Hello, 27 year old male here. Non-smoker. I eat as best I can with no trans-fats, lower saturated fat, only whole grains and lots of whole foods with increased fiber intake. Over the summer I lost 40ish pounds (down from 180 to 140) but I live a somewhat sedentary lifestyle (I'm working on changing that). I was running 3-5 miles several times a week last summer (a year before the diet change) but stopped last winter.
Back in August I had a bunch of heart tests done because I had been complaining of chest pain. My dad had an MI when he was 25 and I have a VERY strong paternal family history of heart disease. So I had to have things checked out just to make sure. I don't want that garbage sneaking up on me.
EKG came back fine.
I had a treadmill nuclear stress test that came back showing no signs of ischemia or blockages
I had an echocardiogram that showed I have mitral valve prolapse with mild regurgitation
I also had a bunch of blood work done and my cholesterol came back with HDL: 67, LDL: 129 and triglycerides at 51.
I've also been wearing a 30 day heart monitor to monitor any cardiac events. So far everything is normal.
Yet I still have this nagging feeling. New symptoms have cropped up. Sometimes when I exert myself I'll feel chest tightness in the left center of my chest. Usually no other symptoms. It goes away when I chill. I can't tell you whether or not it's angina but occasionally it shows up when I'm chilling out, too. Sometimes I'll wake up to a racing heart (I suffer from anxiety) that the chest tightness will accompany more often than not.
Again, I'm not sure if it is actually angina. Maybe it is coincidental? It went away for several days but then when I took a brisk walk today it came back (HR was around 112).
Is there a possibility that things have changed so drastically that I could have developed plaque or my cholesterol has changed and gone up despite staying on this healthy diet since early spring? I have a strong predisposition to high cholesterol so I'm wondering if this situation is plausible? Should I go back and get tested again even though it was around 4 months ago?
Or is it more likely something else and I should take a chill pill?
Telling myself that my cholesterol is mostly okay has helped my anxiety yet the chest pain remains.
Apologies if the post was all over the place. I'm just looking for answers.
Post Edited (Bluejolt) : 12/10/2015 11:41:15 PM (GMT-7)