I have been expeeriensing this since 5 years now . I am relating it to stress . I hope this thread get activated again to share ideas
I have the exact thing described by the original poster. I've had it since the late 1980s. Hurts like crazy and goes on for about 5-20 minutes. You'll swear your heart must be on the right side unlike other humans and you're having a heart attack. I've told doctors about it and they're clueless. I speculate it was some form of Angina. Anyway, finally in late 2017 I found an immediate fix to relieve the pain. Yep, you guessed it...drink something. It doesn't have to be water it can be anything. You'll only need to take a sip or two and not the whole glass. Pain immediately stops. It must have something to do with the swallowing action drinking liquid provides. After almost 30 years of this ailment I now enjoy immediate relief...yippee!
I've had this off and on for quite some time. My father who is turning 70 this year has also had this for quite some time. When it happens, I make sure to drink plenty of water, take some antiacid like tums, and take an advil. Usually clears up pretty quickly from there. Not sure what causes it, stress? dehydration? heartburn of some sort? but I have had my heart checked out with EKG's and echocardiograms with all normal results so doesn't seem to be related to the heart.
I've been following this thread for quite some time now without ever sharing my story in hopes of getting more information about what is going on with all of us. I hope I can help some of you going through this excruciating discomfort. Some of your situations are practically identical to mine, others not so much. My "chest" pain doesn't come at night or during sleep like a lot of people in this post; it is COMPLETELY RANDOM. Now that I think about it actually, I have never gotten it during sleep. I would, however, get it some times just before or after I wake up. Im a 27 year old male. The first time I had an attack I was 14 and sleeping over a friend's house. We went to bed and as I was trying to fall asleep I started feeling this kind of slow pinch [flowing-poison] inside of my chest and neck. I thought I was having a heart attack but a few minutes later the pain went away. It literally felt like my nerves or veins were filled with poison/bad blood? It starts out in the side of the neck, goes all the way to the center of the chest, through my upper back/shoulders, around my jaws and teeth. I'll even hear some type of sparkling under the back of my tongue; as if the poison or liquid had reached its destination and bubbled off. I didn't get another attack for a couple of years after that but at a certain point, attacks were more and more frequent. That's that for the how and when. Now the interesting part...
I visited, in all, 7 doctors ( 1 family doctor, 6 emergency practitioners). My family doctor brushed it off as muscular spasms at first. I wasn't satisfied with his diagnosis hence the emergency. Out of the 6 doctors I saw, 5 of them had no idea what I was talking about and recommended I speak to my family doctor about it (they probably thought I was out of my mind and this was psychological). Which is fair right? We do sound over dramatic with no apparent signs of disease. One day, a couple of years ago, I got an attack so severe, it went on for 5 hours, throbbing and aching. I started tasting iron in my mouth (BLOOD?!). It was blood. Not thick red blood but my saliva was pinkish. I drank cold water and TADAAA! Pain gone instantly. That's the first time I discovered the oh-so-simple remedy. I was relieved but I was scare ******** nevertheless (excuse my language). As i share this new discovery with my FamDoc, he recommends an esophageal and neck X-Ray theorizing it is either GERD, Esophageal Spasms or neck sprain. I'm sorry to be the bearer of bad news guys; RESULTS CAME BACK NORMAL. Nothing wrong with my esophagus or my neck. At this point the doctor looks at me with humble confusion and says "I have no idea where to send you or what kind of specialist to recommend". This obviously worries me but he had one final trick up his sleeve to try; Domperidone.
(wikipedia)
Domperidone, sold under the brand name Motilium among others, is a peripherally selective dopamine D2 receptor antagonist that was developed by Janssen Pharmaceutica and is used as an antiemetic, gastroprokinetic agent, and galactagogue.[1][6][7] It may be administered orally or rectally, and is available in the form of tablets, orally disintegrating tablets (based on Zydis technology),[8] suspension, and suppositories.[9] The drug is used to relieve nausea and vomiting; to increase the transit of food through the stomach (by increasing gastrointestinal peristalsis); and to promote lactation (breast milk production) by release of prolactin.
