prinzmetals angina

Sounds like a plan Talking about liver enzymes mine is always elevated but they can't work out why, My GP has put it down to a certain medication for the time being, my liver enzymes have been elevated long before I developed Prinzmetal and put onto heart medication and Familial cholesterol (pretty sure that's what my cardiologist calls it,) but no longer taking any kind of medication for cholesterol, even the old fashioned powder that you can mix up and drink or sprinkle on your food gave me grief. They have to take chances with me as I'm sensitive to a whole lot of drugs , just recently I've been told my kidney function blood test...I wouldn't know anything about the kidneys but they tell me the markers are above the normal range and yet my kidneys are fine, I also have or did have raised heamoglubin which one doctor told me that is a pre-cursor for Prinzmetal but when I asked my Cardio he said it would have nothing to do with my spasm's...so I'm at a loss as to why one doctor would tell me one thing and another telling me differently..kind of a head scratching ordeal....lol Perhaps a trip to our mainland specialists is warranted if mine can't sort my case out. My cardiologist did make mention of a transplant as you have just said and he said the exact same thing..

The emergency doctors here have told me that prinzmetal is rare here where I am and yet my cardiologist has told me there is a large number of people here in the same boat as me....lol...another head scratching episode doctors contradicting each other all the time.

I kid you not Cathy I have had doctors tell me that I'm not normal....lol..as in blood work wise and symptoms that fit a condition yet they can't find anything when they do invasive procedures...apart from CHD in the RCA...I've been best described as an alien...lol and boy do I get a stirring from family and friends about that.

I am 39 years old and just got diagnosed two weeks ago with Prinzmetal. I had a heart attack in Nov 13 and then three weeks ago I had another heart attack.. while in the hospital I had two more heartattacks. After the last two heart attacks they done another heart cath and finally said it was Prinzmetals. I also have a very small LAD which is why they say I have the heart attacks. It spasms and cuts off the blood supply to the apex of my heart. I was told that the calcium channel blockers work well but havent went for my follow up yet.. Its not for another week. Yet I did go for a second opinion and they also agreed that I have Prinzmetals. I am so scared that I might die at any moment. I have two children 13 and 6 and I don't want to leave my kids... they deserve to have their mother. I also wondered if maybe it was my Zoloft that may have caused these attacks... I recently read that anti depressents may cause it...

Hi Lelia,

Sorry to hear about your recent problems but unfortunately you won't like what I have to say, some may dis-agree but my Cardio has told me that there is no cure for Prinzmetal, there are medications that can help alleviate the spasms but just like any drug , and this is only my opinion, the body tends to get immune to these kind of drugs, when I have my spasms and don't call the paramedics I can have over 30 sprays in an event before I call for help and the GTN is just like drinking water to me by that stage and has rarely effected my blood pressure at times it's up around the 160/90 after those 30 sprays but usually sits at around 145/85 , If I do the old GTN regime of one spray wait 5 minutes then a double spray wait 5 minutes if pain is still persistant take triple spray wait 5 minutes and if pain is still persisting take 4 sprays at once now that usually drops my blood pressure down to around the 120/80 sometimes 110/80 but I wouldn't recommend you try that with out first talking to your cardiologist as they have changed the routing of GTN for chest pain , well in Australia they have I don't know about anywhere else, it's to complicated for me to explain at the moment, Our guidelines are 1 spray every five minutes for 20 minutes (if pain is persisting) then if no relief call our ambulance service.

I don't know a lot about anti- depressants so I can't answer that one, all I know is and this is only my opinion , they do not work for the condition I have/had (panic/anxiety attacks) plus I have severe side effects from them so I cannot take them any more. Your best bet is also to ask this question to your cardiologist.

