Re: Excrutiating chest pains

Posted By Val on May 23, 1999 at 18:49:00
I have just turned 40 years old, female, 135 lbs 5' 9"  VERY active.
Low blood pressure 100/60. I have alway had a higher then normal heart beat 80-90 per minute. I am a fairly hyper person. I smoke and drink  a lot of coffee. I have two questions, can heart palpitations run in a family?
I have always had them but never paid any attention to them seeing as I was never in any real pain. Both of my sisters have them too. My one sister gets them really bad all of the time and has actually passed out from them. I tend to think that her passing out from them is prob from anxiety over them than the actual palps. She has been to the emergency room many many times and to her Dr. for evaluation  and they never found anything wrong.
My next question is about heart pain. In the past few years off and on I have been awaken in the middle of the night with VERY strong pain in the center of my chest, right between my breasts. The only way to describe it is that it feel like a charlie horse. This pain is so bad that you don't want to move. I have found that sometimes if I sit up in  bed it feels better.
I just attributed it to heart burn, I have never had heartburn before, so i am really not exactly sure what it feels like.
These pains were very few and far between, so i never really worried about them. Now in the past three days i have been having them while i am up and around. Yesterday when i got them it went away when i layed down in
bed. I tried to finally treat it yesterday with Tums ES and sure enough, even before the tums  hit my stomach the pain was gone but reoccured
about an hour later. I took more tums and it was gone again. Now today..the same thing. The tums took it away again.
When i have the pain, i am usually relaxed not exerting myself.
I know now this must not be serious, but I can't believe how serious the pain is. I am just wondering what your advice would be on how to properly treat this type of pain and if I am out of the woods as far as severity.
I do drink a few beers with my husband nightly.

[CCF CARDIO MD DLB]

Posted By CCF CARDIO MD - DLB on May 24, 1999 at 20:50:26
Dear Val
Believe it or not, a few beers a night is actually a lot of alcohol. That is not good for your health. Regarding the palpitations, alcohol, tobacco and caffeine all make palpitations worse. Certain causes of palpitations can run in the family. This is rare, but the types of palpitations that run in the family are the serious kind (usually associated with real loss of consciousness or sudden death).
I am not sure what your symptoms are due to. If they are due to heartburn (which they easily could be), cutting out the alcohol (and tobacco and caffeine) would help this also. I cannot say whether it is your heart or not. But, the pain sounds severe, and ought to be evaluated by your doctor.
I hope this has been useful. I wish you the best of luck. Feel free to write back.
Information provided here is for general purposes only. Specific questions should be addressed to your own doctor. If you would like to make an appointment at the Cleveland Clinic Heart Center, please call 1-800-CCF-CARE or inquire online by using the Heart Center website at www.ccf.org/heartcenter. The Heart Center website contains a directory of the cardiology staff that can be used to select the physician best suited to address your cardiac problem.











Follow Ups:


Excrutiating chest pains  Val 5/26/1999
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Re: Excrutiating chest pains  CCF CARDIO MD - DLB 5/31/1999
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