Stress and Chest Pain

[sneek]

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Everyone deals with stress differently. I can relate to the OP, recently I was sitting in my conference room having a meeting when a sharp pain went through my chest, it felt like a lightning bolt (not literally of course) and I seriously thought I was having a heart attack. I calmly carried on and continued the meeting. My wife checked me out and said it was likely just stress. It's alarming to say the least.

Similar thing happened to me in 2014. I had just broken up with my girlfriend at the time and had buried myself in work. I had worked 80 hour weeks before in Finance so thought I could handle it. Turns out that was a lie. One of my employees dropped everything and took me to the hospital. Ended up running some blood work and doing a stress test shortly after. They sent me home with nitro that fortunately I never had to use.

The cardiologist told me it was likely stress induced as I was working a ton, drinking more than normal and sleeping a lot less than normal. I ended up hiring a personal trainer and eventually taking a 50K paycut to leave that job. Still no regrets to this day

[bigbadboss101]

Work stress can affect us in other areas, like home life. Best to keep it in check. I too have been off work and that affects how I interact with my family which is not good.

Mediation do help. From reading articles people say try to find gratitude. Be thankful for what we have rather than what we don't. Also do things we enjoy. Can be exercise, can be spending time with people we like, can be volunteering.

[craigcd]

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Meditation. I am 100% serious.

How did you get into meditation? I researched this a couple months back and was looking for classes, workshops.......something for beginners and I couldn't see much.

[J-hop]

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I noticed I was getting a mild chest discomfort right after thanksgiving. I booked a appointment with my doctor.
Last week it got pretty intense, before I could see my doctor I called 811 and they advised me to get my ass to Emergency (& no I did not eat any Chicken tika or Vindaloo prior to this).

It was a bit overhwhelming being taken in right away. AHS is awesome. Good news was that my heart is ok. There is no family history of this either.
I saw my doctor on Monday, after being checked over she said its pretty much down to stress (ive been laid off since March). I am stressed, I never thought my body would react in this way. Its down to stress hormones, more acid production and tightening of chest muscles.
I got a month of meds and I grabbed a packet of Gaviscon.

The pain can be pretty intense, ive never had anything like this before. Its off centre and to the side. Nomally I would hit the gym, play soccer etc. I cant do anything physical down to a long term sickness. So gym or any physical activity is a no no.

Have any of you had this and how did you guys deal with getting the pain down?

I haven’t been dealing with much pain but I have had similar stress induced chest tightness and heart palpitations lately. Under a huge amount of stress at work.

One thing that seems to help right now is walking. About twice a day when stress is getting to me I go for a bit of a brisk walk. Then an hour walk with the dog at night. Throw a podcast on and zone out, get the heart rate up a bit but nothing too physically strenuous.

That seems to be helping for me, working out just leaves me drained, but sitting all day is making it worse, so walking seems to be a good compromise

[tonytiger55]

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How did you get into meditation? I researched this a couple months back and was looking for classes, workshops.......something for beginners and I couldn't see much.

I did open eye meditation a few years back. I took classes in Calgary and they were really useful. There are organisations that do it. The one I did it with had a religious aspect to it. That part I just ignored.
They broke down the process about how your mind works. They don't teach you anything you don't know. I took it along side postive think classes.
It was really powerful. I did the advanced classes and I kept going.

I'l can PM you the link if your interested.

[suntan]

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How did you get into meditation? I researched this a couple months back and was looking for classes, workshops.......something for beginners and I couldn't see much.

There’s an app called Headspace. Try it out. When you first meditate you may become more agitated. Keep trying.

[nismodrifter]

search Art of Living

They will have an introductory class called "The art of happiness" that you can look into. Great group to be involved in. I was introduced to it through my wife. Changed my life.

[scboss]

Meditate
Workout
Cook awesome food (sounds dumb but works for me)
Eat the awesome food

[Mitsu3000gt]

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.... but sitting all day is making it worse

Grab a standing desk and anti-fatigue mat. They are surprisingly very cheap and most work places would buy it for you I imagine:

I have these two exact things at work (35" desk) and it's crazy cheap right now:

https://www.primecables.ca/p-357448-...bles#sku366013

https://www.primecables.ca/p-359309-...ti+fatigue+mat

I honestly love it, I plan to get one for home too. Raises/lowers on struts in seconds. My old job had an actual power raising desk, so when I switched jobs this was the first thing I asked for.

[mr2mike]

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How did you get into meditation? I researched this a couple months back and was looking for classes, workshops.......something for beginners and I couldn't see much.

Lots of apps. Headspace, Simple Habit, Calm.
More of do a little each day and go longer and longer.

