Hi guys my name is Sanjay Gupta I'm a cardiologist by trade and I work in
york today I wanted to do a little video to try and help you decide whether the
chest pains that you've been experiencing could be coming from the
heart
the first thing to say is that a lot of people concentrate on the nature of the
pain I didn't think that's as important any chest pain could be coming from the
heart
the important thing to try and work out is whether you have any risk factors
because if you do have the risk factors then you are certainly much more likely
to be experiencing pain which is coming from the heart and therefore you should
have a low threshold for seeking help, common risk factors are diabetes high blood pressure if
you're above the age of 50 if you have a family history of heart disease if you
have high cholesterol if you've ever had a stroke if you had any problems with
arteries in your legs then these are all important risk factors and in that case
if you have these one or more than you should lower your thresholds for seeking help
in terms of the nature of the discomfort that can be quite helpful to try and
work out whether this is related to your heart of not, heart pains are usually
not pains as such but more often than not they described as
a heavyness or a tightness in the chest sometimes it can be a burning sensation
resemble indigestion and I see a lot of people who come and see me in clinic or even on a
coronary care unit who say I thought it was ingestion I thought it would wear off I
didn't do anything about it, it's always really important to realize that you are
not just looking out for pain, any kind of discomfort in the chest which comes on
and stays and doesn't go away within a matter of minutes could well be coming
from your heart
there are also some associated symptoms and it's really important to aware
of those, people who are having a heart attack will often complain of feeling
very nauseas they get clammy they feel dizzy they just generally feel
pretty awful, lot of people will say that they turn grey or you know people who
have been with them when one day we'll talk about the person looking grey and if
that is happening then I certainly would recommend that you seek help
straight away a lot of people say oh well you know I had the discomforts and
then I took some aspirin or I took some paracetamol in the discomfort or even if
the discomfort as one it is still important to come to hospital and get
checked out in this kind of sitting just because the pain is gone doesn't mean
the risk has gone so I would strongly strongly recommend that you are above
the age of fifty you get a better perhaps high blood pressure elevated
cholesterol and you're getting are experiencing discomfort which comes on
at rest
just like a tightness or a heaviness or a burning sensation which doesn't go
away which makes you feel unwell then that is serious and that is you will not
be wasting anyones time and you will be doing yourself a very very big data by
calling an ambulance and coming straight to hospital so it's no good saying well
look I'll go and see the doctor tomorrow call an ambulance go to hospital in this
setting if you're having a heart attack time is hard time as hard muscle the
more time that elapses since your symptoms
the more heart muscle dies eventually enough muscle could i jus cause a heart
rhythm disturbance which could cause someone to drop down dead alternatively
you could if you lose a lot of heart muscle than that can leave you with
intractable permanent heart failure so this is serious stuff and I would
strongly recommend that you are experiencing these symptoms you call an
ambulance
what are the kind of symptoms that are not usually because of the heart
well if you're getting a sharp pain which is stabbing in nature which is
very localized which gets worse breathing it is generally less likely
but that does not mean to say that you should because we do see a lot of people
who get very atypical and when you do a blood test
you discover that they've had a heart attack what will happen in an hour when
you go to hospital will a lot of people get put off by the fact that will go to
hospital will have to wait out was and casual see the truth is that won't
happen if you having chest pain then you will be rushed straight through
casualties someone will do an ECG and will be able to put your mind at ease
after that you'll probably be admitted for the night when someone will take
some blood tests and if the blood tests R ok you will be discharged but that
little bit of inconvenience can be lifesaving and therefore well doing
finally I hope you found this little video useful if you would like some more
videos about to help them how to copy hard please visit my website and you can
also organize to see me if you have any concerns and the numbers listed below
have a good night and thanks for listening
goodbye