What Is the Main Cause of Angina?

Angina is the medical term for chest pain, and it occurs whenever your heart muscle receives an insufficient amount of oxygen-rich blood. In the experience of angina, your heart muscle constricts as a way to tell your body that it needs more oxygen and blood. This pain is often felt as a crushing or burning feeling in your chest, but angina discomfort can also be felt in your arms, back, jaw, neck, and shoulders. Angina pain might be confused with either a heart attack, on the one hand, or intense heartburn, on the other.

The most common cause of angina is coronary artery disease (CAD), in which the arteries that transport blood to and from your heart are narrowed due to the buildup of plaque, which is called atherosclerosis. That said, angina most often occurs during stress, physical activity, extreme cold, or a large meal.

The best way to tell if you are experiencing angina or a heart attack is by timing how long the pain lasts. With angina, the pain usually lasts for three to five minutes, up to 30 minutes. By contrast, heart attacks almost always last longer than 30 minutes. Heart attacks also have more severe symptoms than angina, such as nausea or vomiting, excessive sweating, and extreme fatigue. That said, if you are experiencing angina for the first time or if your medication is not helping, seek immediate medical attention as it could be warning signs of a heart attack.

The four different kinds of angina are stable angina, unstable angina, variant or Prinzmetal angina, and microvascular angina.

With stable angina, the events usually last five minutes. They are triggered by stress, physical activity, extreme weather, overeating, and can be treated with nitroglycerin, rest, or both.

By contrast, unstable angina often occurs during periods of rest, is precipitated by sudden chest pain, usually lasts longer than 20 minutes, and is not relieved by either rest or nitroglycerin. Unstable angina is a medical emergency and requires immediate medical attention.

Variant or Prinzmetal angina is caused by spasms in the coronary arteries. These spasms can be caused by extreme weather, smoking, stress, cocaine use, or certain medications that narrow the arteries. Variant angina usually occurs at rest, during the night or early morning, and can be treated with medication.

Finally, microvascular angina occurs when the tiny blood vessels that feed your heart malfunction. The pain with microvascular angina is unpredictable, lasts much longer than stable angina, is only sometimes relieved with nitroglycerin, and can happen during physical activity or rest.

We have numerous treatment options at Sterling Heart Care to effectively treat angina! While the specific treatment plan in any individual’s case will depend on the particular type of angina they have and how severe it is, we will likely treat their angina with medication and either heart flow therapy, our cardiac rehabilitation program, or both.

Heart flow therapy, or external counter pulsation (ECP) therapy, is a non-invasive and painless procedure that stimulates the growth of new blood vessels and improves the blood flow of existing blood vessels. ECP treatment usually takes around one hour to conduct and occurs daily for five to 12 weeks. It works by wrapping blood pressure cuffs around the legs and buttocks, which are then inflated and deflated in a counter pattern to your normal cardiac cycle to force blood flow to the heart. The heart accommodates the extra blood flow by creating new blood vessels and arteries.

Our cardiac rehabilitation programs are based on three pillars: exercise, nutrition, and a healthy mindset. During this program, our health coaches and licensed counselors guide you through nutrition and healthy mindset workshops, workout programs, health education videos, cooking schools, and diet routines over an extended period to help you instill healthy habits and improve your heart health.

If you are suffering from angina pain and looking for effective treatment, we welcome you to Sterling Heart Care! You can schedule an appointment with us through our website or call us .