I'm 29, slightly overweight and moderately active. I do not have a particularly unhealthy diet, but admit I could eat better. I do not smoke or do drugs, and only drink occasionally, and I have mild-chronic asthma (but don't take medication). I do not have a particularly stressful life, but I do tend to worry a lot and get stressed out easily.About four months ago, I started to occasionally get a strong pressure / feeling of fullness on the left side of my chest combined with a moderate squeezing pain. It was scary, but would only occur about 2 or 3 times a week. This continued for about a month, after which it went away completely for about two months.
Then about a month ago it came back again, and has been occurring ever since. It now happens every day, up to 3 times a day, but it feels less intense than before. When it comes on, it feels like a moderate squeezing sensation, combined with a mild, dull pain, usually in the extreme left-side of my chest near the armpit. It sometimes also creates a similar pain in my lower / upper arm. These 'attacks' last for about an hour, whereby they start off moderate, and very gradually decrease until the pain is gone. Also during these attacks, the pain in my chest is made worse when I take a deep breath, and I can pinpoint it to about a square-inch on my chest.
Seems strange if this is heart disease as I am 29, and have no history of heart disease on either side of my family. Aside from mild asthma, I don't have any other health conditions. I was born 3 weeks premature, and remember getting tired out easily as a kid, so could it be an undetected heart defect?
Also, could this be a lung problem instead of a heart problem?
When these attacks occur I don't get any other symptoms: no tightness in chest, or difficulty breathing or anything like that.
James - It's pretty hard to diagnose anything from cyberspace. Go see a doctor, if you want a credible answer.
ReplyDeletedoug - Yes, it is very possible. I know exactly what you are talking about.
ReplyDeleteThere are many things you can do to alleviate and stop these symptoms.
The one thing you must absolutely do immediately and no matter what is stop consuming trans-fats. You must read the list of ingredients on an item of food as well as look at the nutrition label.
If the label says trans-fats are greater than 0 don't eat it.
If the list of ingredients say "partially hydrogenated" don't eat it.
Both sources must be checked, you can't just rely on 1.
Though many restaurants when you eat out say no trans-fats, it's best to consider they all contain trans-fats. If you must eat out or choose to eat out, limit it to once a week. I wouldn't recommend any more than that.