fear a heart attack. However, there can be many possible causes of chest pain. Some are mildly inconvenient, while others are serious, even life-threatening. Any organ or tissue in your chest can be the source of pain, including your heart, lungs, oesophagus, muscles, ribs, tendons, or nerves

Suddenly there are lots of questions to be answered:

• What happens now,

• Can it be treated,

• Does it require an operation,

• Will I be able to continue working – or am I on my way to becoming a permanent invalid?

Your family will have their questions and anxieties too. Like you, they want to understand what is happening to you and to be reassured everything will be all right. Joining your local hospital’s cardiac rehabilitation programme will help.

You will discover other people experiencing the same anxieties and worries. (Because it does help to discover other people are in the same boat!)

To look at it simply, the heart is just a mechanical pump, made up of very powerful muscles. Its job is to pumps blood around your body constantly every day of your life. Like any muscle in your body, it requires its own blood supply which brings it oxygen and nutrients to keep it alive, and able to do its job.

This blood supply travels to the heart muscle by way of small coronary arteries. These are normally able to respond to varying demands which the heart muscle makes by dilating (opening wider) or constricting (narrowing). When the heart speeds up, it requires more energy to do the extra work; so the coronary arteries dilate and deliver more oxygen to the heart muscles.

As the heart returns to its resting mode, less oxygen is required and the coronary arteries constrict to their original size. However, things sometimes go wrong with the coronary arteries, and the outcome can be either angina or a heart attack.

Angina is a specific type of pain in the chest caused by inadequate blood flow through the blood vessels (coronary vessels) of the heart muscle (myocardium).
It is brought on by exercise or effort and eases at rest or by using medication.

The pain varies from a dull ache to a sensation often described as a tight band around the chest and it rarely lasts longer than fifteen minutes on complete rest.

The cause of angina is simple to understand. When it’s at rest, the heart is quite happy pumping slowly. However, exercise, effort and exertion cause the heart to pump faster and more forcefully. The heart muscle then requires increased oxygen supply.

Usually this is freely available from the coronary arteries, which dilate on demand. But if the coronary arteries are hardened or partially blocked, then the supply of oxygen to the heart may be restricted. Cholesterol or fatty deposits generally cause these types of blockages.

A heart attack (also called a coronary thrombosis or myocardial infarction), is caused by a complete blockage of one of the coronary arteries. As a result, one part of the heart muscle is permanently deprived of oxygen. The blockage is often caused by a blood clot formed inside a coronary artery.

A clot in the coronary artery interrupts the flow of blood and oxygen to the heart muscle, leading to the death of heart cells in that area. The damaged heart muscle loses its ability to contract, and the remaining heart muscle needs to compensate for that weakened area.

During the first hour or so of the blockage, the pain can be extremely severe. It’s usually felt as a crushing sensation in the centre of the chest and can also affect the arms jaw and neck. It’s also often accompanied by sweating, nausea and/or breathlessness, which lasts much longer than an angina attack.

In the first few days after a heart attack, the heart can be rather irritable with an accompanying erratic heart rate. This is why continuous observation in a health care setting is vital in those first few days.

For more related information visit http://www.manhealthsite.com
Get professional knowledge on dealing with symptoms, drug side effects and improving your life!

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Chest Pain – Is it Angina, Heart Attack or Non-Serious?
By Malcolm Waters

Almost everyone suffers from some sort of physiological chest pain at one time or another, and the important thing to note is that there are many causes of this condition.

Chest pain can be defined as a pain or discomfort which occurs anywhere along the front edge of the torso between the upper abdomen and the lower part of the neck. This is a distressing condition because of the immediate suspicion in the mind of the sufferer that they are, or are about to suffer a myocardial infarction (heart attack).

It is advisable to consult a medical professional if any of the following symptoms are experienced:

However, most chest pain sufferers tend to focus on the big question in their minds – that there are just two different classifications – those that relate to the heart (cardiac) and those that do not (non-cardiac).

Cardiac causes of Chest Pain

Heart attack

This is caused by a blood clot that prevents usual flow of blood flow to the heart muscle. This can cause a feeling of pressure, fullness or a crushing pain in the chest lasting more than a few minutes. The pain may radiate to other areas such as the back, neck, jaw, shoulders and arms, especially the left arm. Other symptoms may include shortness of breath, sweating, dizziness and nausea. All, some or none of these may accompany your chest pain.

