Heart reassurance

[damianjmcgrath]

Firstly, thank you to the people on this forum. The education I've received from reading posts has given me the tools needed to make substantial progress recently in my heart health anxiety. As you can tell from my post history, I have been in pretty bad mental shape over my anxieties and my suffering has come down from probably 80% bad to 20% bad, if that makes any sense.

One of the last big things for me is some education around the heart tests. I've had ECGs, echos, chest xrays and blood tests. All were fine. However, one thing guaranteed to put me in an anxiety mood all day is reading about people my age having sudden cardiac arrests. I've read three stories today about footballers, one about some wrestlers and one about a reality tv person. According to the news stories, all had no symptoms but just had a sudden heart attack.

I understand that heart attacks are due to blocked arteries and I think the tests I've had would have picked that up. However, cardiac arrests are mainly genetic and are due to sudden electrical imbalance, as far as I can tell. Would this problem, or any genetic problem, be picked up by tests or does it literally happen randomly?

I don't really know my family history so I struggle to tell the doctors that information.

I think I would be hugely reassured if I knew more about what the tests were testing and whether a clean result was a decent predictor of future problems. I know nothing is 100% but do people think the tests would have found most likely problems?

All these footballers - would they have had bad results? Or is it totally a random event?

[Fishmanpa]

Those tests do not determine of you're at risk from a genetic issue. I don't know if you can actually determine that to be honest. You're asking for a guarantee and unfortunately, there isn't one. Who's to say you won't be hurt in a car accident or fall down the steps? Who's to say that you may become ill someday?

The key is learning to live with "What If's"... Actually, just learning to "live" as opposed to existing and worrying. That's why therapy (CBT) can be so effective.

Positive thoughts

[damianjmcgrath]

Thanks fishmanpa. I didnt know if there were any blood tests that show genetic markers for heart disease, or whether if I was born with a genetic condition, it would have revealed itself in some of the tests I had done. For example, if I had a genetic electrical problem, perhaps an ECG would have shown it?

I'm not educated about the tests enough to know that, so I was wondering if anyone on here had been through the same sort of thing and knew a bit more.

I'm actually at peace with what-ifs, i.e., I don't worry about car accidents or getting cancer randomly. I worry about already having a heart problem living silently inside me, and I wondered if the tests coming back clean now ruled that out, or whether they could still be silently waiting to come out.

[Fishmanpa]

If you're at peace with the "what if's" then this shouldn't be an issue. If you're not worried about cancer or a car accident, the same thing applies here. I didn't have cancer either... until I did. I didn't have heart disease... until I did. As difficult as is, apply the same logic you currently use to this fear.

Positive thoughts

[nikkilewis]

I also have heart health anxiety but mine is because of palpitations. I am not a doctor but have been told that ECG, blood tests and Echo together would find any issues worth worrying about. My brother had a heart attack at 40 which definitely feeds my anxiety too. I can say that he is now 52 and alive and kicking! Have a look at a brilliant blog called 'life off beat' which is lots of people sharing their stories about heart health anxiety. It may not be massively relevant to you as I don't think you actually experience palpitations? But there is a lot of info about tests, what they mean etc etc. In my experience doctors take anything cardiac very seriously and would not say you were fine if they had any doubt at all. Anyway check out the blog, a Google search will find it easily, I think it will give you the info you want ��

[AlexandriaUK]

My grandson had a couple of really bad episodes last year and was taken to the DR's who due to something showing on ECG he was told no football till they could send him for an echo cardiogram, once it was done he went to see cardiologist who passed him as fit, he is 21 now and fine.
I do think that you are talking about a particular type of genetic condition that can be diagnosed with ECG, echocardiagram and looking at your families medical history, its why young footballers/athletes are given a quick 10 minute echo etc to check them out.
Try not too worry as you have had plenty of tests which I would think would find any major defects, if you are still worried please speak to your Dr and tell him/her how its dominating your life.

[damianjmcgrath]

The tests do reassure me but the symptoms are overwhelming sometimes. I get a heavy chest, and tightness and muscle ache by the ribs. I get left arm pain, and throbbing sensations in my chest and fingers at the same time. Obviously anxiety is the likely cause and the doctors have prescribed me with that. Also it's obvious to see that I do worry about them, which increases the anxiety.

