Paleo Diet and Paleolithic Diet Questions & Answers

Question

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Two and a half years ago I went to the ER with chest pain (accompanied by sweating, shortness of breath, overall odd feeling). Troponin levels were elevated and I was dx as having a NSTEMI. My heart cath showed no blockage and I've since done a few stress tests that were normal.

After recently discovering I have Factor V Leiden (via 23andme), I started researching what it is, and what it causes. Reading about PEs, the symptoms are similar to heart attacks and PEs can also raise troponin. I do recall that I was very tired and slept a lot (come home from work and sleep till I had to go to work the next morning) the week leading up to my nstemi.

So what do you think? Is there any way to confirm this 2.5 years later? Or am I way off track?

edited Apr 11 2012 at 16:12

asked Apr 11 2012 at 14:52

berger6696
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While this is quite an interesting question, I'm not sure it is appropriate for paleohacks. Can you tie it in more explicitly to ancestral health? We tend to shy away from issues that fall squarely into the medical realm, especially emergency medicine, if they do not deal much with nutrition or other paleo-type topics. – Kamal♦ Apr 11 2012 at 15:58

Sorry Kamal. I've posted a few questions here over the past 6 months related to my Heart Attack and odd lipid reactions to change in diet. Received some great advice (including being tested at 23andme). This is how I discovered I have FVL. Just seemed appropriate to finish it up here. – berger6696 Apr 11 2012 at 16:11

Just noticed your tag. FYI my doctor put me on a statin to make it all better. – berger6696 Apr 11 2012 at 16:13

PaleoMD · Answer 1 · 2012-04-11 15:37:54Z UTC

I'm a Paleo MD and the short answer is that you're not way off base. PE is one of the most commonly misdiagnosed conditions. From the Internet journal of Family Medicine, "the high rate of pulmonary emboli maldiagnosis may be an important contributor to the large number of deaths from that disease each year. In fact, there are more deaths from pulmonary emboli each year (60,000-200,000) than from AIDS, lung cancer, and motor vehicle accidents combined."

So it's possible you had a PE and were misdiagnosed as having an MI. The presentations of these two are very similar.

And factor V leiden puts you at increased risk for PE without a doubt.

PM me if you have more questions

tdgor · Answer 2 · 2012-04-11 15:28:16Z UTC

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Honestly, how could you expect a bunch of people on the Internet, however well-meaning, to be able to answer this question?

answered Apr 11 2012 at 15:28

tdgor
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	Oh come on. There are some very smart people on here. I never would have got this far without this board or my seemingly weird questions. paleohacks.com/questions/68443/… paleohacks.com/questions/96201/… paleohacks.com/questions/75930/… I feel like I'm closing in on this thing and know there are people here more knowledgeable than me. – berger6696 Apr 11 2012 at 15:35
	Well, by posting this question you did get a referral to an MD. So... – tdgor Apr 11 2012 at 16:31

Jenn · Answer 3 · 2012-04-11 15:30:37Z UTC

Hi, I cant' answer this either but I can commiserate. In 2009 I had horrible chest pain (8 out of 10 on a 10 point scale), odd feeling (no shortness of breath). Was forced to go the ER by boyfriend and coworkers. Troponin was HIGHLY elevated (they wanted to life flight me to different hospital). Also told it was NSTEMI heart attack. Heart Cath was also clean (as a baby bottoms said the doctor). I lost about 10% of my ejection fraction. 3 months later they did a MUGGA and function was fully restored (or better). Have had 2 stress tests and 1 cardio=light stress test. All coming back as a happy healthy individual.... go figure.

I have had 3 instances in the last year of this chest pain (ranging from a 3-6). I did not return to the hospital but seek out cardiologist after the event. All of these events were about 22-24 hours after an extremely stressful moment (child being significantly injured, etc,). Doctors have no clue but all of them (3) want me on beta blockers and I refuse. I had not heard of Factor V Leiden (via 23andme) but I will look into it. It was once suggested that I may have Printzmetals disorder. That is still undetermined.

Other than these events I am an a very healthy 40 year old woman, once figure competitor, with 2 teenage children.

Thank you for sharing your story.

berger6696 · Answer 4 · 2012-04-11 15:37:24Z UTC

And for those that have been helping with my low HDL over the past 6 months, how about this:

Pulmonary embolism patients have low HDL cholesterol http://www.medwire-news.md/40/86651/Lipidology/Pulmonary_embolism_patients_have_low_HDL_cholesterol.html

Was my Heart Attack really a Pulmonary Embolism?

4 Answers