"Spasm" feeling in chest, no pain involved. A few questions.

Hey, I'm 23 and been having these spasms/pinches too since i was about 16 or 17, but didnt really pay attention to them until last couple years. I can get them once a week or 3 times a day, no pattern. For the past 4 years or so, my sleep pattern has been bizzare, sleeping 3-5 hours about 3 or 4 times a week, always working out and playing basketball, drinking alcohol...in short just overworking my body, but I always felt I was healthy and mentally strong so I never slowed my pace down. This past summer I started generally feeling short of breath all the time, esp. on exertion. In sept., i went to a cardiologist, did echo, stress test, muga scan, chest ct...my left ventrical is slightly enlarged, but dr. feels it might be due to my lifestyle..LVEF was good (71%) at rest, but after stress test, dropped to 48%..i also did a cardiac mri...normal...so im puzzled b/c for the past 6 months ive been constantly short of breath, never gasping or wheezing nor hyperventilating, but just feel like i cant grasp a breath always, so i have to inhale deeply, which doesnt always help..did spirometry work for lungs and was normal...i havent done anything relating to sports for many months now, as every time i begin, i get short of breath and my heart starts racing...on top of all this, these "heart spams/pinches" just make me worry more about it all..they also sometimes come on prior to an orgasm for me, esp. when my heart starts racing..does anyone else experience these during sex/orgasm?...also, anyone have any ideas whats causing the shortness of breath (and always have chest tightness, but not pain) which is chronic, even at rest, some days better some worse, but I'm really mentally drained trying to figure out whats wrong, b/c all the Dr. apptments. are so long to wait for and it takes weeks to get results, so all this just been drivin me crazy...not really an anxious person, but have been very anxious over my condition b/c noone has pinpointed what exactly is wrong...any thoughts/ideas/advice would be greatly appreciated!

also, does anyone experience these spasms/pinches while exercising (either lifting weights or cardio stuff)?

the chest tightness and spasms have also happened to me. i do not know what it is but i get it at night before going to sleep. it makes it hard to sleep.

I've been looking all over for info on this. Im having these at a time where im experiencing asthma issues, allergy issues, inner ear issues, and learning to master the panic attacks that can result from all of this at once.

And just for one of the posts earlier talking about a doctor blaming it on high bp, that's wrong. My bp is well within normal and I have them. I suspect its anxiety, but I am willing to try the calcium suppliment suggestion mentioned in this thread.

I have been having these spasms on and off for over a year now. While I write this reply I am experiencing them. I am 48 and in quite good health. The first time I had these attacks I feared heart problems and like so many of the people on this post I went to the doctor who did all the tests including tests for reflux. Everything was positive. The spasms went away for a while then came back. There is no pattern to their occurrence. Obviously a lot of people suffer from this disorder, perhaps it is time that a medical university do some research and give a name to this syndrome and help us all.

This is amazing. I have experienced this condition which you have all described (better than i have ever managed to at the doctor). I have high levels of anxiety at times and I can't help but feel that this exacerbates the frequency of the spasms. I have experienced them since I was 19. I am now 23. I find that they will even occur in my sleep and wake me. They are also sometimes accompanied by a feeling of an adrenaline rush. I often go months without them and then they occur multiple times a day for months at a time. Very distressing and uncomfortable.

Hey, Im 16 and Iv been having the same sort of thing since I was probably 12 years old. Its worrying, but something I found out tonight (after having 2 prolonged "spasms" this afternoon) is that my dad (whos in his 50's) and my step-mother (whos in her late 40's) get them too. So maybe everyone gets them... and some people have them in varied degrees (so alot dont notice). I know I had these two long spasms today for the first time in about... 6 months? Im currently under alot of stress (with senior exams etc, and I just moved to my dads house cuz my mum moved away) but there arent links to stress for any other times Iv had them... that I can remember. But I like what Im hearing.. that people dont think its a heart thing. Id be pretty worried if it were, the main thing that relieves me (apart from knowing that toher people are in good health and still get them) is that its like... basically not possibly for someone my age to have cardiovascular disease etc... unless theyre born with it.

I am 19, almost 20, and i am having similar symptoms. Although mine I think have very little to do with my heart and more to do with the muscles around my Diaphragm. It started about 2 1/2 - 3 months ago with a sharp pain in my right side. It felt like it was right at the mid-bottom of my left long. It scared me because I wasn't doing anything for it to really do that (I was sitting at the computers). At that time is scared me really bad, and triggered one of my panics attacks.

That pained continued off and on for a few days and finally I went to the Doctor. I explained all my problems and he listened to my heart and lungs and all that, found nothing wrong except for sever muscle spasms in my back. He gave me some nerve med, which I didn't take due to not wanting to become addicted to it.

