Aa
Aa
A
A
A
Close
Avatar universal

Persistant Chest Discomfort

Hi there , i would like to post a question to the doctors here.

I am 31 male , 5"10 at 165 lb. Presume healthy and exercises 3 times a week ( 2 runs of  4 miles and cycling) No preexisting illness.

2 months ago , I have encountered sudden jolts from my sleep with me waking up in cold sweats and rapid heartbeats in the range of 120-130. I dismissed it as a nightmare and carried on with my sleeps.

After that , i had this lingering chest discomfort (not painful but feels like something pressing) which didn't go away which i still have til now. Recently i encounter palpitations at rest mostly in the morning, where i find difficulties to breath and i can't seem to feel my heartbeats and my chest has this numbness where i can't feel much in my chest. Less to say heartbeats.

I used to be able to feel and "control" my heartbeats in the sense , to slow it down through breathing deeply. Now i can't , it just goes at whatever beat it wants and my resting heartbeat rose from a normal 50-60 to 70-80. This actually freaked me out and i stopped my regular exercise for fear of triggering a heart attack since i can no longer feel my heart beat. I had to measure it via my pulse.  

I have gone to the ER a couple of times , did the regular Blood tests and ECGs and all came out fine. BP is 125/70. Doctor reassure me that i was fine. The problem is i was fine in the ER and the symptoms that occur , happen at home. I do have an appointment next week as the ER doctor said i had no problems and couldn't get the cardio immediately. This made me slightly concerned.

I do not think i am feeling any anxiety but i am slightly concerned with whatever that is happening to. Can anyone advise me on the precautions i should take to prevent an heart attack if i do really have heart disease?

I have being doing research this few days and found my symptoms linking to Valve problems ( MVP ) and Cardiac asthma. This made me slightly worried. Rest assured that i am calm and breathing correctly.
11 Responses
Sort by: Helpful Oldest Newest
Avatar universal
Here is a heart angina that does not show up on a stress test or on an ECG test(unless the attack is happening at that time for the ECG).Is a heart spasm.

Prinzmetal's Angina


Another thing it could be is a bad problem with your Tyroid as it has a lot of your syptoms.

Most likely could be the Thyroid as Prinzmetal's Angina is not very common.
Helpful - 0
Avatar universal
I have panic attacks and anxiety, the worst the pain has ever been with these is around a 2 maybe a 3, and the pain only lasts as long as the panic attack ( but again very little pain). I think we KNOW when something is not right with our bodies.
I have been getting new pains and when I went to see my EP, he didn't even let me finish before he said it was muscular skelatal ( he never listened to my heart or touched me).
So I went to my regular Dr. and told them I the pain I was having and they are sending me to a cardioligist.
Helpful - 0
Avatar universal
A further update on my state , i am still stuck with this lingering chest pain and pounding of the heart. Increase deteriorating stamina ( i have rapid pounding heart and lose of breath just walking up a flight of stairs to think i used to run 7km a day and not feel fluffed) probably due to the lack of cardio exercises though i am still doing sets of push ups and burpees to keep fit.

Now the pain has intensified to a sharp pain pointing 8 on the 10 scale in my 2 left chest bone 4 fingers away from the center of the chest. I am pretty certain this is not anxiety , i have no fear neither a sense of doom.

The only relief i can have is for probably 20 mins whenever i stretch backward and crack my chest bone or sternum before the pain returns. Pounding has being around the whole day i am so used to this pounding that i simply put a pillow on top of my chest

I am pretty disappointed in the general health system the failure of diagnosing any problems with me and dismissing it for muscle skeletal pain which the pain killers ranging from Napoxen to Celebrex.

This has not done anything to be pain but it gave me more pain as i have gastric pains because of those medications. I have read so many similar case of the same symptoms and doctors can't be able to solve them? Seriously something is wrong somewhere?
Helpful - 0
Avatar universal
Hi perry , personally I do agree with you that I am slightly worried about my heart as I do not think for heart to "work" above whatver it needs to is anything good. Well I do agree I do not know how anxiety works but I really hope the attacks are normal anxiety attacks and nothing serious.

For your case , it eventually lead to heart problem even though u work out 30 mins per day , this is something that I would eagerly wanted to avoid.

Maybe I would have to pick up exercising again since I stopped while I was doing my heart test and stuff.
Helpful - 0
Avatar universal
Dave these almost sound like anxiety attacks. While I do have heart issues now due to coronary blockage, what you are describing sounds similar to what I experienced about 9 years ago which required me to go on SSRI medication for anxiety. Perhaps it is some kind of precurser to heart problems, or perhaps it is unconnected.
I am not a physician but my treatment path was 30 minutes of treadmill a night and 1mg of Ativan before bedtime. When this proved to help, my MD switched me over to an SSRI because it has a better reputation for log term use.
Clinical anxiety is not the same as stress where you can just relax and breathe your way out of it. It can cause racing heart, fainting, chest pains that mimic MI symptoms, and other shooting pains through the body.Some of the stress relievers are beneficial and help make you less reliant on the medication. It might be worth considering.
Helpful - 0
Avatar universal
Ok , am back with all the reports. Went for 24 hours holter and stress echo on threadmil and was declared normal. The cardio went on to dismiss the chest pains as muscle skeletal pains and was given naproxen.

