Panic attacks or heart attacks? My adrenaline surges are scaring the crap out of me.

When I was a young medical student I learned that good medicine was practiced when errors were made in the favor of over diagnosing heart attacks, rather than under-diagnosing them.

A senior resident used to say: “A sign of a good coronary care unit is one where 70% of admissions never pan out to have a heart attack, even though they are admitted as such.”

I took that to heart. When it comes to men, the philosophy does work, but when it comes to women, it is often forgotten, even in our day and age when conventional medicine touts egalitarian medical practices.

The truth is, that even today, a woman going into an emergency room with chest pain is less likely to be considered a possible heart attack victim than she is to be considered a “hysterical” female.

Women have the same incidence of heart disease as they age and certainly equal if not overtake men in frequency of heart disease after menopause. With that type of information you would think we take great care of women teaching them prevention and decreasing the incidence of heart disease with each passing year. We are doing that for men after all, right?

Wrong. Women are getting heart attacks in droves without much being done to help them prevent the disease or raise awareness. So, when you say you are scared of having a heart attack, what can I tell you not to further scare you, given the statistics involved?

Start today regardless of your age. Let’s create the best program to prevent heart disease from robbing you of your youth and life. You don’t really have to become a statistic.

1. Change your diet. Stop eating junk. There is no excuse for it. No soda, coffee, sugar substitutes, limit alcohol. Eat more protein and vegetables and fruit. You don’t need low calorie, low fat, low sugar, just eat right and stop making excuses for eating wrong.
2. Improve your physical activity regimen. Eliminate sedentary life habits. If you don’t have time to formally run to the gym and start exercising, you can still walk, move, stretch and lift a heavy piece of furniture once in a while.
3. Deal with stress. Do not ignore the stress in your life. Every day you live under stress and do not deal with it, is one day less left in your life that may lead you to heart disease.
4. Address your hormone balance. If you are pre-menopausal start a healthy program of Estradiol and micronized progesterone to maintain your hormone levels and avoid the precipitous drop that occurs at menopause. It may be helpful in even delaying or preventing heart disease from taking a grip of you.
5. Address your genetics. If you have a family history of heart disease make sure you are leading a lifestyle, eating a healthy diet and exercising from early on in your life so you do not find yourself at 45 worrying about impending doom.
6. Be able to distinguish between an anxiety attack and chest pain caused by heart disease. Chest pain caused by heart disease is continuous and crushing. It is progressive and often associated with shortness of breath. In women, nausea, vomiting and severe fatigue are also symptoms of heart disease and should not be discarded. Pain that fluctuates and occurs at 5 am with palpitations associated, is most often caused by anxiety and hormone changes.
7. Have your heart checked. If you are in your 40s and have a family history, it is easy to just have a stress test. It will give you information and even peace of mind.

Comments

[Panic Attack Blog]

As a panic attack sufferer for 20 years myself, I find your topic very interesting. In my experience you need to realize that you have this problem, and be open about it. It helped me.

[Brian Caffrey]

I am a male of 63 years, alone now for nearly 4 years since ex-wife of 29 years disappeared in 2005. I live in (county) Dorset in the UK.

I have been reporting fatigue since the end of winter, and was wrongly diagnosed with depression, yet have been found to have low thyroxin, but with normal TSH, which has just got me referred to see an endocrinologist - soon I hope, because I am sick of the waiting and anxiety. I have been taking a fair bit of St John's Wort since mid-July, but have been trying to cut it down in last few weeks, because I seem to have developed a dependency.

I tend to sleep for about six hours, yet wake early, but my attempts to dose on in bed are wrecked by what seems to be an adrenaline surge. It starts with my legs feeling weak and stressed, and later, it feels like I am suspended in my own bed, as if I and my bed could fall. Of course, that gets me out of my bed, but leaves me robbed of enough sleep, and worried about what exactly is going on.

How can I beat these surges? I would prefer NOT to need a beta-blocker.