Changing / modifying your life style can greatly reduce the spasms, managing stress etc etc I know managing stress is hard as I'm currently going through a lot at the moment , I'm not blaming my son but he has caused so much stress this year that it has impacted on my Vaso spasms. He's a young 9 year old boy being a young boy but he has been easily lead astray by other friends and as you know sometimes mud sticks and that's what's happening with my young fella at the moment but we will get there

Hi, I was diagnosed with Prinzmetal Angina almost 7 years ago , I was at work the first time I had an episode I went & hid in the bathroom, I worked in a nursing home surrounded by nurses lol but the pain started in my right jaw at this point I was already having severe chest pain & pain radiating down both , I broke out in a horrile sweat & then as quickley as it came it stopped, being an aide I had a washcloth in my pocket & wiped my face & neck down with cold water, fixed my hair as best I could as it was drenched with sweat & went back to work. About a week later while lying on the bed I had another episode, completely at rest it also went away after about 4-5 minutes same as before pain in jaw chest and arms, this went on for a little while waking me up in the middle of the night , having them at work ,I finally had an episode so bad that my husband took me to the ER , they wanted to keep me for observation, being the stubborn person that I am, I signed the medical waiver & returned home ,after having a few more episodes during the night , I got ready & went to work, my husband sat in the parking lot & talked some of my friends who approached me & said I could leave on my own or they would carry me out of the building my choice ,I grabbed my bag & went home after about 30 minutes after lying down I had the worst one yet my husband rushed me to the ER & when the doctor came in he said " so are you going to stay this time" I said yes & they hooked me to a monitor & left the room , when one of the nurses came in to check me she could see it happening on the heart monitor & the tranferred me to the dianostics floor, every time I had an " episode " they would try to put the leads on for an ekg ,when they finally got all the leads on it had stopped .I told them their best bet was just to leave them , well they did & they caught a coronary spasm on the ekg which they sent down to the doctor who started screaming she's having a heart attack right now & they explained to him that no I wasn"t & told me that they had to stop him because god only knew what he would have done to me , they then transferred me to ICU & after my suggestion of nitro paste they put it on me I had a cardiac cath the next day no blockages heart was fine they continued the nitro paste & adivan until they released me sending no med scrips nothing which of course sent me back into the spasms every 30 mins or so I called my heart doc & she sent in a script for 1 , 30 mg of Diltiazem once a day & subliingual nitro , I found another primary doctor who was the one who told me I had Prinzmetal Angina, & explained that it would be trial & error until we found the right combination of medicine ,so even with the meds & the highest mg of adivan I was still having 30-40 "episodes " a day non-stop , I was depressed , we lost our house due to my having to take off work so much, I finally attempted suicide , my husband called the paramedics & they were saying you need to come with us & I was saying isn't going to happen of course with the pills I decided to drink ,dumbass questions have you been drinking today , I looked at them & said DUH lol it wasn't funny then but looking back I can laugh about it, my husband was saying honey you need to go & I said & you're an idiot if I go with them now you won't see me for 3 days , there's a mandatory 3 day hold on an attemped suicide, anyway to make a long story short I am now on 90 mg of Diltiazem 3x's a day 10 mg of valium 4x's a day a 12 hr nitro pach that I put on b-4 bed as well as sublinguail nitro & I still have "episodes " but they come in clusters anywhere from 5 to 20 the last 2 I had were really bad it was like some was squeezing my whole upper torso I still worked up until jan the 12th was the last day I have worked as a nurses aide for almost 27 years I worked backed to back 12 hr shifts because you were paid an additional 8 hrs for free I had to take 9 nitro 1 time to make it thru a 12 hr shift now because of all the lifting tugging walking etc my back is beyond being called MESSED up , i have to 2 have knee replacements & I have the "episodes " and I've very small for pain Im on oxycodone doesn't even touch all the pain I go thrur Thank you for Listening if your not on the 12 hr nitro patch get your doctor to prescribe it will gt you thru the night , and as far as calling the paramedics we did 1 time had no idea what Prinzmetal Angina was & looked at me all covered in sweat like I was a drug addict or something until I had my husband get the EKG out & show them , needless to say we won't call 911 anymore my husband said he will just throw me in the truck & get me there faster anyway To each & everyone who goes thru this we all may have different situations but we all have something the Doctors don't understand & that is .......Prinzmetal Angina

