Angina pectoris is chest pain or discomfort that happens when your heart isn’t receiving enough oxygen-rich blood. As a result, heart may beat faster and harder to gain more blood, causing noticeable pain. Angina isn’t a disease. It’s a symptom and a warning sign of other heart disease(s).
Important: Angina can be a warning sign of a heart attack.
What does angina feel like?
Most people with angina describe having chest pain or pressure. Or they describe a squeezing sensation or a tightness and burning pain in their chest. Some people say it feels like indigestion.
The discomfort usually begins behind breastbone. Sometimes, patient may not be able to locate exactly where the pain is coming from.
Pain/discomfort patient feels in chest may spread to other parts of the upper body, for example: neck, jaw, shoulders, arms, back and abdomen.
Lack of oxygen to the heart can cause other symptoms, known as “angina equivalents.” These are symptoms that patient don’t feel in his/her chest, for example:
- Fatigue.
- Nausea or vomiting.
- Shortness of breath.
- Sweating a lot.
Different types of angina
There are four main types of angina:
- Stable angina or angina pectoris.
- Unstable angina.
- Microvascular angina.
- Prinz Metal (variant) angina.
Stable or angina pectoris
Angina pectoris is another name for stable angina. It refers to brief chest pain or discomfort that comes and goes in predictable patterns.
How is angina different from a heart attack?
Both angina and a heart attack are consequences of coronary artery disease. But angina doesn’t cause permanent damage to the heart. A heart attack does – that’s because angina signals a temporary reduction in blood flow to the heart. A heart attack causes a longer reduction in blood flow. During that time, part of the heart muscle begins to die.
Another key difference is what makes the pain go away. Rest or medication causes stable angina to go away within a few minutes. However, if someone having a heart attack, rest or medication won’t ease his/her symptoms.
Stable angina doesn’t require emergency care unless the pain suddenly gets worse or doesn’t go away with rest or medication. A heart attack is a life-threatening emergency that needs immediate medical attention. There’s nothing one can do on his/her own to make it better.
Symptoms and Causes
Reduced blood flow to the heart (myocardial ischemia) causes angina. Several problems with the coronary arteries can prevent the heart from receiving enough blood. These include:
- Coronary artery disease (CAD): This is the most common cause of angina. It happens when due to vascular inflammation etc, plaque (a fatty, waxy substance) builds up in coronary arteries, which supply blood to the heart. These arteries narrow or harden (atherosclerosis), reducing blood flow to the heart.
- Coronary microvascular disease: This condition is more common among women and people assigned female at birth (AFAB) compared with men and people assigned male at birth (AMAB). It damages the walls of tiny blood vessels that branch from the coronary arteries. These blood vessels aren’t seen on typical testing for CAD and require special testing.
- Coronary artery spasm: Your coronary arteries repeatedly constrict (tighten) then open up. These spams temporarily restrict blood flow to the heart. One can have coronary spasms without having coronary artery disease. This may not be diagnosed with routine testing for CAD and may require special testing.
Risk factors for angina
There are many risk factors for angina. Some factors raise one’s risk of heart problems that directly cause angina, like coronary artery disease. Other factors limit how much oxygen-rich blood can reach the heart.
Some risk factors (like aging) can’t be changed. One may be able to manage others through lifestyle changes and medications.
- Anemia.
- Chronic stress.
- Diabetes.
- Diet high in processed fats, processed cooking oils, white sugar, carbonated drinks, bakeries, fast food etc.
- Drinking alcohol.
- Exposure to “particle” air pollution (like dust from chemical factories, cosmetics, paints, foam and fiber glass factories etc).
- Family history of early heart disease.
- Heart failure.
- Heart valve disease.
- High blood pressure.
- Hypertrophic cardiomyopathy (enlarged heart).
- Inflammation.
- Smoking, vaping or using other tobacco products
- Long-term exposure to secondhand smoke.
- Metabolic syndrome.
- Not moving around enough (physical inactivity).
- Obesity.
- Use of drugs.
High cholesterol is not the root cause of cardiac diseases.
