Movies and media have played a typical image of the angina symptoms and signs, holding the left side of the chest before going into a coma. It could be pretty similar, with some differences. The main angina symptom that occurs mainly is massive chest pain.
Out of movies and drama, let’s answer the “what’s angina?” question.
For what’s basic, angina symptoms occur when the heart suffers from a lack of blood; yeah, you read it right. If something happens to the coronary artery feeding the heart with blood, the problem starts to be threatening. Ironically, angina is a problem of lack of blood threatening the primary blood provider into the body.
Angina symptoms are also described as a heavyweight put on the chest, which could be surprising for the patient and very significant, meaning that the patient has to receive healthcare as soon as possible.
Types of Angina
There’re many types of angina, between which we can mention:
– Stable angina
– Unstable angina
– Vasospastic angina
– Prinzmetal angina
Angina symptoms would vary between each type. That’s what we’re going to mention in detail as follows.
Angina Symptoms
We can distinguish the type from symptoms.
Stable Angina Symptoms:
– Increasing heartbeats rate while having a substantial physical effort, like long distances walking or climbing stairs.
– Pain doesn’t last for more than 5 minutes. Usually, it would fade out gradually when getting some rest or getting the unique medicine for such a case.
– Pain would spread out from the left shoulder to both arms, back, and many different body areas.
– Frequent angina symptoms could lead to stress, and a patient would suffer from stress signs and complications.
Unstable Angina Symptoms
– Pain would last for 30 minutes or more.
– Feeling pain without any physical effort.
– Pain is not responding to medicines or even getting better.
– It could lead to heart attacks that are usually life-threatening.
Vasospastic Angina Symptoms
This type is due to blood vessels’ malfunctions, mainly about the coronary artery, which leads to cramps blocking the regular bloodstream from reaching the heart.
It has many apparent symptoms as follows:
– Chest pain
– Feeling stressed out
– Feeling exhausted and tired due to minimum effort.
– Severe mood swings
– Shortness of breathing
– Different sleeping problems, insomnia.
– General weakness, not being able to practice normal duties.
– Lack of energy and power in an obvious way.
Prinzmetal Angina Symptoms
This type is considered quite rare, knowing that it could happen during rest or even while sleeping at night.
This type is due to cramps in the coronary artery feeding the heart with blood, which blocks the regular bloodstream providing it with blood, accompanied by severe chest pains.
Wondering what could lead to such a deadly case, we found out that a broken heart is one of the main reasons; yeah, a break-up has more profound impact on our health than we imagine. Not to mention smoking as an essential player also to have this type of angina symptoms.
Angina Symptoms for Women
For instance, angina symptoms would vary between men and women, affecting responding and recognising the case at the right time. For ladies, chest pain is not the main angina symptom in most patients, confusing while diagnosing.
Women angina symptoms are:
– Nausea
– Shortness breathing
– Abdominal pain
– Uncomfortable feeling and pain in the neck, back, and jaw
– Feeling chest pain but more similar to a knife stab, not a heavyweight on the chest like a men.
Angina Causes
Angina symptoms occur when the heart does not have enough blood rich in oxygen, leading to what is known by Ischemia.
Blocking the bloodstream into the coronary artery for whatever reason is mainly the cause of the whole problem; this blockage is a consequence of fat accumulation or blood platelets precipitation that could cause blood clots.
Out of this point, we can come out with so many factors and causes that could lead to angina symptoms, which we’re going to spread in detail as follows.
Risk Factors:
– Smoking is the leading player, as it could cause atherosclerosis and narrowing of the coronary artery.
– High blood pressure without taking any measures to control it or put it under control. You can read this article to know more about high blood pressure through this article.
– High cholesterol levels, which increases fat precipitation on arteries walls and block them. Get to know more about high cholesterol levels and their complications through this article.
– High blood triglycerides due to obesity or diabetes.
– Low physical activity.
– Obesity is also the main reason by itself.
– Diabetes plays a massive role in provoking angina symptoms.
– Stress and daily pressure would cause some grave damages to the coronary artery.
– Alcohol drinking would damage arteries and blood vessels in general.
Angina Symptoms Complications
Angina symptoms might prevent the patient from having an everyday life, especially when trying to make any physical effort. It could lead to what’s more dangerous than a heart attack.
Complications vary between:
– Having a full chest and feeling pressure on it.
– Long-period chest pain that could last for several minutes.
– Pain could take several successive attacks.
– Vomiting and nausea
– Feeling severe pain in the upper abdominal part.
– Shortness breathing.
– Abnormal sweating.
– Losing consciousness and going into a coma.
– Panicking.
Once one or more of these symptoms occur, the patient should head to receive immediate healthcare. It could be the thin line between life and death—time matters. Acquiring the proper care within minutes is always a must.
Angina Symptoms Treatment & Diagnosis
A specialist doctor would start to ask the patient some quick questions concerning his symptoms and medical history so that he can identify if these symptoms are due to any other disease. Also, these questions should include knowing about the family medical history and if the patient has any chronic diseases such as high blood pressure, diabetes, or high cholesterol.
First of all, the doctor tries to locate pain, and then questions are asked as follows:
If the patient feels some pressure on his chest, or it’s just a prick?
Where’s the pain location exactly?
If the pain reaches the neck and arms?
When did it start? And if it comes worse with time?
How long has the pain lasted? And what actions or movements could make it worse?
If deep breathing, laying down, or sitting down could decrease the pain or make it better?
Wondering about any different symptoms, like nausea or dizziness.
If there’s any problem swallowing? Or stomach pain?
Afterwards, the patient must complete many medical tests and scans so that the doctor can be sure about the patient’s condition.
These tests vary between:
– Electrocardiogram (ECG)
– Cardiac stress check
– X-ray scan for the chest area
– Echocardiogram
– Isotope stress ECG
– Blood vessels scanning
– Several blood tests
Angina Symptoms Treatment
Treatment is mainly given through some medicines and drugs described by a specialist doctor. Moreover, the patient should have a new lifestyle that provides him comfort and takes him to the safety side away from any life-threatening complications.
It’s highly required that the patient follows these tips:
– Divide any physical effort into several sessions and includes some rest times between them.
– Avoid any creamy or fatty meals.
– Relaxing and laying down several times all over the day, and avoid any unnecessary effort.
– Quit smoking immediately.
– Eat healthily, and include all nutrition elements into meals.
– Keep a healthy weight and shape, which helps control many other diseases such as diabetes, high cholesterol, and obesity.
Sometimes, surgical intervention is needed to fix a heart stent that keeps the bloodstream running by widening the coronary artery and overcoming obstacles blocking it. Typically, this is not the first option to treat angina symptoms, and the patient would go through an assessment period while receiving several medicines before deciding that it’s a must.
Angina Symptoms Prevention
Aiming to avoid such symptoms, some tips and pieces of advice are highly recommended, as they have proved a high efficiency in having a healthy life.
– Avoid smoking
– Monitoring any chronic diseases and ensuring they’re under control. (high blood pressure, diabetes, high cholesterol)
– Keep a healthy weight.
– Stick to a healthy diet.
– Set a daily workout session without put any excessive effort.
– Control stress and anxiety.
