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by nonbirithm 2165 days ago
I have had this exact feeling regarding my heart for a year and a half and until now felt nobody understood.

For me it is constant chest pain that comes and goes essentially whenever it wants. It is quite varied and never fails to keep worrying me with its novelty. Sometimes burning, sometimes squeezing, sometimes stabbing. Been to the doctor and ER dozens of times. No diagnosis. And it isn't even correlated with anxiety as far as I can tell, although the anxiety only makes it worse. Sometimes NSAIDs make the pain unbearable. Sometimes they don't.

It doesn't even make sense because as far as I understand the heart isn't innervated, so why is the pain always on the left side of my chest?

I went to urgent care and they reported my cholesterol levels, etc. were excellent.

It's so terrible because the heart is critically tied to our ability to continue living through unconscious action, and so anything regarding it feels completely out of control in the moment. Meaning your instant death is out of your control. Now have that on your mind for 365 days and see how it feels.

So after spending dozens of times trying to figure out if something's wrong with my body, seeing as it's probably trying to send some sort of signal, and completely failing to come up with an answer, what else is there left to do? Worry about dying every single day?

Early on I got so many palpitations I was sitting in bed holding a heart monitor on my chest until 3 in the morning. This was when I was 23 and started to regret all the life decisions I had made in college to feel this awful and scared about my health that young. Today if I get like three palpitations in the span of five minutes I'll be completely unable to keep focusing on work and go off trying to manage the anxiety in the hopes of not dying.

If anything it's pushed me to eat more vegetables and such, but I don't know if it will end up helping.

6 comments

> Sometimes NSAIDs make the pain unbearable.

This sounds like an upper digestive tract issue. You should look into Roemheld Syndrome. https://cara.care/digestive-disorders/upper-abdomen/roemheld... I was having a lot of feelings of skipped heartbeats and my doc realized I was also having a lot of digestive issues so he told me that Roemheld seemed most likely. What I noticed is that skipped beats occurred around the time when I needed to burp. The burping releases pressure on the vagus nerve which goes to both the heart and the stomach. When I realized this my anxiety was much reduced.

In my case I found that I needed to limit chocolate consumption, sit up straighter and practice deep breathing.

The heart also is involved in powering the lymphatic system, though it's complicated. It powers it for part of the time, then part of the time, lymph is beyond its reach.

I have a history of heart pain and heart weirdness associated with certain health issues. It has gotten better over time as my health issues have improved.

I have come to believe that some of my heart issues -- especially pain in my chest, which is why I am replying to you -- are related to how the lymphatic system works and are related to health events that put a strain on my lymphatic system in some way.

Have you considered that it might be costochondritis?

I'm 23 and healthy. I went into ER a few months back with high heart rate, chest pressure, and palpitations. They couldn't find anything wrong with my heart, monitored me for a few days and discharged me without a diagnosis.

For 2-3 weeks after that I still had that same occasional chest pressure/tightness. This might be a coincidence but it started easing away when I started doing various exercises meant for costochondritis.

If it helps, I can completely understand your feelings. It's the same for me. If there are more palpitations "than usual", I lose my concentration and start thinking whether I should pay the ER a visit. All the best to you.
I have the exact same issue, been going on for three years now. I’ve also spoken to a psychologist, but nothing has helped so far. The feeling of chest pain is impossible to ignore. It feels hardwired.
I had a very similar pain in my chest and increasing my vitamin D intake made it stop. I would get your levels checked.