Not everyone is "qualified" to suffer from coronary heart disease. Chest tightness and shortness of breath may be caused by cardiac neurosis.

A female friend in her 30s told Huazi that she had been feeling chest tightness and shortness of breath recently, sometimes with chest pain and sometimes back pain. Was she suffering from coronary heart disease? Huazi asked her if she had high blood pressure, hyperlipidemia, diabetes, and whether she was a long-term smoker. She said no. Huazi told her that she was not "qualified" to have coronary heart disease.

Coronary heart disease refers to the atherosclerosis and plaque formation of the coronary arteries under the stimulation of various risk factors. It can only be diagnosed when the artery stenosis exceeds 50%. Most of the chest tightness and shortness of breath in young and middle-aged people are caused by cardiac neurosis.

1. How difficult is it to get coronary heart disease? Coronary heart disease is not an easy disease. It requires high blood pressure, high blood fat, diabetes, smoking and other risk factors, and uncontrolled damage to the coronary artery for more than 10 years. And as long as treatment is carried out before the onset of the disease and smoking is quit, the occurrence of coronary heart disease will be greatly delayed.

If you actively take medication to control blood pressure, blood lipids and blood sugar, and use statins to control the low-density lipoprotein cholesterol in blood lipids to below 1.8mmol/L, after 2 to 4 years, the atherosclerosis that has formed will shrink and the degree of coronary artery stenosis will be reduced. Therefore, it is not easy to get coronary heart disease. It takes 10 years of not caring about your health and destroying your body to make it possible.

2. Common cardiac neurosis in young people If a patient has coronary heart disease, due to the narrowing of the coronary arteries, the blood supply to the heart is reduced, and symptoms such as chest tightness, chest pain, and shortness of breath will appear during activities, which will disappear after rest. For young people in their thirties and forties, there are few "three high" risk factors. If they do not smoke, then the symptoms of chest tightness and shortness of breath are likely to be cardiac neurosis.

The symptoms of cardiac neurosis are very similar to those of coronary heart disease, but it has a characteristic that it usually occurs in a quiet state, and you don’t feel it when you are busy. This is because cardiac neurosis is an autonomic nervous system disorder, which is often induced by anxiety and mental stress. People usually have wild thoughts in a quiet state, which makes them prone to anxiety and symptoms.

3. What to do when chest tightness and shortness of breath occur If chest tightness and shortness of breath occur frequently, you must go to the hospital for a checkup first. For example, electrocardiogram, dynamic electrocardiogram, cardiac ultrasound, cardiovascular angiography and other examinations. Understand whether there are any abnormalities in the heart structure, blood vessels, and electrophysiology. If no obvious abnormalities are found, then it is basically likely to be cardiac neurosis.

Mild cardiac neurosis generally does not require special treatment. As long as you understand the disease and know that your heart does not have coronary heart disease or other diseases, it is just that the nervous system sends wrong signals, making you mistakenly think that you have a disease.

Self-adjustment is the most important thing, such as maintaining a regular life, going to bed early and getting up early every day, and increasing exercise. The most important thing is to learn to relax your mind. If you pay too much attention to physical discomfort, the symptoms will worsen. For example, the rib joints move with breathing every day, which will cause wear and tear to stimulate the nerves and cause discomfort and pain. If you pay too much attention to it, this discomfort will be magnified and develop into chest tightness and chest pain.

If you panic because you are worried about your heart problems, you will unconsciously speed up your breathing and hyperventilate, which will lead to excessive exhalation of carbon dioxide, respiratory alkalosis, numbness of the lips and limbs, a sense of impending death, and panic attacks. As long as you control your emotions, you can avoid these symptoms.

If the symptoms are severe, psychotherapy is recommended. You can also use medication for symptomatic treatment under the guidance of a doctor to relieve the symptoms.

To sum up, if you always have chest tightness and shortness of breath, but you don't have the "three highs" or smoke, it doesn't necessarily mean you have coronary heart disease. Especially for young people, it is likely to be cardiac neurosis. It's not that there is really a problem with the heart, but it's just because the autonomic nerves of the heart are disordered, which is mostly related to anxiety and excessive mental stress. Increasing your understanding of the disease and self-regulating can cure the disease. In severe cases, you need to use drugs under the guidance of a doctor to relieve symptoms. I am pharmacist Huazi, welcome to follow me and share more health knowledge.