The heart is the favorite indicator of all poets and writers to show how a person is affected by a particular situation. And most often in a bad way. Surely, we are all familiar with such expressions as: reluctantly, the heart bleeds, the heart aches, with a heavy heart, and others. However, these are not just literary phrases for a beautiful word. Today scientists know for certain that the heart can really hurt due to psychological reasons. And one of them that provokes such a symptom, which manifests itself most often, is anxiety disorder.
What are heart pains and what causes them?
Heart pain after stress can manifest itself in different ways. Painful sensations can be grouped depending on the reasons that caused them.
Pain arising from diseases of the heart and vascular system is divided into anginal and cardiac. Anginal pain is dangerous because it is associated with a limitation in the amount of oxygen supplied to the blood. It appears during or after physical activity or stressful situations. In some cases, it can lead to myocardial infarction due to vasospasm caused by the release of adrenaline into the blood.
Sensations of compression behind the sternum with a simultaneous painful “shooting” in the left arm, lower back, abdominal area or lower jaw characterize the condition experienced by the patient.
Organic heart lesions caused by infections, toxic effects or autoimmune diseases contribute to the occurrence of cardiac pain.
The heart can suffer from nervous conditions due to pathological conditions not related to cardiac activity. A confirmed diagnosis can explain the symptoms that appear. The nature of pain manifestations depends on the type of pathology:
- Diseases of the intercostal nerves or muscles - if they are present, the patient’s heart hurts when inhaling, and treatment with drugs that regulate cardiac function does not help.
- Infectious diseases (flu, sore throat) provoke situations when the heart aches very strongly, this is associated with the appearance of inflammatory processes in the myocardium.
- Pathologies of the stomach or pancreas also cause discomfort, which intensifies during meals or on an empty stomach,
- Aching heart pain or stabbing pain occurs as a result of a long-term (more than a week) stressful situation, is associated with a feeling of melancholy, and can occur suddenly when excited.
- Excessive physical activity, poor lifestyle, alcohol abuse, smoking and nervous stress can cause sudden pain.
Additional causes of pain symptoms:
- Family lifestyle, unfavorable emotional background, inability to control one’s emotional state due to an unstable nervous system, a life principle expressed in the phrase “I worry about everything.”
- Changes in hormonal levels, which are a consequence of puberty, due to pregnancy, the onset of menopause in a woman.
- Adaptation to new climatic conditions after moving to another area.
- Depression, neurosis, post-stress disorder.
Physiological signs
Anxiety depressive disorder can also manifest itself at a physiological level. In this case, a person may experience headaches, shortness of breath, digestive problems, skin rashes, and so on. Including frightening sensations in the chest: pain, burning, tingling. There are several characteristic features of psychological pain in the heart area:
- the sensations are wave-like,
- have been bothering you for a long time, but the ECG remains normal,
- unpleasant sensations are recorded in the upper part of the heart or in the precordial region,
- pain is easily relieved with validol or sedatives,
- painful sensations also spread to the left arm, shoulder, armpit, and sometimes even to the teeth.
One of the extreme manifestations of a pathological feeling of anxiety is the occurrence of panic attacks. A person suddenly and without any objective reason is seized with panic. He may begin to choke, feel like his heart is “breaking out of his chest” or clouding of consciousness, the extreme unreality of what is happening. Because of which he has a fear of going crazy, causing harm to himself or others, or dying.
Can the heart hurt from anxiety and stress?
If the myocardium is deficient in oxygen and energy, it cannot function properly. As a result, this provokes the development of cardiac pain. Stress often impairs the functionality of the nervous system.
Due to stressful situations, there is a loss of the coordinating and regulatory role of the central nervous system for vascular tone (coronary vessels also belong here). Adrenaline and cortisol released by the adrenal glands provoke total vascular spasm. Ischemic areas appear in the heart muscle, and the person feels pain.
Why does your heart hurt when you're nervous?
This phenomenon is explained by two mechanisms:
- Spasmodic reaction of blood vessels. Strong emotions are stress for the whole body. They stimulate the sympatho-adrenal system. This increases the activity of the sympathetic nervous system and adrenal glands. Because of this, the following is observed in the SSS:
- increase in heart rate and strength,
- vascular spasm,
- increase in blood pressure.
The spasm also affects the coronary vessels, which prevents the normal flow of blood to the heart. This is manifested by ischemic myocardial damage with possible symptoms of angina pectoris.
- Psychogenic cardialgia. Neurological heart pain is called cardioneurosis. The sympatho-adrenal system plays the role of a trigger, not a cause. The catalyst for pain is the mental state of a person who, due to nerves, experiences pain in the heart, provoked by mental or psychiatric pathologies.
