HeartAttack? Quick answer please!

[JosephLil92]

Hi, my name is Joseph.  I am a pretty active 19 year old male.  Throughout my childhood I have on very rare occurrences have had a stabbing heart pain that would last for maybe a minute or two.  A rare occurrence meaning less then 10 times.  I'm asking this question because I just went out for a run and had a pain in my upper left back, more to the middle and under my shoulder blade.  I also have a pain in my heart or chest, can't figure it out when I breath in deeply.  My chest feels tight and the pain in my back hurts more when I stand straight.  My heart really started to heart during the short run for about 30 seconds which forced me to stop.  I was concerned and thought I was going to have a heart attack.  Came somebody please give me some insight?

[ed34]

Yes the pains would not go away if it was a heart attack, not until the heart muscle concerned was dead. As well as seeing the Doctor, which is good advice from the above, I would recommend some gentle stretching exercises as a part of your regime. It is important to warm your body up before any exercise because exerting cold muscles can cause discomfort. Before going on a run I used to do 3 minutes of gentle star jumps. This not only warms the muscles, but slowly speeds up the heart rate and gears your arteries ready for the run. At the end of a run it's just as important to slow down gradually. I used to just walk fast for the last 200 yards and then slowly walk for 5 minutes to allow toxic wastes to exit the muscles, and let the heart slow down more gradually.

[grendslori]

I agree that you should see a doctor about this.John is absolutely right; stabbing pains are not heart related. Having a heart attack at your age is about nil, however you may have something called hypertrophic cardiomyopathy. This is extrememly rare in someone your age and the chances of this being the problem are about zero, but it should be looked into. Also asthma can cause the problems as you describe so that needs to be looked into. Good luck

[erijon]

This really does not sound like it's related to your heart. Stabbing pains that are short in nature lasting only seconds or a minute or two or increase with breathing are almost never cardiac in nature. Chest pain from a heart attack is more often a pressure or squeezing pain.

Having said that, anytime you experience chest pain you need to get it checked out, although rare in some one your age it is remotely possible so see your doctor or if your symptoms worsen I would encourage you to go to the hospital to be safe.


Jon