I know what you're thinking. Dopamine? Gastroprokinetic? Basically, this stuff makes your stomach better at digesting and speeds up the process of digestion. It is acutally mainly used to help pregnant women produce breast milk. To my wonderful surprise, after now 1 month of taking 3 tablets a day (1 before each meal), attacks have vanished. I got one LITTLE attack at some point a couple of weeks ago and drank water, I was good. Nothing since. I am still not absolutely sure this is the solution to the problem but it is definitely helping and may help find the cause at the roots of all this.
Sorry for the rambling but I've been patiently waiting to be able to share something worth a damn and there it is. Thank you for bearing through this text. I hope this has shed some light on the issue for some of you. For the ones that dont relate to this; hang in there! The solution is out there you just need to keep drinking your cold water and dont be scared to try things that might not make sense.
"Sudden onset of crushing chest pain usually while sleeping that feels like a prelude to heart attack. Also stumbled upon the cold water solution which provides almost immediate relief"
That is exactly what I have and have experienced. All of a sudden about 10 years ago I had this chest pain sitting in my office. I was mortified, because it was on the chest and so severe. I was afraid to move thinking I am having a heart attack. I work for Hopkins so had the privilege of walking over to the hospital. While waiting in ER, the pain gradually went away, I decided to go back to office. Following that, yes, tons of tests, nobody seems to know. I think I am the only one said cramp spasm... One day I 'stumbled' on cold water solution, worked like a charm. Like many of you, first sip of cold water, the pain 'melts' away. Amazing.
I get it about 3-5 times a year, I think, for the last 10 years... and 'looking forward' to many years of this accompanying me. Thanks all for sharing.
I have had similar problems in the past. It was all part of having GERD, where your stomach contents rise up past the sphincter muscle at the bottom of the esophagus and top of the stomach. When this happens, you can get some really intense pain in the chest, behind the sternum. My problem is that it can get so bad that my teeth on the right side start to hurt. When I first started getting it, usually a shot of Mylanta or something to stop the burn would help, but then that stopped working, so I had to graduate to baking soda, and when that failed to help, aspirin (much to my doctor's ire). If I wake up in the middle of the night feeling the burn, I just pop a couple of aspirin and go back to sleep.
I have been also getting this weird pain usually when I lay down and sleep I wake up with a crushing pain in my chest that feels like a chip is stuck in my esophagus and scraping. I found on my own that taking a drink of cold water immediately makes the pain stop and go away. Does this sound at all familiar?
Hi DeBug - Thanks for the update! I just wanted to say thanks to you (and everyone else on here) for documenting their symptoms, because I don't think I would have been diagnosed otherwise. I was just diagnosed with Achalasia - thanks to a barium swallow that I wouldn't have known to request if it weren't for the comments here, and a subsequent manometry test. I'm planning my surgery for next summer. The sphincter muscle at the bottom of my esophagus isn't working very well, but for me, the main issue is that my esophagus isn't contracting correctly and is EXTREMELY stretched out - it looked like a balloon on the imaging. So hopefully the surgery will help fix this. We decided Botox probably wasn't worth it.
To address Pulpo above, I have been taking diltiazem (120 and 180 mg) with no effect, so I stopped taking that and am also in the process of cutting out the ranitidine and omeprazole, none of which seem to do anything since I don't actually have GERD.
Oh, also, the Doctor said she frequently heard from people with achalasia that water (cold for some people, warm for others) helps the pain go away, so we're certainly not alone in that. I'm just glad I have a diagnosis and a possible plan forward!
Thanks again, and good luck!
Treadmill test doesn't show anything if it is Prinzmetal angina. This is a rest-angina.
Regards.
Hi All!
I wanted to leave another update as to my progress and symptoms. It's been over a year since I had surgery for Achalasia. The surgery helped and I now have those chest pains much less. When I do have them, they are not as severe. I still have water bottles placed all over the house and in my truck just in case. Cold water is still my best way to knock back the pain both before and after the surgery. I have taken on a dry coughs from time to time which can last for a few weeks or a few months. Not sure if that is related to the Achalasia or the surgery. I simply noticed that I started having them after recovering from the surgery.