Allopathic treatment for angina 
Try to treat the underlying heart problem that’s causing angina. The goals of treatment are to improve blood flow to the heart and lower risk of complications. A doctor should advise a physical exam and perform testing to learn more about patient’s condition and determine the best treatments.
Common allopathic treatment options include:
- Anticoagulants or antiplatelet drugs to lower your risk of blood clots (apixaban, enoxaparin, rivaroxaban, heparin, warfarin, aspirin, dabigatran, direct thrombin inhibitor, clopidogrel etc).
- Blood pressure medications (beta blockers, ACE-inhibitors, amlodipine, diuretics, atenolol, acebutolol, alpha blockers, calcium chenal blockers, lisinopril etc).
- Cholesterol medications (Atorvastatin, pravastatin, rosuvastatin, fluvastatin, bile acid sequestrant, ezetimibe, statin, niacin, antihyperlipidemic, simvastatin, fibrate, ATP-citrate, pitavastatin, lovastatin, altoprev, evolocumab, bempedoic acid, repatha, ACL-inhibitors etc).
- Medications used specifically to treat angina (nitroglycerine, calcium channel blockers, atenolol, aspirin, isosorbide, adrenergic antagonist, Angio tensing converting inhibitors, bisoprolol, Inderal, pindolol, metoprolol, propanol, ranolazine, antiplatelet, diltiazem hydrochloride etc).
- Lifestyle changes.
- Coronary artery bypass grafting (CABG).
- Percutaneous coronary intervention (PCI), also called coronary angioplasty and stenting.
Even with treatment and/after surgery, some patients still experience angina, in this case, prescribe a medication to quickly open blood vessels when patient have pain. Nitroglycerin is a common angina medication.
Enhanced external counter pulsation (EECP) is another option for patients with continued pain. This therapy applies pressure to patient’s lower extremities to help improve blood flow to the heart. It may help ease angina.
Homeopathic treatment for angina
There are dozens of Homeopathic medicines clearing and curing not only arteries but curing vascular inflammation and arteriosclerosis at the same time and this process in almost of few weeks (not more than two-three months) and person can live absolutely normal and healthy life without any dieting regimes, precautions and further medication.
P.S: Remember one thing forever that cholesterol itself is not disease and not dangerous for heart/cardiovascular diseases, Homeopathic doctor has to focus on arteriosclerosis, vascular inflammations and factors that can cause those inflammations or sclerosing.
Here are few Homeopathic medicines for angina and other vascular diseases: 
Aconite
A sudden attack of angina with acute pain in the region side of the chest, arm and shoulder, pulse full, hard, and bounding, a great palpitation, much restlessness with obstructed feeling in the chest. Cough may also be associated with angina.
Aconite is especially useful during an attack of Vaso-motor angina from exposure to cold, with intense anxiety. Coldness pain radiating from the head in all directions, with numbness, tingling, paresthesia.
Aloe Socotrina
There is no medicine like aloe Socotrina, richer in symptoms of portal congestion (angina etc) and none that has given better clinical results, both for the primary pathological condition and secondary phenomena. Bad effects from sedentary life or habits.
Allium Sativa
Allim Sativa suited to patients who are disposed to excesses at table – overeating persons, obese, have strong constitutions. Anxiety and impatience. Fears he won’t recover; that he won’t be able to bear any medicine; fear of being poisoned. Leaping beats of the heart. Angina any type.
Lycopodium Clavatum
Aneurism. Angina. Aortic disease. Palpitation at night. Cannot lie on left side. Poor blood circulation – numbness, also drawing and tearing in limbs, especially while at rest or at night, heaviness of arms, tearing in shoulder and elbow joints. Shakes head without apparent cause. Twists face and mouth. Pressing headache on vertex. Lacks vital heat; has poor circulation, cold extremities.