Angina

Fatty deposits can build up in the arteries that carry blood to the heart. This can reduce their width, and this in turn can cause a restriction of the blood flow to the heart, which is usually more noticeable after physical activity or exertion. This type of restricted blood flow to the heart can cause regular, recurrent episodes of chest pain, which is termed Angina Pectoris, or Angina, is often described as a pressure or tightness in the chest. It’s usually brought on by physical or emotional stress. The pain usually goes away within minutes after you stop the stressful activity.

Other Cardiac Causes

There are some other complex medical problems, which can cause chest pain.

Pericarditis – inflammation of the sac surrounding your heart a short-lived condition often related to a viral infection. Pericarditis causes sharp, piercing and centralized chest pain. You may also have a fever and feel sick.

Aortic dissection – a rare, life-threatening cause of chest pain where inner layers of the main artery leading from the heart (aorta) separate. This causes blood to flow between them, causing a sudden tearing chest and back pain. It is usually caused by a physical trauma to the chest cavity, but can also result from uncontrolled high blood pressure.

Coronary spasm, also known as Prinzmetal’s angina, can cause varying degrees of chest discomfort. In coronary spasm, coronary arteries – arteries that supply blood to the heart – go into spasm, temporarily closing down blood flow to the heart.

Non Cardiac Causes

There are many conditions that are unrelated to the heart, which can be the cause of chest pain. These include:

How to Reduce your Heart related problems With Ziac

Ziac is a type of medication known as a beta-blocker. Typically beta blocking drugs are used to treat chest pain (angina) and high blood pressure. They can also help patients who have suffered from an acute heart attack, and have been shown to improve survival rates if taken for this condition. A program of high blood pressure reduction may reduce the chances of patients developing strokes, further heart attacks and kidney problems.

Malcolm Waters is a keen researcher of all aspects of heart health, care and treatment including Ziac and runs a successful website dedicated to the prevention and improvement of the condition for the benefit of the visitor.

For great free heart health tips, discount offers and more, see Malcolm’s site at http://www.lowerbloodpressurecheap.com

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See How To Avoid Unstable Angina Symptoms
By Mike Herman

Unstable angina symptoms occur when angina is not well controlled or undiagnosed. The keys to be able to avoid unstable angina symptoms are to seek medical consultation to identify the exact cause of your problem.

Sometimes unstable angina symptoms occur without there being any ‘marked’ or noticeable symptoms. An occasional chest pain can be the beginning of your body alerting you to problems.

Unstable angina symptoms are a syndrome that occurs between stable angina and heart attack. Characterized by an accelerating or rising pattern of chest pain that lasts longer than in stable angina, occurs at rest or with less exertion than in stable angina, or is less responsive to medication.

Don’t ignore your body’s attempt to let you know something is wrong. It’s easy to simply make an appointment and get the condition of your heart and your circulatory system evaluated. Getting a thorough evaluation and having certain blood test performed can identify an existing, or potential problems.

Avoid Unstable Angina Symptoms and Causes – Learn the Causes

Angina and unstable angina is most often caused by plaque and narrowing of the arteries. This occurs because of genetics and cholesterol and or homocysteine levels. Your activity level, the food you eat, and other lifestyle factors can directly affect the levels of plaque on your artery’s walls.

It is important to do everything you can to avoid unstable angina symptoms as unstable angina symptoms can result in heart attack. The unstable angina symptoms are occurring because of blockage in the arteries. The plaque causing the narrowing can rupture and block the artery. This can result in heart attack.

The best way to avoid unstable angina symptoms revolves around doing three things. Decrease these risk factors and you decrease the risk of unstable angina symptoms.

If you smoke, Stop!

If you are overweight – Lose weight!

Control your blood pressure, diabetes, and cholesterol levels.

Studies have proven that decreasing risk factors can prevent the progression of blockages and decrease their severity. Medications such as aspirin or anti-angina medications may be prescribed to prevent angina and lessen its affect for people with the potential.

While medications may help, the best way to reduce the risks is to follow the three suggestions listed above. Each of these requires commitment and determination. The rewards are well worth the effort. Make up your mind today to take better control of your health.

Do what it takes to get your heart and circulatory system in the best health possible.

If you need additional information about the symptoms of angina or hypertension symptoms and treatments, click on over to Mike Herman’s sites 4HealthConcerns.com/HeartDisease or 4HealthConcerns.com/BloodPressure and find the help you need.

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