When To Call a Professional
Call your doctor if you experience chest pain, even if you think you are too young to have angina pectoris and no history of heart problems in his family. Your doctor will recommend the next steps depending on how you describe your symptoms and risk factors. (more…)
When the cause of angina is coronary artery disease, treatment usually includes:
* Changes in lifestyle, including weight loss for obese patients, smoking cessation therapy, drugs to reduce high cholesterol, regular exercise program to reduce high blood pressure and stress reduction techniques.
* Nitrates: nitroglycerin including: nitrates are medications that widen blood vessels (vasodilators). Increase blood flow in coronary arteries provide the heart and pumping blood to the rest of the body. (more…)
Duration
A crisis of angina usually lasts less than five minutes. Pain that lasts longer than that or acute may suggest a more significant decrease in blood flow to heart. This can happen when someone is having a heart attack or unstable angina.
Prevention
You can help prevent angina, which causes blockage of arteries caused by coronary heart disease by controlling your risk factors. (more…)
Your doctor may suspect that you have angina based on your symptoms and risk of coronary artery disease. The doctor will check your background to see if you smoke (or smoked) and if you have diabetes and high blood pressure. Ask about family history and check your cholesterol levels, including LDL (commonly called “bad” cholesterol) and HDL (commonly called “good cholesterol”).
Check your blood pressure and pulse, and examine your heart and lungs. You may need one or more diagnostic tests to determine if you have coronary artery disease. Tests may include: (more…)
Angina is discomfort or pain in the chest when not enough oxygen-rich blood to heart muscle cells. It is not a disease but a symptom of a more serious condition, often a coronary artery disease in which the vessels supplying the heart (give blood) is narrowed or blocked.
Coronary heart disease is usually caused by atherosclerosis, a disease in which fatty deposits (called plaque) on the inner walls of blood vessels. Although angina most commonly affects middle-aged men or older, can occur in both sexes and all ages. Angina is also known as angina pectoris. (more…)