Baryta Carbonium
Diseases of old men when degenerative changes begin; cardiac vascular and cerebral; who have hypertrophied prostate or indurated testes, useful in the dyspepsia of the young who have masturbated and who suffer from seminal emissions, together with cardiac irritability and palpitation. Affects glandular structures, and useful in general degenerative changes, especially in coats of arteries, aneurism, and senility. Baryta is a cardio-vascular poison acting on the muscular coats of heart and vessels. Angina. Arterial fibrosis. Blood-vessels soften and degenerate, become distended, and aneurisms, ruptures, and apoplexies result. Hypertension. Cardiac symptoms after suppressed foot-sweat – affects glandular structures, offensive sweat.
Kalium Bichromicum
The special affinities of this drug are the mucous membrane of stomach, bowels, and air-passages, bones and fibrous tissues. Angina. Cardiomegaly, especially from coexisting kidney lesion. Cold feeling around heart. Chest pain extending to back ang left hand.
Kalium Nitricum
Asthma, valuable in cardiac asthma; of great value in sudden dropsical swellings over the whole body. Inflammation, with much debility, and relapse. Suppurative nephritis. Angina.
Bryonia Alba
Pains are stitching and tearing in the region of the heart, aggravated by motion, better by rest and lying on painful side. Exceedingly irritable; everything puts him out of humor. Delirium; talks of business. Vertigo, nausea, faintness on rising, confusion.
Digitalis Purpura
Sensation as if heart would stop working, condition worse by motion. The pulse is slow. Digitalis purpura comes into play in all diseases where the heart is primarily involved, where the pulse is weak, irregular, intermittent, abnormally slow, and dropsy of external and internal parts. Weakness and dilatation of the myocardium. Its greatest indication is in failure of compensation and especially when auricular fibrillation has set in. Slow pulse in recumbent posture, but irregular and dicrotic on sitting up. The least movement causes violent palpitation.
Irregular heart especially of mitral disease. Very slow pulse. Intermits; weak. Cyanosis. Inequality of pulse; it varies. Sudden sensation as if heart stood still. Pulse weak and quickened by least movement. Pericarditis, copious serous exudation. Dilated heart, tired, irregular, with slow and feeble pulse. Hypertrophy with dilatation. Cardiac failure following fevers. Cardiac dropsy. Angina.
Swelling of the feet. Fingers go to sleep easily. Coldness of hands and feet. Rheumatic heart. Shining, white swelling of joints. Muscular debility. Nocturnal swelling of fingers. Sensation in legs as if a red-hot wire suddenly darted through them.
Auricular flutter and fibrillation especially when subsequent to rheumatic fever. Heart block, very slow pulse. Other symptoms of organic heart disease, such as great weakness and sinking of strength, faintness, coldness of skin, and irregular respiration; cardiac irritability and ocular troubles after tobacco; jaundice from induration and hypertrophy of the liver, frequently call for Digitalis. Jaundice with heart disease. Faint, as if dying. Bluish appearance of face. Cardiac muscular failure when asystole is present.
It stimulates the heart’s muscles, increases force of systole, increases length. Prostration from slight exertion. Collapse.
Lachesis
Angina – shooting thread type of pain in the heart, left side of chest and left arm. Pain in neck, worse cervical region. Palpitation, with fainting spells. Constricted feeling causing palpitation, with anxiety. Cyanosis. Irregular beats.
Crataegus Oxyacantha
Pain in the region of the heart, and under the left clavicle. Angina. Pulse, feeble, accelerated and irregular, Cyanosis of fingers and toes. Acts on muscle of heart and is a heart tonic. No influence on the endocardium. Myocarditis. Failing compensation. Irregularity of heart. Insomnia of aortic sufferers; anemia; oedema; cutaneous chilliness. High arterial tension. Is a sedative in cross, irritable patients with cardiac symptoms.