I hope that each and every one of you finds relief in one way or another. I doubt that all of you have Achalasia, but be sure to rule that out if no other diagnosis pans out.
Best regards,
DeBug
Antidepressants will make it worse because of the symapticus nerve. It is a trigger like very cold air, very hot air, choline and amphetamines.
Sometimes I think I have also roemheld syndrome. But I 've sure had a cardiac spasm. I have it on DVD.
Drinking water or eating a bite activates your vagus nerve ( like vasalva). So you can handle bradycardia and high blood pressure. That it seems to be why it works.
As well I have spasm in my fingers, toes and arms like raynaud's without getting blue but very painful.The doctor saw it making a oscillography.
I hoped it would be another diagnosis but after 2 years I am hopeless.
I am very sorry to tell you that it realy seems to be a prinzmetal angina. I am 37 years old. I have all this symptoms an I had an heart attack in 2015 and a s-icd implanted because a had a Torsade de Pointes with reanimation the same night. I also have a cardial bridge that will make the attacks worse when I laying on my left side. I'm on Diltiazem and ISDN and I don't have so many attacks any more and when I have one it's doesn't hurt anymore like the devil is inside of me and I try to relief it with a nitro spray. I often call the ambulance to be sure, that it get's better or sometimes when the spray doesn't work. Then they make an ecg but most of the time they don't see anything and this is normal for prinzmetal. When I had my heart attack the have seen nothing since they got in with a catheter. Then the doctor said: oh, look there you have a spasm! It's a little heart attack.
Please, when you have the attack, call the ambulance to take you with them. Maybe they catch the St-elevation.
The only thing I know to get out If you have prinzmetal, is to find a hospital that makes a test with acetylcholine.
I’m so glad I found this thread! I have so many of the same symptoms that others have mentioned, I’ve been taking notes as I read – there are so many things I want to mention. Thanks Tuck for all of the thoughtful responses!
I’m a 36 year old female, I’ve been having these chest pains since I was in high school. I just recently discovered that cold water helps, so I’ve been dealing with the pain for a long time. Whenever I feel the pain starting, I’m in a panic to get cold water, so I now carry water with me at all times. If I don’t drink cold water (or before I discovered the cold water trick), the pain usually lasts for a couple hours, and it is incredibly painful to deal with – it feels like a heart attack. Cold water works better, although room-temperature water is usually ok. The drink can’t be hot, and carbonated beverages don’t help. There’s no regularity to the pains, I used to go months without them bothering me, but they usually happen several times a week, or even multiple times a day.
The pain can hit at any time of the day, whether I’m lying down or standing/sitting, it’s not related to exercise or anything I eat. It can wake me up out of a dead sleep. Sometimes I’m sleeping perfectly still when it happens, but I have found that it frequently happens when I switch positions, especially turning onto my left side. The pain is usually in the center of my chest, maybe a bit more on the right side, and sometimes extends to my right jaw if I don’t get cold water fast enough. I don’t smoke, and I rarely drink caffeine or carbonated beverages. I’m a bit overweight now, but when they started bothering me, I was in very good shape and exercised regularly. I don’t have any anxiety or depression. I’m not dehydrated. I have normal blood pressure. I do have gallstones, but my doctor doesn’t think the pains are related.
A few random things: I get gurgling in my throat every time I eat or drink anything. It’s not painful, or even really uncomfortable, just extremely embarrassing if I’m eating somewhere quiet. Also, and I haven’t seen anyone else mention this, but I have a really hard time burping – not just during the chest pains, but I pretty much never burp, even when I drink something carbonated. I always try to force a burp when I get the chest pain, in an effort to relieve the pressure, but even when I can get one out, it doesn’t seem to help at all.
I’ve had an endoscopy, and the doctor didn’t find any problems or any evidence of acid reflux. He diagnosed the pains as esophageal spasms. I’ve tried a couple different medications: I take ranitidine and omeprazole daily, although I’m not sure they help. I take Maalox and/or Tums when the pain hits, with no effect. I’m currently taking diltiazem, and didn’t think it made a difference – but when I went off the medication and switched to a low level of an antidepressant, I found that the pains were a lot worse and cold water didn’t help anymore. I’m not sure if it was a negative reaction to the antidepressant or if the diltiazem helped more than I realized, but I quickly switched back to diltiazem and the cold water helps again. I didn’t discover the cold water trick until after I’d started the diltiazem, so I’m not sure if cold water would work if I were off the medication, and I’m not about to find out.
