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Heart pain or neuralgia: how to tell? Says a cardiologist
Healthy Food Near Me continues the series of videos “Ask an Expert”, where every week she asks the most exciting questions to specialists. We had a new conversation with cardiologist Anna Korenevich.
Cardiologist Anna Korenevich
In the new video, a cardiologist, candidate of medical sciences, author of the book “How to live after a heart attack”, as well as the author of channels on и Anna Korenevich told about a fulfilling life with a sick heart, can the heart hurt after drinking alcohol, are pains during physical exertion dangerous and how to distinguish heart pain from neuralgia.
Why does my heart hurt after drinking alcohol or exercising?
Alcohol is a poison for our body. Metabolic products that enter the bloodstream after drinking alcohol cause a vegetative storm – this is an unplanned adrenaline rush, that is stress hormone.
A person’s blood pressure rises, heart rate increases, vasospasm occurs and therefore this discomfort occurs. This condition is really very dangerous due to risk of cardiovascular complications: heart attacks or strokes. Especially in people who have a predisposition to such cardiovascular diseases.
For young people, this is not so dangerous, but nevertheless it causes such discomfort in the chest and can be perceived as pain in the heart. In fact, this is not a pain in the heart, it is the phenomenon of general intoxication of the body.
With regard to physical activity: with ischemic heart disease pain occurs during exercise. If pain occurs after, then this indicates that it is not the heart that hurts, but the chest, muscles, intercostal joints hurt.
Most likely this consequences of not very competent training, if a person is engaged in independently and does something wrong.
The heart hurts at the height of the human load. When this pain occurs, the person cannot continue the physical activity, and stops it. It is called exertional angina.
Cardiologist Anna Korenevich
Why do nerves cause pain in the heart?
During any emotions: negative or positive, we release the stress hormone – the hormone adrenaline.
This hormone causes vasospasm, an increase in blood pressure, an increase in the heart rate.
And this can really provoke pain in the heart, neuralgia in patients with angina pectoris.
That is, the general mechanism is as follows: there is a release of stress hormones, which triggers these unpleasant consequences, including heart pains, headaches, heart rhythm disturbances. Thus, with age, we develop hypertension and other problems of the cardiovascular system.
Why can’t people tell the difference between heart pain and neuralgia?
In fact, it is the doctor’s job to find this difference, since it is not a simple differential diagnostic search. Any pain in the chest always worries even doctors.
But there is a fairly clear sign of the difference between heart pain and neuralgia, which helps to distinguish almost 80-90% – this is a connection with physical activity.
Angina pectoris (heart pain) occurs exclusively at the height of physical activity and stops during a person’s rest.
Neuralgia more likely to bother people at rest in a lying or sitting position. This is a fairly clear distinctive feature, but nevertheless, if you are worried about any pain in the heart, you should not engage in self-diagnosis and self-medication. Visit a cardiologist – this will be the best solution!