Prolonged chest tightness

[andy_usa]

Hello everyone,

I just came across this website, and am so glad and grateful to see such an active forum ! Hellos to everyone here !

I have a question about my health and was hoping someone could please help me out with an answer.

I am a 34yr old male. 5' 8" tall and currently weight about 130lbs. For the past 3-4yrs I have been having tightness in my chest (on the left side, in the region surrounding the heart). It seems to come on randomly, and seems to be present very often during the day - I notice it more when I am sitting (especially when I hunch). And there are some days when I don't seem to detect it (it is probably there, but I don't notice it).

This has been going on for over 3yrs now and needless to say it has made me quite anxious. About 1.5yrs ago, I went to a GP and he asked his nurse to do some blood work on me. The results indicated highly elevated cholesterol levels, but the GP dismissed it saying that probably the nurse practitioner did not administer the test right and given how skinny I was this was just not possible ! He said that my chest tightness was probably due to stress, and that I should just do some Yoga !!

At some point last year, I finally decided to get it checked out again from a different doctor. The doctor listened to my heart and detected a "click" (he said it is MVP), and subsequently asked me to get an Echocardiogram. He looked at the Echo reading and said that everything is "fine" - although the reading detected tachycardia and some seemingly minor abnormality with blood flow (I don't remember the details). At that point though I was having some general indigestion also, so my doctor started treating me for dispepsia/GERD, having ruled out any further need to look at it as a heart related issue.

My indigestion symptoms did not go away (and neither did the chest tightness), so my doctor sent me to a Gastro who treated me aggressively with PPIs, enzymes, and a minor anti-depressant (during the 1st few weeks, since he must have thought that "stress" was causing my symptoms). After 3-4 month treatment, the indigestion problems seemed to be under control. This is where it gets interesting - right around that time the chest tightness symptoms seem to have reduced as well. Again, I am not sure if it really was the case, or it was the case of me not noticing the tightness. Anyway, this was good enough for the Gastro and he sent me on my way.

Needless to say, several days after that, I started noticing chest tightness again. And some indigestion symptoms came back as well. But this time instead of going to the doctor again, I decided to take things into my own hands and selectively, over a period of several weeks, started eliminating some foods that I thought were causing me abdominal discomfort (dairy, fats, wheat gluten, spices, etc.). This helped a lot to bring the bloating, burping etc. under control, but I still experience heartburn occasionally and some burping too. No change with the chest tightness though, it is still there as it has always been.

Any idea, what could be causing my chest tightness? Is it really some digestion related issue? Is this something I should get checked out further? I do notice that during exercising these days, my heart starts pounding like crazy very early even when I just start walking briskly - but I am thinking that this could be a general fitness issue, since I don't exercise much these days. I used to be able to do 3-4 miles on a treadmill a few months ago though (but since then have had to reduced the exercise time for various reasons).

What do people think? I look forward to some advice. Thank you so much for reading !

[andy_usa]

Hi heartfluttersflyawayplz !

Thank you so much for reading and answering !

Yes, I had in fact got an echo done as I mentioned. My doctor seems to think it is fine. My Gastro incidentally had mentioned about getting stress test done, but he just did not go in that direction any further. So you are right, I better start thinking about it.

The only thing that gives me some peace is that I have seen multiple doctors and all seem to think it it just "stress".

Thanks again. Hope you have a nice weekend !

[heartfluttersflyawayplz]

I say you need to find a good cardio dr and go have more test, get peace of mind or the anxiety will take you down

Never play with heart, get a stress test where they do the dye and pictures to look at heart artieries ,  get a echo where they can look at heart muscle and walks,  

That's what I would do rule out with test, than it could be anxiety, yes it sounds a lot like anxiety but don't take a chance, if this has been going on for 3 years I would say your heart is fine, But have it checked

[andy_usa]

Just want to add a few other details.

1) When I went to the 1st doctor, he did EKG also, and that came out normal.

2) I have been having hair loss for the past 4yrs or so. The doctors say (after blood test, thyroid test, hair pull test, etc.) that it is male pattern baldness. I have not bothered taking any medications for treating it.

3) Since about 1.5yrs ago, I started getting some panic attacks (becuase of how worried I was about the chest issue). However over the past few months, since I managed to get together with my family after prolonged separation from them, these attacks have completely disappeared and I am totally normal.

4) I do have serious abdominal fat ! In fact I think my mid-section would contribute to about 80lbs out of my 130lbs of body weight !