Is twinge in upper chest while being overweight be due to anxiety?
Patient: Hello...I am a 42year old female who is unfortunately about 25 pounds overweight....I do try to watch what I eat but fall off the wagon ever now and then. I used to exercise by running on my elliptical 5-6 days a week. I havent done that in some time since i had a herniated disc in my neck and was operated on last year. I did start back to the exercise about 3 days ago though. II have no history of heart trouble, no high blood pressure and my cholestrol runs borderline at times. At age 40, i was experiencing some anxiety and weird pain in my chest area so the doc sent me for a stress test.The cardiologist said mt heart looked fantastic and all was well. That pain turned out to be acid reflux. flash forward to present day...the last 5 days or so i have been feeling little twinges in my upper left chest area. Not painful but it scares me. I do not feel them when i ecercise and do not have shortness of breath or nausea/sweating. It seems to be mostly when i lie down at night. I am a major worrier and I am not sure if this is anxiety related or not. Of course wondering if your having a heart attack does little to sooth the anxiety. I currently take no medications but my multivitamin and fish oil. I did however just try a very low dose birth control pilll for the 2 months. I am no longer taking because the side effects were too much for me. I am not a smoker. I dont feel like I am having an emergency but thought maybe a call to the pcp is best. Advice? Doctor: Thanks for your question on HCM. I can understand your situation and problem. I think your symptoms are mostly related to stress and anxiety. But since you are over weight , taking oral contraceptive pills , I think weneed to rule out cardiac cause first. So get done1. ECG2. 2D EchoTo rule out cardiac cause. If both of these are normal than no need to worry much for cardiac cause. It is mostly due to anxiety. So avoid stress and tension. Be relax and calm.