I find it difficult to completely accept anxiety unless a heart condition has been ruled out. The doctors seem satisfied, as those tests were clear so my question on here was how satisfied should I be? If symptoms persist, is it still possible to be a heart condition or does the clear test results mean I definitely don't have one? How comprehensive are the tests? Do they check for everything or just a few things?

I feel like I could commit to the anxiety diagnosis and really focus on fixing that if I could convince my head that my heart is fine. I'm not totally illogical, I would definitely be convinced by definitive test results but I don't know if a ECG, echo and chest xray would be considered definitive enough?

Also, reading about these sportsmen having heart attacks - there was a recent BBC story about a youth team goalkeeper having a fatal cardiac arrest - does increase my anxiety. It makes me feel that tests mean nothing because these guys would probably have medical teams looking after them and doing regular testing. So I start feeling that heart problems are random and occasionally symptomless. How can I reassure myself against that?

---------- Post added at 23:47 ---------- Previous post was at 23:44 ----------


If you're at peace with the "what if's" then this shouldn't be an issue. If you're not worried about cancer or a car accident, the same thing applies here. I didn't have cancer either... until I did. I didn't have heart disease... until I did. As difficult as is, apply the same logic you currently use to this fear.

Positive thoughts

Definitely agree with you. For some reason, I'm not concerned with anything else. It's just this one issue because I have symptoms that suggest heart problem so I'd like to be reassured against it.

---------- Post added at 23:50 ---------- Previous post was at 23:47 ----------


I also have heart health anxiety but mine is because of palpitations. I am not a doctor but have been told that ECG, blood tests and Echo together would find any issues worth worrying about. My brother had a heart attack at 40 which definitely feeds my anxiety too. I can say that he is now 52 and alive and kicking! Have a look at a brilliant blog called 'life off beat' which is lots of people sharing their stories about heart health anxiety. It may not be massively relevant to you as I don't think you actually experience palpitations? But there is a lot of info about tests, what they mean etc etc. In my experience doctors take anything cardiac very seriously and would not say you were fine if they had any doubt at all. Anyway check out the blog, a Google search will find it easily, I think it will give you the info you want ��

Most doctors and people on here say that it's hugely unlikely to have heart problems under the age of 50ish but then almost every story I read or news article I see is about people my age, around 25-35 or just older in your brothers case. It's clearly more likely that it seems.

I read that blog. I don't have palpitations but it was an interesting read anyway. Thank you for sharing.

[AlexandriaUK]

No that's the problem they are trying to correct, its not every sportsman/woman who have the tests, they are not a prerequisite for them but more teams are making it a necessary requirement, cost is the the biggest issue that stops them making it compulsory.
I bet the one you are talking about didn't have it.
You do have to except the specialist's diagnosis, trust is everything

[Virtuoso]

Hello.


Dude, it sounds like you are seriously worrying way too much about this. Those stories you read are stories out there for a reason, because they are very rare. Also, you don't really know those peoples stories, they could have had an underlying cause, they could have had a genetic cause, something else could have been wrong with them or it was just a very unlucky thing for them. Either way, you sitting around worrying about this will not make one bit of difference. We will all die some day, whether it be from a heart problem, a car accident, natural causes, cancer, heart attacks etc. Point is, there is really no point worrying about it because death is part of life.

You could spend all this time worrying about it and sure, what if it does happen? There is nothing you can do about it anyway because you'd be dead. So really, it's pointless. Enjoy your life while you're still alive, you could be here for 40 years and you're spending it worrying over something that has a very small chance of happening. Stay away from things that will trigger your anxiety like stories about cardiac arrests. Focus on getting better and rid of this anxiety!

[ricardo]

A fishmanpa says

You can't worry about what might happen.

When I had my heart attack 6 months ago I didn't have any of the classic symptoms of chest pain or shortness of breath and after an ECG it was clear I was actually having a heart attack. Strange thing is that I didn't go into panic mode I most probably was in shock.

I don't know the exact statistics but a very high percentage of people who have heart attacks are smokers, then overweight through years of a bad diet and hereditary that shows it runs in the family, but that could apply to other illnesses.

I knew a lady who died of lung cancer when she was 56.She never smoked nor did her sister or mother who also both died at the age of 56.

Easy to say on an anxiety board but try and enjoy each day as it comes, or worst way a part of a day, as basically we are just here on earth for a visit.