Hi Dawn,

Did they take some blood to test troponin levels ? What you described in the first part of your story is in fact a heart attack, AMI's ( Acute Myocardial Infarction ) isn't always picked up on an ECG (Australia's terminology )

I have had 2 AMI's and both attacks were not the same, Prinzmetal doesn't always show up on ECG's either and same goes with catheritaztion especially if it's the smallest of blood vessels in your heart and not visible by the camera . I use to have 3 trips a week into hospital and it took a Professor of Medicine to work out the right drug for me, not my cardiologist , he never thought of that....lol... they put me on Nicorandil and that did wonders for my Vaso spasms ( Prinzmetal ) however I think the body gets immune to these medications as I'm averaging 1 trip a week into hospital now sometimes it can be 2 weeks without a trip in, I have been advised to call paramedics when pain is increasing and persistent ( Not to leave it any longer than 20 minutes after 4 sprays of GTN , GTN patches did nothing for me, muscle relaxants didn't help either in my case, Now because I know what it is I try and hang off calling for paramedics because I know what it is but when the pain hasn't gone below a 6/10 on the pain scale and have had over 30 sprays of GTN I call for paramedics, I get into trouble by the senior doctors in ER because I leave it for so long...lol... I know I shouldn't but it is embarrassing calling the paramedics once a week and being seen by ER doctors, they keep telling me it's better to be told it's not another heart attack rather than someone finding me collapsed and more than likely dead.

I have troubles with the less senior doctors, I think we call them registrars here, they try and tell you it's in your head or just a pulled muscle or panic attack, I can tell the difference between the 2 because I have suffered both, I haven't had a panic attack for 2 years now ( a 20 year sufferer of panic/anxiety attacks) sure you get apprehensive when you get the heart attack symptoms but it's not a full blown panic attack if you get what I'm trying to say...lol...the doctors that say it's just panic don't get it.

Every now and then the doctors can see some small changes in my ECG but it returns to normal after awhile, Cardiac Rehab Nurse was telling me that when you have a mild heart attack your heart can actually repair itself over time .

My GP won't prescribe any strong pain relief as he fears I will become addicted (which no doubt would be the case) with these weekly visits to the ER but at least when I'm in the ER the pain relief is controlled I can't take it willy nilly ..My GP seems to think that I would take it everyday to prevent any chest pain from occurring, I understand his predicament but I wish he would understand mine...Morpheine and Endone is the only thing that relieves my spasms when GTN doesn't work effectively during an episode

Hi, Samuels Thank you for replying to my post, Yes I'm well aware that I have probably had several AMI's , but what are you going to do ?Some of the Drugs they put me on , had me having hallucinations, I was waking up at 3 am & telling my husband that I was having , them , knew I was having Hallucinations , but then would say did you see them ? they're coming outof the mirror ? So out went that drug & it is what a lot of people here are on , Metrapololol I know thats not spelled correctly but thats what was causing them, I have been on so many drugs , drugs that put me into a complete stupor, NO STRESS my doctor says & I just ask him " How do you not have any stress " ? I too have to explain to doctors & other people what Prinzmetal Angina is, but it is genetic my dad was a towboat Captain Master pilot, & would be gone for 120 days at a time sometimes , but when he can home he was always saying he was having a heart attack clutch his chest dramaticlly so all of kids would laugh & joke with him cause after a couple mins he would sit there grinning ,well when he was 50 he had just gotten off the boat ( in dry dock ) when he collasped he didn't have a heart attack , he went into sudden death, they got him back & when they were stat flighting him to another hospital he coded again , & again they brought him back after a lot of tests we made the decision because he had said several times he never wanted to be like that , his vitals starting going down & then they came right back up & he was in a coma for 2 & a half years, thats when I became a nurses aide & took care of him & everyone else in my group, now when the doctors or whoever ask me if I'm a DNR or a CODE I DON'T KNOW, I'm 50 now & in July will be 51, I quit going to the hospital , same thing take you back hook you up , send you home , have another one, I take my medication & go about my life, we went zip-lining last August ,I probably shouldn't have, But tired of sitting wondering if the next one is going to be the last , Oh & your original question they're always sending me for bloodwook I never ask , & they never tell, maybe for me its better that way