The problem is this pain still persist despite the medication and this "pounding" heart symptom is still around. Despite the "normal" heart rate , I am having a higher bp than what i had probably 4 months ago and it seems like I would have an noticeable increase in my heartbeat after meals , i had not encounter this before . The fact that the doctors can't find anything wrong with me makes me worried. That said since I know I have a perfectly normal heart , I am not feeling any anxiety but I hate the fact that no one can do anything to explain what I am going through.

I am pretty sure I didn't have those symptoms half a year ago and those symptoms are appearing to be staying around and in fact more symptoms keep appearing. I am now having this pain in my inner thigh whenever I am driving and a headache which I can't explain. I have read up on problems with adrenal gland and found that I had most symptoms .

The next thing is what are the tests should I go for to get those stuff checked? I am kind of sick of having doctors which simply can't explain whatever I am going through. I am probably switching another hospital in order to seek an opinion since the current one seem to think there is nothing wrong with me which clearly isn't the case.
Helpful - 0
Avatar universal
Hi there,

Ok the last trip to my GP gave me some insights to what might be happening to me. He suspects that i might suffering from Mitral Valve Prolapse . He has sent me for the 3rd thyroid blood test and based on my research , this has something to do with Graves' Disease and this is indirectly linked to MVP.

What is this disease and can this disease be cured? Is there any precaution i can take to prevent it from becoming worse?
Helpful - 0
Avatar universal
Hi neiljohnson,

Thanks for your kind replies.

I was given propranolol in which i took during one of my trips to my regular doctor. But I had this side effect of my heartbeat slowing down to about 40 per minute and i was struggling with dizziness and weakness. I stopped immediately and the thumping effect carried on.

I have tried relaxing , but i guess it didn't work. More often than not , what i am doing is more to recognize it and ignore it. I just let it happen and carry on with whatever i am doing.

I do know a 70-80 might not be high but that is when i am totally not moving. But when i move slightly for e.g from a lying position to a sitting position , my pulse goes up to 90-100 for couple of mins and i have this wriggling/twitching sensation like something shifting somewhere across my chest which i do not know how to to describe in words.

Anyway , since it doesn't sound like anything bad , i guess the best thing i can do is to ignore all those symptoms til i get an answer from the cardio. I have being writing a whole list of questions for him. I sure hope he won't find me a chore.

I do appreciate your help in clearing my doubts. Thanks. Will update again when i am back from the cardio.
Helpful - 0
1616751 tn?1299684974
It's difficult to know if the symptoms are getting worse or you are more aware. However, I understand that the symptoms are worrying - and you seem to be doing the right thing.
If you can't tolerate them until you see the cardiologist then see your regular doctor and he can check you out again and perhaps give you something to reduce the anxiety.
If you feel more in control when you know your heart rate then find somewhere you can feel your pulse - at the wrist is easiest. Then just do your relaxation until it goes away. In the meantime try to document what brings it on and identify exactly what your pulse rate is. 70-80 doesn't sound too high atall.

Helpful - 0
Avatar universal
My family doesn't have a history of early heart disease.

What was worrisome is i have increasing having more and more symptoms. At first , i thought it was anxiety and trying to relax and meditate. Problems i can't feel my heart so how am i going to slow it down? Do know i know when one panics they hyperventilate , i tried to breath in slowly and deeply to prevent that from happening.

Problems is whenever i try to breath in deeply, my body starts to have this tremors/shivers which i have never encountered before along with this thumping sensation of my heart. I can't say the heart is beating fast but it is sure alot harder than it used to be. I have this thumping sensation nowadays whenever i lie flat on my back and whenever i breath in deeply , my body responses with a shiver/tremor along with a dull ache within somewhere left of my ribcage.

I am worried about this thumping sensation getting bad to worse and if it was harmless , i assume symptoms like these won't get worse. But the fact that it is seems a concern to me.
Helpful - 0
1616751 tn?1299684974
Do you have a family history of early heart disease? If not this is very unlikely to be a problem that is going to give you a heart attack.
You are probably suffereing from a realtively common rhythm disturbance of the heart that comes and goes. It is relatively harmless (you've had the basic tests to prove that there is no obvious abnormality casuing this) and it will need to be investigated with a monitor which you will wear to record your heart rate continuously. This will enable a more precise diagnosis.
Rest assured, if you were suffereing from coronary heart disease (which underlies heart attack) it would have shown up on the tests they did.
You can safely wait to see the cardio.
Helpful - 0
Have an Answer?

You are reading content posted in the Heart Disease Community

Top Heart Disease Answerers
159619 tn?1707018272
Salt Lake City, UT
11548417 tn?1506080564
Netherlands
Learn About Top Answerers
Didn't find the answer you were looking for?
Ask a question
Popular Resources
Is a low-fat diet really that heart healthy after all? James D. Nicolantonio, PharmD, urges us to reconsider decades-long dietary guidelines.
Can depression and anxiety cause heart disease? Get the facts in this Missouri Medicine report.
Fish oil, folic acid, vitamin C. Find out if these supplements are heart-healthy or overhyped.
Learn what happens before, during and after a heart attack occurs.
What are the pros and cons of taking fish oil for heart health? Find out in this article from Missouri Medicine.
How to lower your heart attack risk.