Chronic heart disease, with extreme weakness. Very feeble and irregular heart action. General anasarca. Very nervous, with pain in back of head and neck. Collapse of typhoid. Cold extremities, pallor; irregular pulse and breathing. Painful sensation of pressure in left side of chest below the clavicle. Dyspepsia and nervous prostration, with heart failure. In the beginning of heart mischief after rheumatism. Arteriosclerosis. Have a solvent power upon crustaceous and calcareous deposits in arteries. Cardiac dropsy. Fatty degeneration. Aortic disease. Extreme dyspnea on least exertion, without much increase of pulse. Pain in region of heart and under left clavicle. Heart muscles seem flabby, worn out. Heart dilated; first sound weak. Pulse accelerated, irregular, feeble, intermittent. Valvular murmurs, angina pectoris. Cutaneous chilliness, blueness of fingers and toes; all aggravated by exertion or excitement. Sustains heart in infectious diseases.
Head – apprehensive, despondent. Very nervous and irritable, with pain in back of head and neck. Mental dullness conjunctival irritation nasal discharges.
Glonoinum
German proving of Glonoine confirm the American proving and clinical indications and bring out very marked nerve disturbances. Great lassitude, no inclination to work; extreme irritability, easily excited by the slightest opposition, ending in congestive head symptoms. The sixth potency alone produced itching all over body with later acne and furuncle formation, also bulimia.
Great medicine for congestive headaches, hyperemia of the brain from excess of heat or cold. Surging of blood to head and heart. Angina. Tendency to sudden and violent irregularities of the circulation. Violent convulsions, associated with cerebral congestion. Sensation of pulsation throughout body. Pulsating pains. Cannot recognize localities.
Cardiovascular disease. Violent heartbeat as if it would burst, pain radiates in all directions, throbbing all over the body. Gluonium’s grand characteristic is throbbing all over the body in every vessel, feeling of fullness in the region of heart, sharp pains radiating in all directions from heart, labored breathing, and fluttering of the heart, the heart feels contracted. Heart laborious action, fluttering, palpitation with dyspnea. Cannot go uphill. Any exertion brings on rush of blood to heart and fainting spells. Throbbing in the whole body to fingertips.
Amylenum Nitrosum
Tachycardia, feeling of a band around the head; oppressed breathing with constricted feeling about the heart, face flushed with anxiety and apprehension. Cardiovascular disease. Angina.
dilated arterioles and capillaries, flushing of face, heat, and throbbing in the head – Superficial arterial hyperemia. Palpitation of the heart and similar conditions.
Anxiety, as if something might happen; must have fresh air. Surging of blood to head and face; sensation as if blood would start through skin, with heat and redness. Flushing, followed by sweat at climacteric. Ears hyperemic. Throbbing.
Naja
Severe pain in the heart region – extending to the nape of the neck, pulse slow and irregular with fluttering and palpitation. Slow respiration. Valvular troubles. Cardiovascular disease. Arteriosclerosis. Marked surging of blood upwards, marked dyspnea, inability to lie on left side. Hypertrophy, and valvular lesions. Organs seem to be drawn together. Very susceptible to cold. With heart symptoms, pain in forehead and temples. Diseases, primarily depending upon degeneration of motor cells. Angina. Control of sphincters lost.
Suicidal insanity. Depressed. Aversion to talking. Blurred speech. Melancholy. Dreads to be left alone. Fear of rain. Pain in left temple and in left orbital region, extending to occiput, with nausea and vomiting. Suffocative spells after sleeping. Dragging and anxiety in precordia. Feeling of weight on heart. Angina pains extending to nape of neck, left shoulder and arm with anxiety and fear of death. With the heart symptoms pain in forehead and temples. Pulse irregular in force. Threatened paralysis of heart, body cold, pulse slow, weak, irregular, tremulous. Acute and chronic endocarditis. Palpitation. Stitching pain in region of heart. Damaged heart after infectious diseases. Marked symptoms of low tension.
Secale Cornutum
Cardiovascular disease. Angina pectoris results due to spasms or constrictions of the coronary artery. contraction of the unstriped muscular fibers. Hemorrhages; continued oozing; thin, fetid, watery black blood. Debility, anxiety, emaciation, though appetite and thirst may be excessive. Facial and abdominal muscles twitch. Secale decreases the flow of pancreatic juice by raising the blood pressure. Passive, congestive pain (rises from back of head), with pale face. Head drawn back. Angina pectoris. Dyspnea and oppression, with cramp in diaphragm. Boring pain in chest. Precordial tenderness. Palpitation, with contracted and intermittent pulse.
