arm pain

[airin]

Starting when I was a child I would, and still do, get a pain that radiates down my left arm.  When I was younger, I would tell the doctor's that my arm couldn't breathe.  It does feel as if I may not be getting oxygen to my arm.  None of my doctor's have any idea what was going on (I started going to the doctor for this about 14 years ago) and recently people have been telling me that it could have to do with my heart.  Does anyone have a symptom like that?

I have also, more recently, started having other symptoms like; numbness of the hands, tingling and numbness in my head, hard time recalling words (for me to say), arthritis, weakened grip (hands), and dull ache in my shins (not related to physical activity).

[airin]

Actually, my family thought that I was having respiratory issues and I spent most of my time at a respiratory specialist.  I was active, but I had issues going up stairs and the like.  

I never heard of issues with your arms being linked to heart complications until less than a year ago.  

I am now in my late 20's at about 16, I started avoiding activities because of these issues.  

I was asking the question because I am out of ideas and things are not getting better.  I don't even know what kind of heart problems arm pain could be linked to.  

I did not eat much junk food and the like until I was about 20.  I have a slight allergy to chocolate and soda tends to affect the left side of my body.  I have always liked fruits and veges more than chips and such.  

[grendslori]

Small children tend to imitate adults and realistically, you probably heard a parent, relative or TV say something about left arm pain relating to the heart. Truth is, if you were having pain related to the heart, ESPECIALLY as a young child, you would have to have had very SEVERE heart disease and there are really only a couple of forms of congenital heart disease that would have that as a symptom. The reason for that is because there is a lack of bloodflow to the heart muscle walls. Cardiomyopathies are a prime reason for chest pain in the young. If you had those types of heart problems, your life as a child would have been robbed from you, for the most part; in other words, your parents would have known there was a real problem going on. You don't say how old you are at this point; CAD (Coronary Artery Disease) is a problem usually in middle age; it takes about 20 years of eating a lot of the wrong foods to cause enough plague to build up in the arteries to block them. The numbness you are writing aabout could be caused by things as simple as arthritis in the neck. Try seeing a neurologist, that would be his field of medicine.