Angina is a medical term to describe pain or discomfort in the chest after undergoing physical or emotional stress. However, the signs and symptoms of angina go beyond a simple pain located in the chest. It occurs when the heart doesn’t receive as much blood as it needs, usually resulting from a blockage in one or more coronary arteries. Narrowed arteries, arteries with atherosclerotic plaques, and arteries contracted by the surrounding muscles may cause an episode of angina.
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These are the most important symptoms:
Chest pain
In most patients, it is a key symptom of angina and in mild cases of patients with heart disease, chest pain must not be overlooked. However, this type of pain can be triggered by ailments of the esophagus, lungs, nerves, ribs, and thoracic muscles. Thus, it is recommended to seek medical assistance in such cases. Angina pain can be described differently, depending on the patient. It may be sharp, dull, aching, burning and crushing sensation. For some patients and at some point, the pain may spread to the back, jaw, arms, and shoulder. The severity pain sometimes correlates with the need of treatment, but sometimes it does not.
Nausea
Most patients with angina may be sensitive to some food, medications or motion. Intense chest pain often causes nausea in patients, and this is triggered by inflammatory cytokines released at the moment of distress.
Vomiting
Vomiting is a forceful discharge of the stomach’s content. It may be triggered as a symptom of intense pain in angina and heart disease. The timing of vomiting may vary; it may appear shortly after a meal, preceded by nausea most of the time. In other cases, it may be up to eight hours after a meal or take a longer period of time to develop. Severe nausea and vomiting are associated with dizziness and dehydration.
Indigestion
Patients with angina may feel a type of burning pain called dyspepsia. That’s especially the case of patients who start their angina episode shortly after having a meal. In these cases, patients may experience abdominal pain and also a level of fullness as soon as they start eating. This sensation varies widely from one person to another. It is usually associated to other gastrointestinal symptoms, such as nausea and bloating in the upper abdomen. Most patients feel a little discomfort and pain in the area between the bottom of the breast bone and the navel. Others may experience burning sensations in the upper abdomen.
Heartburn
When food is swallowed, a band of muscle called the esophageal sphincter relaxes in order for both fluid and food to pass through, and then tightens back. For most persons experiencing cases of angina, the esophageal sphincter weakens. When it does, the stomach acid can flow back up, which is known as acid reflux. This causes heartburn, which feels similar to indigestion but it’s not necessarily related to eating your meal.
Dizziness
Dizziness hardly points out to any life-threatening condition. However, it can significantly affect your life when it becomes frequent and prolonged. Patients with angina may feel weak, faint or unsteady due to the poor circulation of blood. Most of them experience droopiness of the eyes or mouth, blurred vision, loss of consciousness, neck ache or high fever. Along with other signs and symptoms, this may indicate the presence of angina, and the patient must seek medical assistance if he has not been yet diagnosed.
Shortness of breath
The brain regulates the breathing process. During breathing, the level of carbon dioxide and oxygen in the hemoglobin changes, and the body becomes replenished of oxygen. However, in cases of angina, there is an increase in carbon dioxide in the blood. The brain sends signals to the body to increase the rate of breathing, which may result in faster or deeper breaths.
That’s why people experiencing angina usually feel out of breath after certain types of physical effort, such as having rigorous exercise or walking at a fast pace. How quickly chest pain and shortness of breath develops widely depends on each patient and the severity of their disease.
Sweating
Normally, the sweat glands produce perspiration triggered by the nervous system. It appears on the skin as the temperature increases or in cases of high fever. Although excessive sweating (primary hyperhidrosis) has no medical cause, secondary hyperhidrosis can be a symptom of angina. This occurs as a result of the overactive nerves triggering the sweat glands, through an activation of the sympathetic nervous system.
Abdominal pain
This symptom is common in cases of angina, especially in women, and often the pain is less severe in their gender. Abdominal pain occurs due to muscle contractions blocking the flow of blood to the organs.
The patient may experience severe pain, signs of peritonitis (constant pain that doubles over), and sometimes swelling of the abdomen. The pain may be dull, sharp, crampy, and intermittent. Localized pain may be limited to a particular area of the abdomen.
Lack of energy and weakness
The clinical name of this symptom is asthenia. Angina patients may feel a severe lack of energy that impairs their normal functioning and day-to-day chores. The patient may experience weakness in key areas of the body such as the legs or arms. Weakness in some cases may be chronic, continuous or temporary.
This symptom appears due to an accelerated metabolic waste and metabolic stress that results in excess energy expenditure.
Symptoms of weakness may appear slowly over a period of time or immediately. It is sometimes associated with tremors, muscle cramps, and slow movement. Thus, patients with symptoms of angina may not be able to stand for a period of time, especially during acute episodes, and may also have difficulty speaking or swallowing and experience lethargy.
Muscle cramps
Usually, cramps are not harmful or a sign of severe problem, but may also be a symptom of a medical conditions such as angina. It is caused by a painful spasm of the muscle. To relax and contract, the muscle depends partly on different minerals and other chemicals. When angina occurs, it disturbs the body’s balance of these minerals and makes the muscle susceptible to cramps.
Cramps may occur if the blood supply is inadequate, a common consequence of heart disease. Muscle cramps can keep the patient awake in the middle of the night or cause sudden difficulty to walk or perform certain types of physical activity. In cases of angina, any muscle can be affected, but one of the major areas includes the calf and foot muscles. Cramps may last up to 3- 15 minutes and generally improves by themselves. Muscle cramps can also occur in the abdominal wall, hands, and arms.
Unrest
It is normal to feel restless from time to time, but it can sometimes be a sign of angina. The patient feels stirred up, tense or irritable. This sensation can last for some minutes, a few hours, or during the time that the angina episode lasts.
Patients with heart disease may trigger episodes of angina after periods of physical or emotional stress. At the same time, we mentioned that angina triggers the parasympathetic nervous system, which turns on the alert system of the body. Thus, unrest can be either a cause or consequence of angina, and patients with chest pain often come to the emergency room with anxiety and emotional distress, which often makes the medical situation even more severe.
Angina is caused by a dysfunction of the coronary arteries. Thus, patients with angina are at a higher risk of developing a heart attack in the future. This condition is often progressive, and triggers become more and more intrusive, resulting in a severe reduction in quality of life. Risk factors that usually cause angina include old age, high blood pressure, high levels of cholesterol, obesity, stress, not getting enough exercise, family history of heart disease and using tobacco. Angina can be treated, and it is a reversible heart problem, but it is one step behind heart attack. Thus, once these symptoms are noticed, it is important to seek medical assistance.
Learn More:
- Heart-Healthy Foods: 8 Foods That Are Good for Your Heart I Secrets to a Healthy Heart
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- Heart Murmurs: Overview, Causes, Signs, Types, Symptoms, Diagnosis, and Treatment
- 12 Warning Signs Of Heart Attack You Should NOT Ignore!
- 8 Foods That Cause Heartburn I What are The Different Foods That Cause Heartburn?
One of the best ways to prevent angina is to make a few lifestyle changes. This may also help to improve symptoms if the person already has a heart condition. Common recommendations include a healthy diet with less saturated fat, avoiding excess carbohydrates, and limiting the consumption of alcohol. It is also important reducing your level of stress, avoiding sedentary behavior, controlling your weight, sayinquit smoking, and controlling other health conditions, especially high cholesterol and diabetes. An exercise plan can be an adequate recommendation for some patients, but if you suspect heart disease, it should be prescribed by your doctor after a complete assessment of your cardiovascular system.