My doctor has diagnosed me with esophageal spasms, but I also get a different pain when I eat that I think is a true esophageal spasm – pretty much every time I eat a meal (but especially if I eat quickly), the food gets stuck and I’m in horrible pain. I have to step away from the table pretty much every meal, and it often takes me an hour or more to eat a meal. The pain is different than the previously described chest pains, and not only does water not help these, it makes it exponentially worse. In fact, I can’t drink anything at all when I eat. I’m not sure if these two different types of “esophageal spasms” are related, since they react completely differently to drinking water. I’ve only had this pain for the past couple years, and it’s definitely getting worse as time goes on.
I’m so glad to find that I’m not alone in this! I’ve found some good ideas to ask my doctor about at my next appointment, hopefully we can find something that helps, but just finding out that cold water helps is a huge relief.
Gosh it's in my ears, too. So glad I found this thread, makes me feel better. It's hurting as we speak. Off to find some cold water....
Hello everyone , iam facing the same issue since three years . Cold water or a small bite is the only solution till now , i had many tests including the akalasia thing and came back negative . After endoscopy i was diagonized with metaplasia and barret syndrome . Also iam facing some anxiety symptoms and not sure if that came before or after the chest pain , for the last 6 months a new thing happened to me , iam not able to burp and food is getting stuck in my throat soemtimes .
More tests this week , i will keep you posted .
I have had the same symptoms for about 14 years. My pains usually start with a headache around my temples & ears radiating down my neck into my chest & back. The pains are very severe. It feels like my chest & back are so tight that they are caving into each other, including the head & neck pains. It lasts anywhere from 15-20 minutes very severely. My only relief was for me to Lie Down On My Back on a Hard Surface ie: the floor or ground until it is tolerable to move! Sometimes it comes & goes all day, or for several days!
Then I discovered that drinking water made the pains go away almost as fast as they had appeared! Now I immediately reach for water. I make sure to always carry a bottle of water to sip during these times.
I wish that I knew the real reasons & causes.
I have had these exact same symptoms going on now for about the last 10 years. I have found that it's not so much the water (or any drink at any temperature) that relieves the pain as it is the tiny, almost imperceptible burp that follows the sip. There have been a few times when the attack came on when I could not get to anything to drink - like travelling on a train. In these situations I have found that forcing myself to burp by "swallowing air" will also make the attack go away, although taking a little drink of something seems to do it faster.
Enjoying my 75th trip around the sun. Have similar symptoms as posted by Debug in 2011 that I have had for past 10-15 yrs. Sudden onset of crushing chest pain usually while sleeping that feels like a prelude to heart attack. Also stumbled upon the cold water solution which provides almost immediate relief. Frequency of episodes has been fairly consistent over the years at 5-10 per year. Did mention the symptoms/solution to primary care physician who discounted it as something he never heard of.
I have always thought this was and is a dehydration issue in my case. I'm a former marathoner (1978-1989) but recently walked the 2015 Boston marathon. I'm familiar with what dehydration can do with regard to my own personal fatigue as I commonly don't drink enough water for my level of activity. But, for me at least, it is hard not to conclude that the chest pains/cold water are just another extension of problems that dehydration can cause. One sure, quick, and cheap way to determine proper hydration levels is to check the color of your urine. If it is anything but clear or a slight tint of yellow you might need a drink of water.
Hydration levels maybe a solution for some folks on this thread, but for those with other symptoms or perhaps more than just dehydration going on then finding that miracle of a medical professional may be the path to relief.