Traditional treatment of cardioneurosis
1. For half an hour, infuse motherwort herb (1 tbsp), brewed with a glass of very hot water.
After that, add 30 drops of lily of the valley tincture into the resulting solution, which can be purchased at the pharmacy.
Half a glass is the daily norm, which must be taken after dividing into five servings.
The use of the resulting infusion is quite effective in helping with pain in the heart, which has a pronounced manifestation of cardioneurosis, insomnia, and a depressive state of the body.
2. The recipe for the following infusion can provide all possible help when heart neurosis is observed with obvious disturbances in the functioning of the digestive organs, insomnia, and constant anxiety.
To prepare, you need to chop and mix the following ingredients in advance: chamomile flower, lily of the valley (1 tbsp), fennel fruits, peppermint leaf (2 tbsp), valerian root (4 tbsp). The resulting collection, in an amount of 2 tsp, will need to be poured with 200 ml of cold water and allowed to brew for three hours. The aging place must be sufficiently cold. At the end, the collection should be boiled and then filtered. It is recommended to take 50 ml four times a day.
3. The following collection has a strong calming effect, therefore it is recommended for cardiac neuroses. All components should first be thoroughly crushed, take 1 tbsp. l: valerian root, lemon balm leaf, yarrow herb, hop cones. Boiling water (200 ml) is poured into a tablespoon. l of the resulting raw material, infuse for half an hour. During the day, gradually drink all the contents in small sips.
4. Use 100 ml boiled water to dissolve honey (tbsp). Three times a day, taken before meals, for two months.
5. To improve your well-being, it is recommended to take fresh motherwort juice, 30 drops, three times before meals, half an hour.
6. Systematically, every morning, it is recommended to take a contrast shower. In addition, dousing, wiping with water, and restorative self-massage are indicated.
7. If possible, you need to pay more attention to walking in the fresh air. These activities must be carried out in the morning, after half an hour, after a light breakfast. It is better to walk in the shade, with a slight breeze, and a temperature not lower than 20 degrees.
Of course, the conditions presented above are considered an idealized version of climate therapy, but they are still worth adhering to. If we talk about sunbathing, the optimal time interval is considered to be from 8 to 10.30 am.
After breakfast, approximately 30-40 minutes later, at a temperature not lower than 20 degrees, the head should be in the shade when sunbathing. Do not forget to change your body position when exposed to sunlight; your back and stomach should receive a tan evenly. At the end, it is recommended to rest in the shade for a quarter of an hour and then take a shower with cool water.
It is worth mentioning the positive impact of psychotherapy. When you wake up in the morning, you should systematically say the phrase of self-hypnosis: “My condition is improving every day, soon I will be completely healthy. Today, my health is much better than yesterday.” It may be initially difficult for you to set yourself up for such actions, but you still need to try to carry them out.
These phrases are pronounced in a whisper, at a fast pace, about 20 times in a row. After that, you need to wash your hands, face, stomach, armpits with cool water, and then, after taking ten deep breaths through your nose, exhaling through your mouth, you should start morning exercises.
Regular morning warm-up should include a set of simple exercises (up to 10), aimed at different muscle groups. In addition, the exercise should include breathing exercises of a static and dynamic nature.
Nature of pain
Neurogenic pain manifests itself in different ways. She may be:
- piercing,
- aching,
- blunt,
- muted or pronounced.
Characteristic signs of neurogenic pain:
- the discomfort is in no way related to physical activity and even after it the patient may feel relief,
- increased with intense breathing,
- Nitroglycerin does not affect the intensity; after taking sedatives it becomes easier.
Serious stress and the heart
There is no doubt that stress can have real physiological effects on the body, including the heart. This most often occurs during the development of a serious and sudden (acute) stressful situation. People who received shocking news, such as the death of a child, in most cases suffered an immediate heart attack.
“This is not just a disturbing attack. When a cardiac catheterization procedure is performed in such cases, the artery that was previously open is often determined to be closed,” says Dr. Deepak Bhatt, director of the Integrated Interventional Cardiovascular Program at Brigham and Women's Hospital.
This condition is also known as “broken heart syndrome” and is much more common in women. In this case, even those who have not previously had any cardiovascular diseases can suffer.
The body's response to stress may include headaches, back discomfort, or abdominal pain. Stress can also reduce energy, harm sleep, and make a person feel groggy, forgetful, and out of control. [4]
The difference between nerve spasms and diseases
You can understand that heart pain is caused not only by stress, but also by the likelihood of developing angina pectoris by the following symptoms:
- an attack develops during or immediately after physical or emotional stress,
- in a calm state, health improves,
- the pain is sharp but short-lived,
- general lethargy develops,
- minor physical activity is accompanied by strong heartbeat and difficulty breathing,
- Nitroglycerin slightly improves the condition.
