Working at an urgent care facility, I see a lot of acute heart attacks as well as extreme panic attacks. I was poking around the internet and my old text books this morning looking for definitive differences on the ol’ anxiety attack and MI. I know that some experience such extreme panic type feelings, heart palpitations and shortness of breath, that the only definitive way to tell exactly what is going on is looking for ST changes on an EKG.
So much of what I read really bothered me. “The difference is that panic attacks are not crushing and heart attacks …read more

I am asking for your expertise and experiences tonight! Has anyone out there tried the Chantix drug to cease their nasty ol’ smoking habit? I know that with every single cardiac patient we do the whole stop smoking spiel and are now offering up a huge number of prescriptions for this “magic” little medicine.
I am curious if number one it worked for you? Number two… any side effects or issues with it? I have seen a lot, and I mean a lot, of patients lately having anxiety and severe panic attacks, heart palpitations and that isn’t even the tip of …read more

Do you worry yourself to death? Are you anxious and easily panicked? I am a very anxious person by nature and tend to worry about things that I can’t even control. But there is new research that states that women who have at least one full blown panic attack increase their risk for heart attack, stroke and an untimely death. Well, well, well… if that isn’t reason enough to get my worries under control, I don’t know what would be.
The results add panic attacks to the list of emotions and psychiatric symptoms that have already been …read more