Hi Dawn,

Obviously there's nothing I can do ! apart rom share my experiences with you and how they diagnose the condition down here in the land down under, as it seems that the treatments differ slightly from country to country, where I am we don't have the "high tech" experts in medicine sure we have an array of excellent doctors in the cardio field but because Prinzmetal is an age old condition I am under the impression doctors aren't even taught about it at medical school, the younger generation of doctors, As you stated we have to explain to people what prinzmetal angina is especially to the younger doctors.

Like you there are lots of medications I cant take as I have severe reactions to them, I had an AMI caused by a cholesterol lowering medication ( Fenofibrate ) when I was around 36.... I'm not the fittest bloke in the world far from it, there is another name for my cholesterol condition but I can't rightly remember it , just off the top of my head I think it's called Hypercholesterolemia and something else but the main simplest terminology I think they call it is familial cholesterol ( hereditary condition ).

Can I ask why they have you on Valium ? I refused to take Valium when a docor wrote it up because she said straight out to me I was having a panic attack !...I informed her that it wouldn't work in reducing the pain as I was on something stronger than Valium , well I was led to believe I was by another doctor that Alprazolam is stronger than Valium ..who knows, anyrate I ended up taking the Valium she wrote up nd it proved her theory wrong and another emergency doctor took over and ordered morpheine, I realise morpheine only masks the problem but it's the only thing that gets rid of my pain or Endone, everyone is different in the pain relief area , there are some cruel paramedics and doctors around, I suppose I can understand their position as some of our paramedics aren't allowed to give morpheine during transport unless they have a higher ranked paramedic with them and I think it's the same with our doctors, all the senior doctors write up ,morpheine for me but doctors below senor and registrars I thinkit is they can only write up strong analgesics like endone, that's what I've noticed.

The standard medication down here for Prinzmetal angina here is GTN, Cardizem (Diltiazem ) Monodur SR (Duride ) , Nicorandil (Ikorel) , there are other calcium channel blockers and Beta blockers but I can't tolerate them ones, the medications that I am on are like you from memory on the maximum dosage.

Another question if I may, Are you on any SSRI drugs or an anti depressant medication ? The only reason I'm asking is because someone else on these forums was asking about anti depressants causing Prinzmetal angina symptoms ( I realise you said it runs in your family - hereditary ) i haven't chased the anti depressant usage up as of yet because I'm interested in the answer myself , I don't take any kind of anti depressants because I get really bad reactions to them all,

I over heard a conversation in emergency awhile back... a month or so ago , they don't make the curtains thick enough to prevent others from hearing ...lol..., there was a young man in who was suffering chest pain and he was given the all clear but with a follow up exercise stress test because heart disease ran in his family, I kid you not this was the doctors response to hereditary ..... Usually 1 out of 10 will go on t falling victim of a hereditary condition it usually skips a generation or two and then re- surface .... Now strangely enough I heard the exact same explanation by another doctor to another patient 6 days ago , we must be the unlucky numbers or they have stuffed their research up

Now I'm almost positive it was Cathy McPhee that put me onto this , I have to look the name of the procedure up, it's mentioned in this discussion , I asked my cardiologist about this procedure and I was told it's not available here I would have to travel to the USA or the UK to seek out a surgeon that performs this procedure, going on memory I think Cathy said it involves the sympathetic nervous system , they cut the nerve leading to the coronary arteries , Also from memory Cathy said it is not always successful but I will re-read her comments about it after posting this comment, my internet has been acting up so I'll get this up first before I lose it then I will go back through the pages. Also I will try and find the forum where someone was asking about anti depressants causing Prinzmetal angina , not that it would help you much because no-one has answered her question as yet.

