Well, as of Sunday, I may or may not have had a heart attack. Major pain, but the diagnosis is still out. However, caused a great deal of introspection. I'm a 41 (damn, almost 42) year old male. My job requires me to meet at least 10 mets (google 'Bruce Protocol'), my cholesterol is around 320, but my "good" cholesterol is, er, good. The tests are still out, but reguardless, lifestyle adjustments are ahead. (Maybe they'll tell me to stay at home and Bryce more!!?) Take care of yourselves...

Whew! I'm sorry to hear about your scare, but at least you made it and are still here to reflect upon some lifestyle changes. My best friend and business partner died Dec. 4, from a massive heart-attack. Ed Wray was only 44. He was a design engineer, devoted family man, and a hell of a musician. I intend to make some changes to my lifestyle as well.

Sorry to hear about your partner. I have a coworker, "Ed Raye" who is battling cancer. I feel guiltily fortunate...

Hope you'll be around to feel guilty for a long time. Hopefully, it might be something to do with pressure, like with me.

Holy molely, that is scary, better start eating lots and lots of cruciferous veggies, and blueberries,and oats(oatmeal, oat cereals) they all have anti-oxidant and anti-heart attack chemicals in them.....hopefully it was just a false alarm, anxiety attack from stress....I had one, they feel just like a heart attack.....

wow that is scary! glad you're still here though :) hope all will end up the best way possible :)

2 Ed Raye/Wray, spooky! Sorry to hear about your probs. Get well soon!

Raye/Ray... should I be scared too?

Nukeboy, sounds like a major warning to me. My dad had a heart attack at your age. He took it as a warning and is now 65 and a lot healthier than he's been for years.

If you felt pain in your chest, it probably was not a heart attack. You may have given birth to a brand new baby stomach ulcer. If the pain was in your leg and/or arm on the left side, then yeah. You had a heart related incident. Maintaining a healthy heart - diet is only part of the equation. The heart is a muscle and must be exercised like all the others. Along with eating healthier, cardio workouts are equally important. No male in my family has lived past the age of 67. They've all died of heart disease. I take this subject very seriously. I'm 42 myself and exercise regularly. I can outrun most 20 year olds on the basketball court. My doctor says my heart is in great shape. But he just told me yesterday that I have splenomeglia (enlargement of the spleen) and I'll probably need a splenectomy. Just goes to show ya, if its not one thing its another. Hope you get better.

Scary,hope it was no more than a scare! My partner has had a couple of scares, and was diagnosed with seriously high bp. The secret is in the diet as Zhann says. Cut down on the red meat and dairy products, cut out fried food all together, and most important cut down on SALT, that is the real demon in the pack. Eat lots of fish, especially oily fish, lots of omega thingummies in them thar fishies. And of course Zhann's veggies. 10 years or so further on my partner, now 63, is about 20lbs lighter, works as well if not better than those on the golf course half his age, and agrees he is far better off, health wise.

Hope that it's just a scare also, but still its a good thing to make those changes even if it is a scare.

Oh and just because it's chest pains does NOT mean it isn't the heart. Someone I worked with thought he had really bad heartburn and took some antacid, anyhow, he thought that helped and went home and before he'd climbed the stairs to go inside he collapsed and he had had a heartattack. So its best to have it checked out.

Calm down Nukie I am 33 and had some of those turned out to be a Hiatal Hernia! Freaked me out but turned out ok. I did go to get it checked out though as should you and then even if they don't find anything it may be time to reevalueate your life and your habits. Eating half a cow and then chasing it down with a keg o' beer was fine when you was 20 but it don't work now especially after a pack of smokes.

Now you have to eat a whole cow and 2 kegs of beer...!

I know you Brits will eat parts of the cow the rest of us throw away, so I'll stick with just the half cow for now!

Hey Nuke,........did the docs do a cardiac enzyme test ? Did they give you Nitro ? If yes,.......did it help ? Still doesn't mean anything. Did the pain radiate into the neck and left arm, wrist ? Certain types of anxiety attacks can very closely mimic heart attacks. Makes the small blood vesels and capillaries in the chest constrict and cause quite a bit of pain. Did it feel like you had an elephant standing on your chest ? Ask alot of questions, don't I ?

Saw a news item the other night that doctors have discovered that low cholesterol is only half the story when it comes to preventing heart attacks. Evidently 'the other half' is making sure there's no inflammation in the veins (never even knew you could have such a thing!). There's a simple blood-test to find out if there's inflammation, but even without the blood-test you can minimize the risk of inflammation by getting lots of exercise, fresh veg, and not smoking. BTW moving a mouse around doesn't qualify as exercise.

'BTW moving a mouse around doesn't qualify as exercise.' oh yes it does! ;-)

Sacrat: Yeah, the did the enzyme test and I haven't heard the results yet. The pain radiated from the left chest (sharp and achey) up under the left arm down to the bicep (really achey). My ekg was normal, so no heart damage, but not an indicator if it was an attack or not. Doc thinks it's one of two things: Partial blockage causing mild attack or sudden onset of reflux disease. Turns out that that same nerve that flips out during a heart attack can also be "stimulated" by damage to the esophogous (sp?). So, both have teh same symptoms and he's treating me for both until Monday when I do a "stress test" on a treadmill.