heart and chest pain

im 16 and i get frequent heart pain in the left side of my chest... my hands shiver and they get sweaty... my heart beats so loud i can hear it and hurts alot... its hard to catch my breath... it feels like a heavy weight is set on my chest... i dont know what i have but do tell me if u know what it could be... is it anything serious? and how should i take care of it?

[newzor]

I recommend you visit a general doctor and let him decide whether you need to see a cardiologist.
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Maybe you are hyperventillating?
Hyperventillation does not necessarilly mean you are anxious or panicking.

It can also be the result of breathing in too quick and too deep, and not breathing out slowly enough.
If you breath in more than you breath out, your body gets too much oxygen.

This can lead to get muscle spasms, high heartrate, chestpain, fainting...
but in healthy young people without heartdisease it probably is almost impossible to die from it.

Having a high heart rate for long periods is not healthy for your heart though and can do some damage.
The buteyko method teaches how to stop hyperventillating.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Buteyko_method


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Even if your not hyperventillating,
all of the symptoms you mentioned can be because of anxiety or panic.

If you want to heal your stress and anxiety, i do not recommend pharmaceuticals.

benzo's and ssri's have many side-effects, effectively once u want to withdraw from them. i suggest u read horror stories from places like paxilprogress.org or benzoisland.org if you or one of your loved ones ever decide to use pharmaceutical drugs to combat depression or anxiety.

i recommend relaxation techniques such as vipassana.
http://www.urbandharma.org/udharma4/mpe.html

there you can read a free book that contains all the information you need to learn to transform anxiety and depression into peace and happiness.
it takes a couple of months to adjust your behavior but after 1 or 2 years you will have made incredible progress.


some people fail at adjusting their behavior even though they have made a serious effort for a period of time that is long enough for it to start to work,
through techniques such as vipassana meditation.

for these people, as well as people who experience lifethreatening depression or anxiety,
pharmaceutical drugs may be the best option... but they should only be used for as brief periods as possible.

if it's not even necessary, don't bother going on them.
it's not worth the potential side-effects.

[grendslori]

At 16, you most assuredly do not have any form of heart disease that would cause chest pains that are heart related. Tell your parents about what is going on so that they can take you to see the doctor.

[newzor]

I don't think there is a minimum age for heart disease,
or cardiovascular problems such as coronary spasms.

But i agree this person will _probably_ be physically healthy.

[kenkeith]

Unfortunately, the young don't escape heart disease, and/or congenital heart problems that relate to the structure such as the valves and sometimes septum defect ( hole beween chambers) that reduces a good healthy output of oxygenated blood.  The very young from the war when an autopsy was done it showed many had advanced coronary occlusions.