Since then however, I have been having muscle spasms (or what I think are spasms anyway) in my chest / mid stomach area almost every day since then. They tend to not be "deep" spasms, they generally feel like there right on my rib cage, and will move from the center of my chest all the way to either side and sometimes even to my back.

They tend to be worse when I lay down, but that is not the only trigger. I really can't see it being to serious, or something would have happened by now. I have also noticed a general swimmy feeling in my head sometimes, kind of like a disoriented feeling.

Overall, I think it stress, because it didn't start until I lost my job about 4 months ago, stopped most daily exercise and also have many money problems at the moment.

Anyone have any suggestions?
Thanks,
Landon

I just started having these over the past couple of days, right around my heart area. Of course I was very worried it was my heart, which made me anxious. But then I took my pulse during the same time as the fluttering/spasms and recognized that my heart kept a steady pulse despite the quick fluttering of my chest.

This makes me believe it has nothing to do with my heart, but is just another muscle spasm. This calmed me down substantially as I've had the exact same spasms in my arms many times before.

As to why, I cannot say. My best guess is it's some sort of deficiency. I know my health habits have worsened the past few months. I was very health concious previously, and lost weight to go from 185 to 160. But I've become addicted to a computer game and have developed some poor habits as a result:
* poor sleeping habits (go to bed late and sleep little)
* started drinking caffeine again
* large reduction in vegetable intake
* large reduction in water intake
* little to know exercise
* gained wait, almost up to 180 again
* eating out more often
* in front of a computers screen a lot every day

These unhealthy characteristics are almost the exact opposite of what I was before. I'm sure my body is complaining about one or all of these and maybe the spasms are a result. Just thought I'd list those to see if anyone else who's having this issue shares any of those characteristics for comparison.

One last thing, I also have a twitching under my left eye. This I've read is caused by lack of sleep and excessive exposure to computer screens. This I believe because I took a week break from my computer, got a lot of sleep, and the twitching went away for weeks (was happening frequently each day). I resumed my poor habits and now the twitching is slowly coming back.

FYI I don't take any drugs at all (have not for years, not even aspirin). I'm a firm believer in symptoms being a way for your body to tell you something is wrong, or you're doing something wrong, and taking drugs only masks that problem making you think everything is okay.

I think I can fix my problems but my bigger problem is I'm addicted to some stupid MMO game which leads to all my poor conditions above.

wow, i am so glad i found this website. I also am 19 and i have had these feelings before. But here latley they have been getting worse like happening alot. To me to describe it i would say it feels like your heart slows down than beats really hard once does that sound about right ?

I was shocked that I found this posting. Everytime that I try to look up something regarding heart spasms it always directs me to angina sites. But what I feel has no pain. I feel exactly what everyone else here feels. It has always been so hard to describe to a doctor and they always chalk it up to "panic attack" or anxiety. I have finally been diagnosed after 20 years of having this. I have SVT (supraventricular tachycardia). And in 2 weeks I am having a procedure called cardiac ablation.

Since I was 15 I have felt a strange sensation in my chest, a flutter, skipped beat, etc. It just feels so strange, only happens for a second or two and scares the c**p out of me. I have been to so many doctors, been told it was so many thing...anxiety, a GI tract problem, Mitral valve prolapse...etc. It gets very frustrating when a doctor dismisses you and tells you it is all in your head. I KNOW ITS NOT! I am an athlete and play high level womens soccer. Over the years it used to just happen once a day and I could deal with it, now it happens many times a day and makes me not play as hard. It is just so scary when it happens, it is a strong spasm in my chest area...sometimes it happens below my sternum, sometimes it even feels like it is in my throat. I hate it.

Anyway, was diagnosed by wearing a 3 week event monitor..because whenever I was put on a 24 hour monitor of course it would never happen. So, it happend while on teh monitor and my cardiologist said it was SVT. She thinks it is AV Nodal RE-entrant Tachycardia or an extra Accessory Pathway. The cardiac ablation procedure will determine which it is and then they will ablate the problem and hopefully I will no longer have these extra beats (so they are called). The procedure is very common and has a 95% cure rate. I too, went to so many doctors and had so many incorrect diagnosis. My only recommendation is to demand a 3 week event monitor so that it can happen for everyone to see on paper, then a conclusion can really be made. Good luck everyone! I will let you know how the procedure goes!

It is interesting to find other with similar episodes. I first noticed issues when I was about 20. I would have a feeling of shortness of breath or gasping and usually accompanied by a chocking sensation. They would come fairly regularly. I was treated for acid reflux, but this really did not help very much. I was in college at the time and pretty much stopped drinking for about 2 months. I had an epiphany experience on Halloween night in chicago with some buddies as this annoying pattern kept continuing. I convinced myself that I was NOT going to let this control me so I decided to just ignore it and go have fun. Amazingly this approach worked for about 7 to 8 years.

