Recently, a guy I knew died of a heart attack at 42.  When they found him he was looking up stuff about acid reflux disease on his computer.

How similar are the symptoms of heart disease to acid reflux?  I think we have all had some types of chest pain that are more than likely muscle and nerve problems, but it just got me to thinking what are the actual things you need to be aware of?

Read this guy's book

and you will never have to worry about having a heart attack again.  (If you follow his advice and become a vegan)

Runs on my mother's side of the family... only a matter of time for me.

Had my  heart attack in 2006, brought about by some pretty extensive surgeries and hospital stay.  Ended up with a blood clot in my left lung  as a bonus.  The fire dept had to kick my door and found me unconcious in the hallway, The wife called them when I didn't answer the phone. I don't remember any of it.  I certainly didn't have any warning signs beforehand,  I was on some pretty heavy painkillers at the time and they probably masked it all.  

Chest pain is pretty much an everyday occurrance for me, I have some now.  If it gets really bad there are nitro pills. The symptoms are pretty much EXACTLY like acid reflux.  That's how I tell.  If the Nexium  works it was acid reflux.  If the nitro does, it was angina.

Up until the heart attack I had no risk factors. Non-smoker, non-drinker, no family history, exercised and and was actually under my ideal weight.
Nowadays I'm restricted to no more than 8 ounces of meat/dairy twice a week, take enough pills to choke a horse and if i cut myself shaving will bleed like crazy. (Blood thinners))    

However, considering the alternative I'll stick with it.  If you have chest pain of ANY kind I strongly recommend against self-diagnosis. Get to a doctor.

You are going to find that gall bladder, heart and acid reflux problems are almost identical in their symptoms.

I have two heart attacks. 1st at 30, 2cnd at 40, now 52 no heart attack. Both felt different. Acid reflux is simalar, but accompanied by sweating, shortness of breath, and the feeling of wieght on your chest.

I've had two.  Both at age 44.  The first one was while I was down in Louisville, KY visiting my son, DIL and newborn grandson to give them a night off from the baby.   I went out for food while my wife watched the kid.  Standing in line and got what I thought was the worst heartburn ever.  Stopped and got a giant box of Tums.  Ate 'em like candy to no avail.  Dumb thing is I waited and drove back to MI before I went to the hospital.  I was in the heart cath lab within 90 minutes of getting there.  100% blockage in one artery due to a congenital defect I never new existed (truncated artery).

Glad to hear your wife was alert and kept you alive.

My buddy was just about the same as you it seems.  He never smoked, drank, had a history, and he worked out and kept in shape.  It has all been pretty sobering.  He never mentioned any type of chest pains.

It just got me to wondering.  I have had some indegestion problems, but I am pretty sure it is just that because it always happens after eating mexican food and I can drink some soda and make myself burp and it relieves the pain.  I am just curious as to any other signs that I should be concerned about.

Yes, I am heartless.

I have 0 compassion.

That's the rub, so to speak. You don't have to HAVE any symptoms. I was the same as you, my acid reflux was more chronic, but I never put it down to anything else. Having my gall bladder removed in 2004 helped ot a LOT with the acid reflux,
No one started looking at me as a heart attack risk until after I had one.

my younger brother had a heart attack at......

a whopping 23 years old.

mom had a heart attack, grandpa died of a heart attack.

I went in for chest pains, but they said everything looks good.  but its got my attention.

wow, did he have some sort of congenital heart defect?

yeah he had a defect that is some what common so Im told.  Basically his heart grew around one of his arteries, that part of his heart went into spasm restricting that vessel almost completely shut.  They saw this when they went in with a probe to see what was going on.  Hes on meds now for life.

I am 47.  In 2003, while running I felt a tingling feeling in my chest that at first I thought was indigestion.  After a few days I noticed this sensation was occurring at exactly the same place in my run every day.  Knowing that heart disease runs in my family (my grandfather dropped dead at 47), I went to the doctor just to be safe.  They did a thallium stress test, and found a problem.  They immediately sent me for catharization, discovered three arteries almost completely blocked, and installed three stents right then and there.  That was on a Monday, I was out of the hospital on Wednesday and back to work and running the next Monday.


Go get a stress test NOW.  There is no question that if I had ignored my symptoms I would not be here typing this.  If you catch a problem early, it can be fixed with stents which are quick and painless.  They don't even put you to sleep to install them.  If you don't catch the problem early, you may need open heart bypass surgery, which is much more serious and painful.

Heart attack at 40. For 2 or 3 days I took alka-seltzers and rested. Finally decided it wasn't going away so off to the ER. EKG was normal, blood work told the tale and luckily mine was not a bad one. 3 stents that never really helped. 1 year later had 5 bypasses. No problems since then and I'm 48. Heart problems run on both sides of my family... can't escape the genes sometimes.

I have this http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Hypertrophic_cardiomyopathy so I'm on meds for the rest of my life.  I had a afib right after my 30th birthday and that's how my defect was found.  Kinda scary that I could have killed over at any moment (still can I suppose) but with the combination of meds I'm just barely within a normal range because some of the thickening of my heart as eased up.