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Heart Disease  (Expert Forum)
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Clogged Arteries
Answered by
Cleveland Clinic -
Cleveland - OH
This forum is for questions and support regarding heart issues such as: Angina, Angioplasty, Arrhythmia, Bypass Surgery, Cardiomyopathy, Coronary Artery Disease, Defibrillator, Heart Attack, Heart Disease, High Blood Pressure, Mitral Valve, Pacemaker, PAD, Stenosis, Stress Tests
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MedHelp Member's Question

Clogged Arteries

by lolathechi, Sep 07, 2005 12:00AM
Hi



I was wondering what are the symptons of clogged arteries? Is a stress test used to determine that? If your arteries are begining to clog can this reverse with diet and exercise?



Also they say the vagus nerve is related to a lot of pvcs, if this is so why dont they have a medication that will "relax" your vagus nerve to stop these horrible things??



Thanks so much!
Doctor's Answer

by Cleveland Clinic, Sep 07, 2005 12:00AM
lola,



thanks for the post.



The arteries of the heart supply blood to the hearts muscle.  When these arteries become blocked with cholesterol buildup, or with a blood clot in a heart attack the symptoms are usually chest pain or chest pressure. Some people also have pain in their arm or throat, back pain, nausea, or sweating.  Any new symptom that you  are concerned about you should review with your physicans or health care providers.



The Vagus nerve controls a lot of the body functions apart from heart rate and rhythm. Unfortunately, not all PVCs originate from the Vagus nervous system, nor is there a good way to 'quiet down' the cardiac portion of it.



good luck
Member Comments (24)

by yellowrose, Sep 07, 2005 12:00AM
very good question, i want to know that to, seems like when acid reflux acting up pvc/pac are lot more. i had a treadmill stress test and failed it, so had a heart scan and a echo just done, thats how they told if i had a clot but they said mine was clear, but also told if your not 70 precent clogged they cant see that on a heart scan or echo . good luck with question hope you get your answer.

by EchoTech, Sep 07, 2005 12:00AM
Ther are many signs of clogged arteries including, but not limited to: chest pain, back pain, left and sometimes right arm pain, a sense of doom, profuse sweating for no reason, jaw pain, shortness of breath, chest pain with activity that goes away when you sit down, tiredness, etc.  There are several different kinds of stress tests that can be used to detect clogged arteries, along with a catherization where they inject dye into your coronaries and see if there are any blockages.

  You can help control clogged arteries with diet and exercise, but it is not something you can cure.  There maybe other factors that are causing your clogged arteries, but without knowing a lot more information, it would be just guessing.

  As far as PVCs, that's out of my realm of expertise.



For yellowrose, I hope you are seeing a cardiologist for some management and not letting your primary doctor act as a cardiologist.  My personal opinion is that if you failed the treadmill, you need to see a cardiologist and not let the primary doctor run the show.  There have been multiple times over my career that I have seen general practioneers try to practice cardiology, and invariably that patients seem to suffer and have a much less desirable outcome.   One case that comes to mind is a patient that had chest pain 10 years ago and his doctor put him on nitro pills.  Nitro pills are good in when used on conjunction withseveral other therapies and procedures, but this was his only treatment.  this patient only had nitro pills and the end result was that by the time a cardiologist saw him, there was nothing to do except to try to amke him more comfortable.  Intervention years before by  acardiologist would have in great probility extended the quality of life and the years he had on this planet.  This is my personal lay opinion and is not that of a board certified cardiologist.  

  Always remember, you pay the bills, so you are the boss.  You can tell the doctor what to do with how you want to pursue your treatment.  It pays to see a specialist.  

by HAMMERHEAD, Sep 07, 2005 12:00AM
DOES ANYBODY KNOW HOW OFTEN SHOULD YOU HAVE A STRESS TEST? I'VE HAD 3 ALL DIFFERENT KINDS AND THEY FIND NOTHING. ALL THREE WERE DONE BY DIFFERENT PEOPLE. THEY SAY PAIN AND SYSTOMS ARE ANXIETY. MY BLOOD TEST COME BACK GOOD. THANKS!!!!!

by yellowrose, Sep 07, 2005 12:00AM
To: echo teck
i do go to a cardio group and they did the test, would not go to just any dr for my heart. darn pvc/pac just wont go away so tomorrow going to wear a month long event montor see whats up with them . but i know that when my acid reflux is bad they seem to be worse and lots more of them, sometimes i wonder if its just spasms from that and not the heart but other times i have the stronge beat after the flutter so guess they come together. have had them over 20 years were not bad but since acid reflux came to live with me they want to be there to keep it company, so learning to deal with it all over. hope all has a pap free day

by axg9504, Sep 07, 2005 12:00AM
I believe there is only one affirmative way to verify clogged arteries and that is a heart cath..

by line, Sep 07, 2005 12:00AM
I was wondering also if the echo could show blockages, wouldn't your blood flow be low if

there were blockages?



My husband had a heart attack 7 weeks ago, he had a cath and was 100% and 80% blocked. He showed no symtons, no s.o.b. tiredness, nothing. Had a thallium stress done less than 3 years ago and a stress done within the last year, he passed them both, no problem.



The cardio told us because he was in such good physical state is the reason he showed no symtons. He woke up at 1 a.m. with severe chest pain, I called 911 and he passed out. I am not certain about these tests. I know other people who had false neg. and false positive with these tests.



Line