Hi Samuals , Yes I am on an antidepressant now , its nortriptyline HCL I take it at bedtime because I have trouble sleeping, I wasn't on any until after I was diagnoised ,I to am on Diltiazem ( cardazem) My doctor put me on valium for stress, he thinks the less stress the fewer "episodes" I have had so many I know when they're coming & can usually stop it with the nitro so it doesn't become full blown , for pain as I have back spasms , the knee trouble ,& of course the pain from the " episodes " I am on oxycodone , the last 2 " episodes I had were about a week & a half ago, & they were stronger & more painful & different then others, I was home alone & I almost called 911 myself , I hate going to the hospital but thats how bad they were normal started with the pain in jaw , pain radiating down both arms but the pain in my chest was the worst ever I'm small 5'4 & 110 lbs & it felt like a great big man had wrapped his arms around me & was just squeezing me , shortness of breath I think that was a heart attack , had another after my husband was home from work the nitro wasn't working , he wanted to take me to the hospital, I said to hook me up to an IV put a nitro paste on me & put me on a heart monitor, & they can charge us a couple grand for something we can do at home except the IV & heart monitor?I don't have panic attacks kept working until this january then it was because of my knee not the Prinzmetals, when I had an "episode " at work , I would go into a room & take the nitro & wait until it was over the patients would hide me out lol I applied for disability in January & she hasn't finished my medical Samual not to ask a person queston but do you draw diability ? & how long ,if you are did it take you to get it ? And yes I do alot of research myself & have several conflicting stories, & as far as the doctors & paramedics go they act like your after drugs or something before I started with Prinzmetals , the only thing I took were aleve, & I have to watch my scripts because when the doctors puts me a new medication sometimes its an nsaid , but my husband says thats why they call it a Medical Practice because they're practicing on us lol gotta lauch about it just sit & die ? the ortho doc wanted to wait until I was in my 60's or 70's but after I showed him a good article I found about Prinzmetals, & he's asks me Do you have Prinzmetals ? I said didn't you read my chart ? I said I want Quality of life be able to play with my grandchildren not say no meme can't play it will hurt too much!and when they caught the episode at the hopital on EKG it was what you call one with tombstones, & before they caught that one , the doctor had said they were going to do a stress test on me me , but after seeing the EKG he said we're going to do a cardiac cath, because if we try to do a stress test we'll kill you ah words everyone wants to hear lol I have an appt with my gp the 15 th & tell him about the newest episodes I have a feeling some does of medication are going to be raised !!!!! Everyone lets have a contest to see who goes the week with the fewest episodes , what do you win King or Queen for the week & you live to see tomorrow, PEACE

Hi Dawn,

Interesting about the anti depressants, that's the one my cardiologist wanted to put me on until he read my allergies list....lol....well actually it was called amyrtriptyline , I fully understand the stress part as I am going through so much at the moment, my son who is only 9 years old and already playing up at school, the worst of it started beginning of this year.

Sorry I never got back to you on Cathy's comments about a procedure that can be done to prevent or at the best lessen the cycles..lol...I actually ended up back in our emergency department yesterday afternoon, you know the same old thing but this time the ER doctor told me that she had to consult with her senior as I had got a registrar looking after me, this one was good, she knew about Prinzmetal, she was concerned as my CKMB's were high, which I'm sure you know is the old fashioned heart attack marker but now the troponin blood test is the gold standard, my trops came back negative but my CK's came back in the high range, to cut a long story short the senior doctor had made a decision that I didn't have a heart attack and if I was in pain upon dis-charge that I was to stay there until it had gone , but that never occurred I was discharged with a level of 4/10 on the pain score GTN was relieving it but not fully it kept coming back and because I was transferred to another unit the other senior doctor said I'm fine to go home and wouldn't give me any pain relief to go home with he just said if it gets any worse to call an ambulance again....grrrr.... don't they get it that we are all sick of doing that and how embarrassing it is calling for help all the time, at one time just calling an ambulance was stressing me out but I relieved that stressor by thinking If that's what the ER doctors and my cardiologists have told me to do...I will do it when the episodes get worse in pain.

