signs symptoms of angina

Signs/Symptoms of Angina and Other Things about It,

The signs symptoms of angina,signs of angina and symptoms of angina closely mimic those of heart attacks although there is a main difference - angina will stop in 15-20 minutes once you take medications for it while a heart attack will not do so. Anyways, the signs symptoms of angina are chest pain and discomfort as well as tightness around the chest area, all because your heart is receiving a decreased supply of blood and oxygen. Angina, however, is not a disease in itself. Instead, it is a symptom of an underlying coronary artery disease that, sadly, is the most common form of heart disease.

What Causes Angina?

Basically, angina is caused by damage to the arteries brought by many factors in your lifestyle. For one thing, you can be eating an unhealthy diet that caused bad cholesterol and sugar to block the heart's arterial walls and cause the formation of hard plaques. Thus, it becomes harder and harder for blood and oxygen to be supplied to the heart. For another thing, your excessive smoking and drinking also contributes to the narrowing of the arteries. In fact, smokers and alcoholics often suffer the most from the signs/symptoms of angina than any sector of the population.

What Are Other symptons of angina to Look Out For?

As previously implied,angina is experienced as a squeezing, tightening and burning pressure on the chest beginning around the breastbone area, which then radiates to your neck, jaw, arms, shoulder, throat and back. Did we mention that angina mimics a heart attack in progress? You may also feel other symptoms like indigestion, weakness, heartburn, nausea, shortness of breath, cramping and sweating. You may feel these symptoms for a few minutes to a few hours depending on the type of angina you suffer from.

What Are the Most Common Angina Risk Factors?

You have an increased risk for angina when you have an unhealthy cholesterol levels brought by an unhealthy diet and sedentary lifestyle, when you have diabetes and metabolic syndrome, when you smoke tobacco as a habit and as an addiction, when you have a family history of early heart illnesses including hypertension, and when you are over 45 (men) or 55 (women) years of age.

What Is The Best Treatment Of Angina?

It must be emphasized that there is no single best cure for angina since it is not in itself a disease. Instead, treatments are geared towards lessening the pain of the symptoms and lowering the risks for a heart attack, the latter of which is often the most important component.

Your doctor will combine the following treatment components to lessen the pain and the risks:

* Lifestyle changes - You have to stop smoking! You also need to control your weight through a healthy diet and moderate exercise, regular monitoring of your cholesterol levels, sufficient number of hours sleep and rest, and effective management of stress.

* Medications - You might need to take medicines like nitrates, beta blockers, ACE inhibitors and calcium channel blockers, to name a few.

* Surgery - Unfortunately, you may also have to undergo either an angioplasty or a coronary artery bypass grafting, depending on your case.

When you feel the abovementioned signs symptoms of angina, you must not hesitate to rush to the emergency room or to the doctor's clinic. You want to ensure that these signs symptoms of angina will not be the cause of your sudden death later on.

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