Can sign up for Vipassana but you will probably fail unless you build youself up to it.
https://www.karuna.dhamma.org/

The rules: They're INTENSE!!
https://www.karuna.dhamma.org/about-vipassana/code

[BavarianBeast]

Stress sucks, I would keep an eye on your heart though. My dad had similar issues about 15 years ago and when he went to the doctor he was told basically the same thing as you, heart is fine and to just take it easy. One year later he ended up having a heart attack playing hockey, guess the stop & go activity combined with stress caused his heart to stop. Only reason he pulled through at that time was because of his physical condition, so make sure to keep the cardio up!

For those seeking meditation I would recommend attending a class at Modern + Mindful. Good for anyone's mental health.

[msommers]

I'm really stoked so many value their mental health and take care of it in various ways -- keep encouraging others to do the same.

Really excellent.

[ExtraSlow]

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I'm really stoked so many value their mental health and take care of it in various ways -- keep encouraging others to do the same.

Really excellent.

Probably more important than physical health in many ways.

[vengie]

Ironic timing to find this thread...

My Wife's coworker has a family member who had a massive heart attack on Friday, he was considered stable on Saturday and as of today his heart is functioning at ~10%, they don't think he will make it.

What is ironic is her coworker was saying how his brother was the constant grinder at work, always high stress and just finally retired earlier this year at the age of 62, and is now very likely on his death bed.

Take care of yourselves my friends.

[J-hop]

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Grab a standing desk and anti-fatigue mat. They are surprisingly very cheap and most work places would buy it for you I imagine:

I have these two exact things at work (35" desk) and it's crazy cheap right now:

https://www.primecables.ca/p-357448-...bles#sku366013

https://www.primecables.ca/p-359309-...ti+fatigue+mat

I honestly love it, I plan to get one for home too. Raises/lowers on struts in seconds. My old job had an actual power raising desk, so when I switched jobs this was the first thing I asked for.

Man. I wish that was an option, but cost savings bro. And our office is crazy about conforming to standard issue amenities

[Mitsu3000gt]

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Man. I wish that was an option, but cost savings bro. And our office is crazy about conforming to standard issue amenities

Ah, fair enough, There is one for $90 if you are allowed to buy it yourself - if they let you use it that is.

[J-hop]

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Ah, fair enough, There is one for $90 if you are allowed to buy it yourself - if they let you use it that is.

It’s a great idea though, and cheap enough I might just try and see how long it lasts before someone calls me on it haha

It’s so silly we have one left over standing desk from layoffs and they’ve set it up so you can book it. But it’s not setup the same as my workstation so would be annoying setting up every time I want to use it. Therefore I never book it

[Mitsu3000gt]

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It’s a great idea though, and cheap enough I might just try and see how long it lasts before someone calls me on it haha

It’s so silly we have one left over standing desk from layoffs and they’ve set it up so you can book it. But it’s not setup the same as my workstation so would be annoying setting up every time I want to use it so I never book it

Yeah that is silly. If your work won't even let you pay out of your own pocket to improve your own work space (and very likely your productivity along with it) that is beyond ridiculous in my opinion. Worth a shot if you think you can get away with it - honestly being able to stand whenever I want through an 8hr work day makes an unbelievable difference. I also have issues with my hamstrings that seem to be slowly starting to disappear from no longer having constant pressure on them.

[HiTempguy1]

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Grab a standing desk and anti-fatigue mat.

I have a coworker who is a pretty healthy dude. Switched his whole office space to a standing desk design with anti-fatigue mats, everything.

He hates it. Standing still all day at a desk is different than walking around. I was really surprised to hear him say that, but that's what I'd expect the response to be based on having jobs previously where standing in one place for extended periods of time were necessary. It also does basically nothing for you health wise besides (at most) posture. For people with physical problems, it also might exacerbate them due to preexisting conditions.

[revelations]

I wanted to wade into this - most men arent this open about their mental/physical health (so this is good).

Stress is a HUGE factor. The chemicals your body produces as a result are very damaging at low levels, long term.
Even if you are fit, active etc. but you live a life of constant stress, worrying, fear etc. its actually worse than if you aren't that fit and have a life of little/no stress.

Some years ago, I was noticing some heart issues (even though I was active) palpitations, etc and I went and got hooked up to the treadmill test and wore a monitor for a couple of days afterwards. No issues whatsoever - but turns out my ELECTROLYTES were off a bit - or more specifically - off for me. I had a minor calcium deficiency.

I would suggest try supplements - we are losing our nutritional values from our foods in North America and this will get worse in time. Even if you 'feel' ok, that just means your body is adapting to the lack of vitamins and minerals. Some of these supplements are big stress fighters and mood adjusters.