Yes I'm on what we call a dis-ability support pension I have been on it for close to 20 years due to panic/anxiety attacks (caused by a snake bite ) only a very small amount of venom was in my blood stream, being a bush person I simply just thought it was a stick flicking up and hitting me on the back of the calf muscle, but as the day went on I got more and more ill, 20 years ago the dis- ability pension was easy to get onto but nowdays they have made it more difficult apparently because people were abusing the system ( using it with either fake conditions to be able to get on the dis- ability pension so they didn't have to look for work).

Here in Australia our public hospitals are free even if you work, there a lots of people who have private insurance and use it but there are also a lot of people that don't use their private insurance because our public system is free, our government are trying to develop ways to re-structure our health system to try and stop it from getting clogged up with meanial things like the common cold and viruses, etc etc . some say they are thinking over overhauling our medicare completely, there's rumours floating around that we will end up like the USA....lol.... be encouraged/ forced to have private insurance.

Yes I have come across a couple of paramedics and doctors with that kind of attitude,they say it in a subtle tone but I know what they are implying "I'm only after the morpheine " pretty funny really that I only go once a week and it's at the paramedics/doctors decision as to whether the give me morpheine or not so that blows their theory right out of the water that "I'm only chasing the morpheine for a fix " Sure I wish they gave me morpheine every time I went in with severe chest pain but they don't, some seem to think panamax (panadol) will fix the severe pain, I'm not sure what you call your basic pain relief over there that you can buy over the counter without a prescription for muscle aches, reducing temperatures from a cold or virus, etc etc

That's the problem with Prinzmetal angina you just don't know if you will see the next day , they say if you have Prinzmetal angina you are at a higher risk of having a heart attack (full blown infarction) because the spasming puts so much stress on the heart and it accessories, like the coronary arteries and blood vessels, they won't touch my main artery anymore for angiograms anymore because I have had 3 and I was informed they don't really want to be poking around with it anymore to look inside my heart and coronary arteries because they will need that main artery one day to save my life and want the artery to be in tact, I'm just hoping that my lifestyle has changed enough to have cleared the blockage in my right coronary artery if that's their reasoning , It's a wait and see game, a game I don't like playing...lol

Hi samual, I wish our hopital & doc's were free but I still probably wouldn't go lol

I'm on oxycodone it has morphine in it, & our over the counter medicine I can take is tylenol because just about everything else is an nsaid which is a no no for you heart , I've caught about 3 scripts that my doctor wrote that was an nsaid. I don't know if you have access to your medical records online but we do here & one of the last entries my Doc put in was Tachycardia & they say the only real way to dianoise someone is to catch it on EKG it kinda pisses me off that he didn't discuss the Tachycardia with me , also in my records was my stress level was : severe but my husband & I have 6 children together he had 3 & I had 3 when we met, we have12 grandchildren & # 13 on the way , I also read in my records from the orthopedic doctor that my blood pressure was very high according to the american heart association , did he dicuss that with me no he didn't , my blood pressure is always pretty steady 120/72 usually lol our standards in the us for disability are having a condition for more then 12 months that may result in death I have Prinzmetals I have the ekg's & the doctors to back it up , I am also bone on bone in my right knee since he scoped it & will be going thry 2 knee replacements , I applied in January & I'll be dead before I get my disability lol my biggest worry is that I will go into sudden death while sleeping & thats what my husband will wake up to, I won't be put on life support or be in a coma like my dad, if after being taken off life support I remain in a vegestative state , that also will be taken care of I have it worked out with my son & the rest is in my living will , it seems to me my condition is getting worse & they won't do antthing about it , is because they don't know what to do LMAO thats the truth Samual & you & I both know it if you give me your email I will send you a copy of my EKG the first time the doctor saw it he said " very Impressive " are you on a 12 hr nito patch? it gets me thru the night MOST of the time if you don't want your email to be seen my email is look forward to talking to you told my husband & he said it was good to be able to talk to someone who knows what I'm going thru & it is because you can describe it to someone & they don't have a clue what we go thru, when I was still working I would say "good morning , Mrs.Jones & I would hear I don't know whats so damn good about it & I would well you opened your eyes today didn't you ? Because we don't know if we will or not .

