Chest pain isn't all bad Health Article
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When it comes to exercise, that old chestnut “No pain, no gain” is passé. But it may still apply to heart attacks. People who have chest pain (angina) with activity in the months or weeks before a heart attack tend to have smaller heart attacks, better survival, fewer heart rhythm problems, and better recovery of heart function than those without chest pain. In May, a team that included cardiologists from Harvard-affiliated Brigham and Women’s Hospital reported in the Journal of the American College of Cardiology that angina protects against the muscular remodeling of the left ventricle that can follow a heart attack and lead to heart failure. It didn’t seem to help people with diabetes, though.
More news about chest pain’s silver lining comes from an international database of acute coronary events — the catchall term for heart attacks and chest pain at rest (unstable angina). Among more than 20,000 people listed in the database, the 10% or so who had not had chest pain when they arrived in a hospital emergency room were more likely to have been misdiagnosed or incorrectly treated than those with the traditional warning sign of chest pain. People without chest pain, or those with other “atypical” signals of a heart attack such as dizziness or fainting, nausea or vomiting, or shortness of breath, were also less likely to have been given aspirin, a beta blocker, or a cholesterol-lowering statin. The report appeared in the August issue of Chest.
This and earlier reports will, we hope, help doctors pay more attention to “atypical” heart attack symptoms, especially in women.