Frequent heartburn

[flippo]

just a friendly warning to take frequent heartburn seriously. I have been having it for a while and would go away after a couple of tums until Tuesday - it wouldn't go away and it ended up being a heart attack. One of my arteries was 99% blocked and I had to have a stint put in. So heartburn can be a warning of something more serious. BTW, I am fine and home now- the Lord brought me through and gave it to me for a wake up call!

[Feanor]

just a friendly warning to take frequent heartburn seriously. I have been having it for a while and would go away after a couple of tums until Tuesday - it wouldn't go away and it ended up being a heart attack. One of my arteries was 99% blocked and I had to have a stint put in. So heartburn can be a warning of something more serious. BTW, I am fine and home now- the Lord brought me through and gave it to me for a wake up call!

Good advice. And I can relate to it. I had triple by-pass surgery about 18 months ago; fortunately I had plenty of warning of problems in the form of angina and never had a heart attack.

Interestingly, I've also have GERD, (gastro-esophageal refux disorder), which causes pretty bad and frequent heartburn. Fortunately I was able to tell the hearburn for the angina.

[JohnMichael]

I am glad you are both doing well. I just had my first abnormal EKG and I will be going in for a stress test. A friend of mine has always said "A man complains about his stomach and it is his heart. He complains about his heart and it is his stomach".

[hifitommy]

i'm right there with you guys. fortunately i had a negative treadmill and a couple of years later, a negative thallium stress test.

it all started with chest pain and the discovery of high blood pressure. after a few years, my chest pain was still there and ironically, it went away after i started taking the 80mg aspirin.

hopefully i wont need any invasive procedures but i wont kid myself. it can happen. good luck to us all.

btw, the word is stent.

[flippo]

I realized it was stent rather than stint - mistyped just didn't bother with fixing

[E-Stat]

BTW, I am fine and home now- the Lord brought me through and gave it to me for a wake up call!

Glad to hear it. There is a fountain of youth and it is exercise. I would heartily (no pun intended) recommend taking up walking on a regular basis. It can do wonders for both the heart and soul.

rw

[StanleyMuso]

I can relate to your problem - several members of my family died of heart attacks (my father and both grandfathers) - so I am a bit paranoid about the subject. When my dad had his first heart attack, he thought he was having a bout of indigestion. You can never be too careful. I myself have been suffering from gastric reflux for years, and whenever I wake up at night with chest pains or tightness in the chest, I keep wondering which it is - reflux or the heart.

Long and happy life to all of us. Be careful.

[Feanor]

Glad to hear it. There is a fountain of youth and it is exercise. I would heartily (no pun intended) recommend taking up walking on a regular basis. It can do wonders for both the heart and soul.

rw

Good advice, E-Stat, of course. But it's become too popular to typify heart problems as a "life style disease". There is a tendency to always blame the victim. But I, for example, have never smoked, have taken regular exercise, controlled my weight, and avoided cholesterol and saturated and trans fats for decades, yet I gradually developed coronary artery blockage. My cholesterol has never been particularly high, my "bad" cholesterol (LDL), that is. Rather my problem is low "good" cholesterol (HDL) which is mainly an hereditary problem. In fact it's low HDL, not high LDL, that is the most reliable predictor of heart issues.

But I'll concede if I'd smoked and/or taken little exercise and/or eaten carelessly or allowed myself to become obese (which would have been easy for me), my problems would have emerged much soon and I likely wouldn't be around to discuss them today.

[Bernd]

Good advice, E-Stat, of course. But it's become too popular to typify heart problems as a "life style disease". There is a tendency to always blame the victim. But I, for example, have never smoked, have taken regular exercise, controlled my weight, and avoided cholesterol and saturated and trans fats for decades, yet I gradually developed coronary artery blockage. My cholesterol has never been particularly high, my "bad" cholesterol (LDL), that is. Rather my problem is low "good" cholesterol (HDL) which is mainly an hereditary problem. In fact it's low HDL, not high LDL, that is the most reliable predictor of heart issues.

But I'll concede if I'd smoked and/or taken little exercise and/or eaten carelessly or allowed myself to become obese (which would have been easy for me), my problems would have emerged much soon and I likely wouldn't be around to discuss them today.

Great Post Bill, and very informative.
I can only agree with the advice of regular exercise. Doesn't need to be strenous, just regular and about 20 min of raised heart rate. It will do wonders. I could do with loosing the odd pound or two my doctor always says. But all the test results are so far all clear. I guess it has a lot to do with that I work outside and moving up and down hills and over tough moorland.
Good to hear that everyone is doing OK. Long may it continue.

Peace

[barita_lola]

Hey friend, why don't you take Antacids? It should bring relief almost instantaneously. These active compounds buffer the accumulated acid in the stomach. This helps reduce or eliminate the burn that is felt in the esophagus. Antacids do not reduce any further acid buildup or eradicate feelings of fullness in the stomach.

[hifitommy]

apparent heartburn can be actually cardiac pain. there are other similar pains that can mask heart disease. these things must be investigated or serious consequences can result.

IF it turns out to be heartburn, then happy days! that is much easier to treat and the results arent as dire. gallbladder disease can be the masquerader as well. its safer to see the doctor than to just fool yourself with antacids.

[Feanor]

Hey friend, why don't you take Antacids? It should bring relief almost instantaneously. These active compounds buffer the accumulated acid in the stomach. This helps reduce or eliminate the burn that is felt in the esophagus. Antacids do not reduce any further acid buildup or eradicate feelings of fullness in the stomach.

If your diagnosis excludes heart disease or gall bladder, (as hifitommy cautions), but is GERD, (gastro-esophageal refux disorder), then persistent antacids such as ranitidine, Losec (omeprazole), or Pariet (rabeprazole) are appropriate and preferable to Rolaids, Tums, milk of magnesia, regular Mylanta, etc. (calcium or magnesium carbonates, or combinations) which are fast-acting but not persistent.

[flippo]

Maybe I should have said Thought was heartburn

[RGA]

Vinnager will get rid of heart burn and is far less problematic than antacids.

Feaner - would not eating Salmon help raise your HDL? Besides it tastes great.

[Feanor]

Vinnager will get rid of heart burn and is far less problematic than antacids.

Feaner - would not eating Salmon help raise your HDL? Besides it tastes great.

Salmon, with Omega 3 fatty acids, is good for you but doesn't raise your HDL significantly. But I like salmon and eat it fairly often.

In fact it is difficult to raise HDL. Exercise helps a bit. Having a drink or two a day can also help to a very minor extent, as does increasing water-soluable fiber. But about the best thing you can do with out drugs is to strictly reduce your intake of trans fatty acids while increasing your proportion of monosaturates.

As for drugs, niacin, (vitamin B3), reduces HDL a bit when taken very large doses, (2 - 8 grams daily). Some statin drugs increase HDL to some extent, notably Crestor (rosuvastatin), though there is an FDA advisory out on it.

I gather the most common strategy used by doctors, including mine, is to try to balance the HDL/LDL ratio using statins to reduce LDL and sometimes niacin to increase HDL. It is important to have regular liver tests to find any adverse reaction to a lot of statin especially in combination with Niacin.