Similar episodes started to come back again when I was 26. They were not as severe, but did keep me up at night a lot for about 2 to 3 months. They then just went away.

Fast forward to 39 years old. I had chest discomfort, best described as mild tightness and a spasm while playing golf. I also became light headed. I drove myself to my Dr's office and based on my complaints had numerous heart tests run. All came back negative. I left the hospital and felt fine for the next 2 years.

At 41, I had 2 episodes within a couple of months which always started with chest discomfort or a spasm and usually some hypersensitivity to anything tounching my chest - especially the left side. The first time it happended I had a very difficult time breathing and really thought I was going to pass out. I didn't, but the symptoms re-occured about 10 minutes later and off to the emergency room I went in an ambulance. Everything checked out fine. They ran an EKG, did the enzyme test, did a chest x-ray and let me go. I had a smaller episode about 2 weeks later right before getting on a plane, but I was able to calm myself down on the flight. About a month after the plane episode, I had a fluttering or spasm and then anxiety took over. I ended up in the emergency room and this time more heart tests were run. I had an EKG, a thalium stress test and a regular stress test. All came back negative. My cardiologist basically told me nothing is wrong with my heart and told me to exercise. He did have me wear a holter monitor for 48 hours as a precaution. The results came back negative even though I had an episode while wearing it.

About a month later I wore an event monitor for about a month. I think I still have raw spots on my chest from the leads. Anyone who has worn one for an extended period of time will know what I'm talking about. The event monitor has a button that I press when I feel an episode and then you transmit the data via the telephone. All of my episodes showed no heart issues.

After all of this, my internist suggested this might be anxiety related. He prescribed Klonopin for me. I take a small amount 5mg per day and it has done wonders for me. While I still feel some of the symptoms, the anxiety does not build. It's almost as if I can feel it coming and the medicine helps block it.

Like others with posts here, I would like to know if this is just regular anxiety or if there is some other disorder. For now, though, the small amount of medication I take is doing wonders.

Best of luck to others with the same issues.

I am more relaxed now after reading this forum. I remember I had some breathlessness issue when I was around 13-15 yrs of age. But something more noticeable happened to me now that I am 24. It all started when I went back from a very stressful vacation. I had a check-up, ECG, and x-ray and all showed no problems with my heart. Then I went to a physiologist and have about 2 sessions. So far from what started as chest pains and difficulty breathing has now mellowed to a day to day chest spasms, which still scares me off sometimes, but not much now after reading this post. Most of the time it happens when I keep thinking or trying to feel my heart for that feeling. So maybe my mind partly created it. When I'm busy with something else, I usually don't notice it. So now, I am just trying to keep myself busy and maybe try to exercise again. I used to jog and bike before that stressful vacation which started this thing again. I tried to walk around 20 mins yesterday and my body felt better. I think, I'm exercising again and hopefully my body will forget this feeling or it'll be gone for good.

One thing also, right now I am working out to lose weight, so I have changed my diet to heart friendly foods, no cholesterol, and less carbo. So maybe this has also is a part on how my body might be adjusting to my shrinking figure. I did have panic attacks before this, so partly my mind still sometimes walks on his own. But I have found a solution to take out these worries from my mind, when I put God again in command of the things in my life. Just to share, worries will often come when we forget to put God in center of our lives. For people who have anxiety problems, hope this helps, it worked on me.

I have this too. It started eighteen months ago when I had a really bad cold, that had developed into a chest infection. I was at work, sitting at my desk and suddenly I felt as if there was a weird fluttering in my chest, I couldn't breathe for a few moments, I felt that I was going to pass out and I had a profound sense of doom. Then I felt a rush as if I'd just done a run, I felt blood flood my system and my heart was beating quickly and I could feel it. I went to the doctor as soon as I could get an appointment. She sent me off to a cardiologist straight away.

After extensive testing, several ECGs, blood tests, an echocardiagram, 24 hours with a holter etc, he decided that I had pleurisy and said to come back if it happened again. I've had several of these now, and in the last week I've had them every couple of hours - flutter, skipped beat, sometime it feels like a silent 'bang' in my chest, fast heart beat then I feel OK. I went to the emergency room at the hospital this week and after another ECG they said that they could find no sign of damage to my heart. They said it was an ectopic heart beat and in most cases isn't dangerous. But go back to the cardiologist to make sure. I am seeing him in a few days. It is really disconcerting.

Has anybody actually figured out what this is, I have it but nobody knows what it is, please help me!!!! email me kensmith476 at hotmail with any information