Is It Just Stress? Chest Pain Isn’t Always Serious, Is It?

Do you ever feel significant chest pain?

Does it worry you?

Any type of chest pain that causes you concern or that is accompanied by any of the following symptoms, should be considered an emergency:

• Pressure, tightness and squeezing pain across the chest
• Pain radiating down the arm, shoulders, jaw, neck, and back, particularly on the left side
• Shortness of breath
• Dizziness, sweating, weakness, overwhelming fatigue
• Feeling of impending doom
• Headache, blurry vision, lightheadedness, feeling faint
• Gastrointestinal symptoms such as indigestion, nausea and vomiting
• Coughing and palpitations

You are much better safe than sorry.

If you experience symptoms like those above, you want to get to a hospital and rule out the possibility that you are having a heart attack.

Do not reason it away and lose valuable time.

There are many other causes of chest pain that can become worrisome, but they won’t give you sudden extreme symptoms like those of a heart attack.

Any of the following might give you chest pain:

• GERD or heartburn
• excessive belching
• hiatal hernia
• gastric ulcer
• pulled muscle

Suffice to say that if you are worried, seek the advice of your doctor.

With that said, let me also say that even if you think your chest pain is related to stress, it is still cause for concern. Read more

How Does a Heart Attack Effect the Body; Do You Know the Symptoms?

When you think about someone having a heart attack, does it involve drama, grabbing the chest and falling to the floor?

How does a heart attack effect the body?

Though chest pressure is a common symptom of heart attack, you may also experience other less obvious symptoms.

More women are dying of heart disease than men!  Women especially may experience symptoms that are vague and not as obvious.

Women shoulder so much of the burden in modern society that they often push through the pain, dismissing it as normal everyday pain.

If you have a heart attack, your life may depend on getting help fast!

It is important that doctors and patients pay much closer attention to save lives!  Problem is, women don’t get the respect they deserve in and ER the way that men do.

If more women die of heart disease than men, why are women still not being carefully evaluated when they come in with vague symptoms of pain?

Good question!  Your life may depend on you complaining loud enough to get the care you desperately need!

Symptoms That Should NEVER Be Ignored: Read more

Have You Checked Your Blood Pressure Lately?

High blood pressure can develop anytime.

Have you been under a lot of stress lately?

One of my dear friends has recently taken on the role of caregiver for her aging relatives.  The stress level has resulted in her blood pressure climbing.

Fortunately, the tragedy of losing her sister too soon (to untreated high blood pressure) has made her painfully aware that denial, and lack of treatment can be a deadly combination.

Facing a health robbing condition, she knows that she needs to evaluate her options and take action immediately.

So far she has been much better about getting out and walking each day.  She can’t change the stress that revolves around her, but she can choose to be gentle with herself.

The biggest challenge, she has found, is cutting back on red wine in the evening.  It is such a comfort, and really seems to help the stress so much, that she has had a hard time keeping it under control.

Each day is a new day.  Each day she faces the challenge.

I don’t worry about her.  She is aware that she needs to make changes, and she is always making new goals for herself.

Just because you have not had health issues in the past, is no guarantee that you will not develop high blood pressure tomorrow.

It is a good idea, with the current economic state, to pay a little extra attention to your blood pressure.

Do you know what you do to cause high blood pressure? Read more