What iknowmorenow said is interesting and maybe a revelation to me. I began suffering this same thing about a year ago. Started like everyone else... Happened occasionally and sometimes more often. In the beginning of September it began happening almost every morning. A couple weeks later it was happening in the morning and mid day. By the end of September it was happening in the morning, during the day and at night. Then one day I ended up drinking so much water trying to make it stop, I ended up throwing up the water. I felt different and not right that night, and asked my girlfriend to drive me to the emergency. I didn't make it. I had a massive heart attack. Complete shut down. They had to put me in an induced thermal coma to save my brain cells. Luckily I pulled through without any major damage. I was a heavy drinker and smoker. When I got out of the hospital, I continued to not drink or smoke. I still don't smoke. But the kidney specialist gave me the ok to enjoy a glass of wine with dinner if I chose to as long as I don't over drink or abuse alcohol. I drank 3 glasses of wine one night and the next morning I woke up running to the kitchen for a glass of cold water with that pain again. The reason I said what "iknowmorenow" said was interesting, is because I'm thinking that although I still don't know what causes the frantic rush for cold water, I am convinced that if it gets to a point where the condition gets worse and requires more water to get relief, it may be possible that excess water could cause a system overload that could lead to a heart attack. (what the nurse theorized) Also, the fact that I had no symptoms after getting out of the hospital, but as soon as I drink some alcohol, the symptom returns makes me wonder... hhmmm??
(btw.. I'm 52)
For 3 days, I had a slightly different pain (chest tightness behind my ribcage, almost cramping my breathing), and I did the same thing as you did -- drinking water seemed to make it disappear after a few minutes. Not drinking, or being even slightly thirsty would bring it on. I did this for 3 days, and then suffered a heart attack despite drinking water!!!
My heart attack was a STEMI (ST Elevated Myocardiac Infarct) caused by a 95% blockage in my proximal LAD artery. It needed an emergency stent placed in.
As I got to the emergency room, I was given asprin and nitroglycerin which relieved the problem. Soon after I peed 500 ml. (this was into a bottle, so that's how I know). Half an hour later, after the stent was in, I urinated another 600 ml. That's 1.1 litres in less than an hour -- that's how much excess water my body was holding down. I haven't felt as thirsty since the stent went in. :)
A nurse at the hospital theorised that the excess water increased my blood volume and mitigated the artery blockage. I had visited my GP the day before my attack but he had not given me a ECG. I visited him again today, and told him about this.
Hi, so glad to read I am not alone. I am a 24 year old female and I have been having these symptoms since I was about 17. I found out about the water trick early on. For me, the temperature of the water does not matter. I have the pains a little less than once a week, though they were less frequent for the first few years. They happen most often at night while I am sleeping and the pain wakes me up, but they have happened during the day as well. For me, the pain is localized in my chest/lower throat, and is never in my head or ears as some experience. I never thought about it being on the right side until I read some of these posts: it's pretty central, but with just the lingering memory of my most recent attack 20 minutes ago, I would agree that it's slightly located to the right.
Out of fear that one day the water trick will no longer work, I had discussed this with doctors as well. I had a Barium Swallow and an Upper Endoscopy with a Biopsy, and neither one provided any insight, except that the Barium Swallow revealed that the lower part of my throat/esophagus is narrower than normal.
I have long since thought that a few other issues of mine may be linked to the issue: first, when I eat dry food too fast or in an uncomfortable position, it gets stuck in my throat in a pretty scary way until I drink some water. The feeling is a much less and different pain than the attacks, just uncomfortable, and water, with the food-clogged throat, though necessary, is by no means as fast a relief as it is for the sharp pain attacks. Second, when I sit still and quiet after eating a meal or snack, my throat makes lots of rumbly noises occasionally for quite a while, in ways that no one else's does. No pain, just lots of silly gurgling.
I haven't tried super hard, but I haven't found a link to any types of foods. I will try to think about that more, and also any link between dehydration, stress, chocolate, coffee, and alcohol as people have mentioned, though none of those seem probable for me.
I've never thought it relevant, but since people were discussing a possible link to anxiety or panic attacks: I've never had it formally diagnosed (though my parents looked into it when I was younger) but: I have self diagnosed as having a mild form of depersonalization disorder, which I've had symptoms for since I was about 11, though in this case it's gotten slightly better over the years. No other medical conditions for me at this point in my life or in the past.
So glad this forum exits; all my best to all of you, and hopefully we will get some answers soon. -CRA