When does your chest pain require immediate medical attention?
Hi, My name is Dr. Waqas Khan.
First of all I just want to say Happy Holidays, Merry Christmas and Happy Thanksgiving!
Today we are going to talk about chest pain which can lead to heart problems or a heart attack. Usually this kind of pain is left sided pain going into either the jaw area or the left arm or the upper back.
Usually it is associated with nausea, vomiting, sweating feeling, or feeling as if you’re kind of having a sinking feeling in the chest. Usually the pain lasts for at least 15-20 minutes.
It is usually not associated with any food intake or taking a breath in, or drinking water or food intake. Usually that pain is not coming back with those symptoms or getting worse with those symptoms.
So if you have a pain with the features of the left sided pressure like burning, associated with nausea, vomiting , you should be concerned about having a heart attack, especially if you’re in a certain age group, around 50, with the risk factors of smoking, high blood pressure, diabetes, high cholesterol.
So if you have that kind of pain, it’s best to get immediate medical attention.
Thank you very much.