It's very likely the stress that's causing/caused your problems, stress is now a top risk factor on the UK heart list. I'm sorry to hear about your PTSD and I'm being honest when I say I don't know what's in your mind to cause it. I would however like to say that it's men like you that I would shake hands with any day because you fight to help keep this world a safer place for the rest of us. I think all soldiers who have seen combat should be treated with the utmost respect and as heroes. There are millions in the world who see you this way and those anti-war demonstrators need locking up and educating. They would soon change their minds if our Countries turned into those we fight against. Be really proud of yourself because without any military, we would be overrun by lunatics and there would be no such thing as a good life for anyone.
I found out today that I have Stage 1/Grade 1 diastolic dysfunction. It does answer a few questions for me, but needless to say it's not something I wanted to hear. I'm 63 years old, and definitely carrying about 30 pounds I could do without, I have chest pains, shortness of breath, I fatigue too easily, and my blood pressure has jumped as high as 197/100. Making matters worse, I'm a Marine Corps combat vet and diagnosed with very severe/complex PTSD. I've been affected by depression, anxiety, panic attacks for years now, and none of those things do my blood pressure any good. I died years ago so actually dying from heart failure or anything else does not bother me, whether associated with this news or not, but I have a daughter, a beautiful little girl that has brought me pleasure in my life since the very second of her birth and this news will tear her apart. Right now I do not know how to deal with that.
Diastolic dysfunction results when the heart's filling capacity is reduced usually by heart wall and septum thickness. Sometimes, however, due to various medical conditions, the ventricles become relatively "stiff." Stiff ventricles cannot fully relax during diastole, and as a result the ventricles may not fill completely. An abnormal "stiffening" of the ventricles, and the resulting abnormal ventricular filling during diastole, is referred to as diastolic dysfunction. Diastolic dysfunction itself often produces no symptoms at all, unless it progresses to the point of causing diastolic heart failure.
While some individuals will go on to develop actual diastolic heart failure, many will not - especially if they get appropriate medical care, and also take care of themselves.
Tiredness (fatigue), shortness of breath, chest pain, edema, etc. are symptoms of diastolic heart failure.