Angina is characterized by chest pain or discomfort due to insufficient blood flow to the heart muscle. The oxygen in the blood is critical for your heart muscle. With angina, your chest may feel constricted or tight. The sensation could be indigestion. You may also feel discomfort in your back, neck, jaw, shoulders, and arms. Angina attacks often last a few minutes. If it was caused by exercise, it should go away after a few minutes of relaxation.

What are the angina symptoms?
Angina usually causes pressure, tightness, or squeezing in the chest. This may cause pain or a dull soreness. It may also affect your stomach, back, neck, jaw, shoulders, and arms.

Some signs and symptoms of angina include fatigue, dizziness, perspiration, and trouble breathing.

Angina can also occur while resting if your arteries are constricted. This is known as unstable angina. Angina does not usually cause extreme pain. Instead, it feels like pressure or squeezing. There is sometimes no actual pain, merely an uncomfortable sensation. Unlike other types of chest discomfort, such as pleurisy or pericarditis, angina is unaffected by your body position or heavy breathing.

Do men and women have the same symptoms of angina?
Men and women may experience similar angina symptoms. These include “typical” chest pain and jaw, neck, back, and stomach pain.

Women are more likely than men to experience the less common symptoms of microvascular angina, spasms in the smallest coronary arteries, such as feeling unwell, overheated, disoriented, and out of breath. Recognizing each symptom will allow you to get the attention you need immediately.

Causes of angina
A reduction in blood flow to the heart muscle is one of the causes of angina. Blood transports the oxygen that the heart muscle requires to survive. Ischemia is a condition that occurs when the heart muscle does not receive enough oxygen. The most common cause of angina is reduced blood flow to the heart muscle, which is known as coronary artery disease (CAD). In addition, plaques are fatty buildups that can cause the heart’s (coronary) arteries to contract. This is known as atherosclerosis.

A blood clot or plaque rupture in a blood vessel can cause blood flow through a constricted artery to be unexpectedly restricted or stopped. Blood flow to the heart muscle may be considerably reduced as a result. When there is less oxygen demand, such as at rest, the heart muscle may be able to function on a reduced volume of blood flow without feeling angina symptoms. Angina, on the other hand, can occur when the body’s oxygen needs increase, as it happens during exercise.

What is the treatment for angina?
The doctor will treat the underlying cardiac problem that is causing your angina. The two primary treatment goals are to improve blood flow to your heart and lower the risk of issues. In addition, your provider will check you physically and do several tests to understand your ailment better and determine the most effective therapies.

Commonly used treatments for angina include:

• Use of prescription capsules to lower your risk of blood clots
• Prescriptions for high blood pressure
• Tablets that reduce cholesterol
• Lifestyle changes
• A coronary artery transplant (CABG)
• Percutaneous coronary intervention, also known as coronary angioplasty and stenting (PCI)

Despite treatment, some patients continue to experience angina symptoms. When you are in pain, your doctor may recommend a prescription to enlarge your blood vessels quickly. Nitroglycerin is a popular angina therapy. Enhanced external counterpulsation (EECP) is another option for those who experience discomfort. This therapy applies pressure to your lower legs to increase blood flow to your heart. It may help with your angina.

The treatment option depends on the severity of the condition. Although most people take prescriptions to avoid angina, some discover that changing their lifestyle is enough to eradicate their symptoms. Some patients require surgery to bypass or unblock blocked coronary arteries.

Therapy options for angina
When traditional treatment fails to relieve angina or unexpectedly worsens, more invasive procedures such as angioplasty or coronary artery bypass surgery may be required.

Angioplasties are procedures that are used to expand or unclog congested arteries. A thin tube, a catheter, is gently guided into the heart’s obstructed artery by putting it into an artery in the arm or groin. The artery-obstructing plaque is flattened by inflating a balloon near the artery’s tip. Sometimes, the balloon will stretch a wire-mesh stent to keep the artery open. When the balloon has deflated, the catheter is withdrawn, leaving the stent in place.

Angina is characterized by chest pain, tightness, or pressure and is caused by insufficient oxygen delivery to the heart muscle. Although not always dangerous, it may be a sign of heart disease. Angina can be controlled or prevented from recurring with effective healthcare therapies and lifestyle changes. Anybody experiencing sudden, inexplicable, intensifying, or both types of chest pain should immediately seek expert help.