Emis Moderator comment: I have removed the email address as we do not publish these. If users wish to exchange these please use the message facility (click the envelope icon under the relevant user's name).

Hey guys. There were two surgeries that I have previously mentioned that are effective for many people. The first is called a sympathectomy. It disconnects the sympathetic nerve (which is responsible for the "fight or flight" response, which leads to narrowing of the coronary arteries) from where it would connect to the heart. The second is very rarely done and is called an autotransplant. The heart is completely removed from the body so that all nerves can disconnected from it. It's a higher risk surgery.

I must have totally missed all the questions about anti-depressants. YES, SOME ANTI-DEPRESSANTS DO CAUSE VASOSPASMS. The entire group called SSRIs (Selective Seretonin Reuptake Inhibitors). This is actually how many people find out that they have Prinzmetal. They may only have rare, minor spasms, then they get put on these and it gets worse. This is currently a popular group of medications (Zoloft, Prozac, Paxil are a few) as it is used for depression, obsessive compulsive disorder, and other psychiatric conditions. It is also one of the safer groups to prescribe for people with cardiac problems, except Prinzmetal, of course. One medication that may be an option to take instead of one from this group is Wellbutrin. Talk with your physician to see which one will work best for your individual situation. Sorry I didn't see the posts earlier asking about this, or I would have asnwered this a while ago.

Something I do to combat the depression that frequently accompanies chronic illness is EVERY morning, no matter what kind of mood I'm in, I think of one think I am thankful for that day. I focus on that one thing throuhgout the day. Most days I post it of Facebook, to keep me accountable with doing this every day. I started doing this in January, and I have seen a significant improvement in my mood, and my overall outlook on life. If you are having a day when you can't think of anything else to be thankful for, be thankful that you at least know what it is that you have, you are receiving some type of treatment for this (even if it is not currently as effective as you would like), and that you are on this website with a community of others that are going through the same thing. Imagine what it would be like to live in a third world country with this, not knowing what it is, not getting any releif from your pain, and not knowing if anyone else in the whole world had ever gone through this this. There is ALWAYS someone else that is going through something worse than you, so no matter how bad things seem, be thankful for what you do have.

Blessings on all of you!

Hi Cathy,

Very well put and sounds like a good practice to get into, the question about the anti depressants weren't mentioned in this particular Prinzmetal forum. I will try and find the link, it is on this site....Patient UK. I know nothing about anti depressants, I only know how the basic workings of them and their effects they have on me which are undesirable and can't take any of them.

Give me the rest of the day and I will try and find the link to the other Prinzmetal discussion, no-one has answered them yet, I did put up a comment but I can't remember what I said

Hi. I can understand why you feel lonely. Does this ring any bells? I am a 60yr old

 Man who has suddenly had what was originally thought to be a heart attack. This happened at 4:00 am in the morning some 3 months ago. Ambulance into hospital and straight in for angiogram. But no sign of damage and only mild heart desease. ECG elevated and then 12 hours after admission the Troponin @ 2600. Since had echocardiogram and MRI. Both showin no signs of heart attack. So doctors tell me I've had a cardiac artery spasm but no real understanding of why or what caused it. I think it fits Prinzmetal to a T but the continuing heart ache episodes seem to occur mostly in the afternoon along with overwhelming tiredness. My chest seems normal during sleep hours. Now on Asprin, amlodipine, Statins and Ramipril. ??