Since returning from a trip to the Pyrenees, I have had issue with chest discomfort, even pain to the point that I actually ended up in A&E after calling an ambulance. Since that point I have had a number of scans which have highlighted 50% stenosis of arteries, but nothing significant enough to warrant a stent.
During the investigations, I made an observation that my symptoms were reduced, even no happening when I belly breathed. I assumed this was just a coincidence and that it was indeed angina and it would only be resolved (or mitigated) via drugs.
last night I was doing a session on the bike and I started having my issues and I realised I was chest breathing. I consciously switched to belly breathing and the symptoms pretty much stopped and I was able to complete the workout in relative ease.
Given the above, I can’t see how this could be angina, surely belly breathing doesn’t affect the way blood pumps around the body. I understand it might change the oxygenation of blood, but not where it flows.
I am trying to get another session with the consultant to talk this through, but wondered if anyone on here had anything similar that I might be able to align it with?
Glad you are seeing professionals. My only thoughts, which could be total garbage, is that breathing through the chest places a specific load on a sensitive bit of the chest, whereas belly breathing doesn’t. Or the slightly different posture when breathing through the chest narrows arteries enough that angina becomes more of a problem.
I see the logic there. What’s more confusing is that prior to going away, I had no symptoms. I now failing to see how angina can suddenly appear like that, surely it would be a gradual thing. The same could be said about posture/sensitivity, it was not evident before so what changed,
No idea if this fits your symptoms, and obvious disclaimer of I am not a doctor, or your doctor, but could this be 2 coincidental but separate thing?
I’ve had issues before from strained intercostal muscles causing pains when doing deep chest breathing, and I could well believe belly breathing would have helped relieve them.
I’m wondering if something like this - or another non heart related acute injury/issue caused by increased training volume at high altitude on your trip - has led to the testing and investigation revealing an underlying, asymptomatic, heart issue which otherwise you’d never have noticed?
No significant observations from the scans, although i do apparently have a slight murmur.
Given what i have seen myself, it does track that it could be some kind of strain, but no idea where and what, and why. Outside of a few nights where I had slight discomfort while sleeping, I only get the symptoms while exercising and I cannot reproduce even with very exaggerated chest breathing.
interestingly I just had a conversation with the secretary for my consultant and she suggested the same thing, that it’s not cardiac, but something else. No idea who I need to talk to now if that is the case, I need a referral to someone, but who!
During covid, I was working way too much, and under a lot of stress at work, added to all the life stress that covid was putting on everybody. I had this burning pain in my left chest, in/around/under my pec muscle. I had fallen and torn/sprained/separated something in that area twice in the previous 2 years (2nd fall hurt the same spot, 9 months after the first fall). Some days I’d swear it was a muscle and I could rub the muscles a little and find a sore spot (but different spot on different days, and half the time it was not in the area below my pec where it hurt after falling) and it would calm down temporarily, while other times I couldn’t pinpoint it.
I have cardiovascular disease and some arrhythmia issues, too, (and also severe anxiety that present in very real physiological ways, that have made me think I was having a heart attack before, and coincidentally that is how I learned about my blockage and arrhythmias) and one of the crazy things about this was that I was only getting a day off every other week during most of that timeframe, and on the day I wasn’t going to work I’d wake in the morning with no burning chest pain, go take a bike ride with no pain, all day no pain, then roll out of bed the next morning to get ready for work…burning chest pain. So, I convinced myself it was largely a stress problem. I didn’t have time to go to the hospital and spend days there, and it wasn’t heart attack level pain (don’t handle this like I did, if you find yourself in this situation), so I eventually got caught up enough at work, and quit my job. Problem solved, but I still sometimes get the pec muscle pains and attribute that now to the weightlifting I do in retirement . At my next annual cardiologist appt they checked and said there was no sign I’d had a heart attack.
Just a story to let you know you’re not alone, and not imagining things. There can be more than one thing going on, and your mind will play tricks on you, sometimes. It’s good you got your heart checked out, and don’t stop getting on the bike. 3:30 am zone 2 sessions, when I couldn’t sleep may have saved my life during those crazy days.
. At my next annual cardiologist appt they checked and said there was no sign I’d had a heart attack.