Spigelia Anthelmia
Spigelia is an important medicine in pericarditis and other diseases of the heart, the proving was conducted with the greatest regard for objective symptoms and the subjective symptoms are by innumerable confirmations proved to be correct.
Shooting, stabbing pain with pressure and oppression in a chest down the left arm. Acts well in smokers and drunkards. Substernal pain which radiates to the neck and arms, irregular pulse, the tendency to syncope, palpitation and sharp stitches in the heart, pulse weak and irregular, or full and bounding with aggravation from the least motion. Arteriosclerosis.
Violent palpitation. Angina. Precordial pain and great aggravation from movement. Frequent attacks of palpitation, especially with foul odor from mouth. Pulse weak and irregular. Pericarditis, with sticking pains, palpitation, dyspnea. Neuralgia extending to arm or both arms. Angina pectoris. Hot water gives relieve. Rheumatic carditis, trembling pulse; whole left side sore. Dyspnea; must lie on right side with head high.
Arsenic album
Remarkable remedy for angina pectoris, violent throbbing in the heart when lying on back, aggravation after midnight. Great anguish and restlessness. Changes place continually. Fears, of death, of being left alone. Unable to lie down; fears suffocation. Air-passages constricted. Cardiac asthma. Burning in chest. Palpitation, pain, dyspnea, faintness. Irritable heart in smokers and tobacco-chewers. Pulse more rapid in morning. Dilatation. Cyanosis. Fatty degeneration. Angina pectoris, with pain in neck and occiput. Edema lower extremities.
Cimicifuga Racemosa
Heart action suddenly ceases with severe pain in the heart region, pulse weak. Pains radiate all over the chest and a sensation as if the left arm were bound to the side. Heart’s action suddenly ceases, sense of impending suffocation, pulse – feeble. Dry, short cough. Irregular, slow, trembling pulse. Tremulous action. Angina pectoris. Numbness of left arm; feels as if bound to side. Left-sided infra-mammary pain.
Cactus Grandiflorus
Acts on circular muscular tissue, hence constrictions. It is the heart and arteries especially that at once respond to the influence of Cactus, producing very characteristic constrictions as of an iron band. This sensation is found in various places, esophagus, bladder, etc.
The mental symptoms: heart affections, sadness, and melancholy. Hemorrhage, constrictions, periodicity, and spasmodic pains. Whole body feels as if caged, each wire being twisted tighter. Atheromatous arteries and weak heart. Congestions; irregular distribution of blood. Favors formation of clots speedily. Great periodicity. Toxic goiter with cardiac symptoms. Cactus is pulseless, panting and prostrated.
Cardiovascular disease: oppressed breathing. Constriction in chest, hindering respiration. Inflammation of diaphragm. Heart-constriction. Angina pectoris. Palpitation; pain shooting down left arm. Hemoptysis, with convulsive, spasmodic cough. Diaphragmatic, with great difficulty of breathing. Endocarditis with mitral insufficiency together with violent and rapid action. Endocardial murmurs, excessive impulse, increased precordial dullness, enlarged ventricle. Low blood pressure. Acts best in the incipiency of cardiac incompetence. Heart weakness of arterio-sclerosis. Tobacco heart. Violent palpitation; worse lying on left side, at approach of menses. Angina pectoris with suffocation, cold sweat, and ever-present iron band feeling. Pain in apex, shooting down left arm. Palpitation, with vertigo; dyspnea, flatulence. Constriction; very acute pains and stitches in heart; pulse feeble, irregular, quick, without strength.
Veratrum album
Poor heart action in tobacco chewers, much palpitation, anxiety and rapid respiration. Collapse, with extreme coldness, blueness, and weakness, is offered by this drug. Post-operative shock with cold sweat on forehead, pale face, rapid, feeble pulse. Excessive dryness of all mucous surfaces. “Coprophagia” violent mania alternates with silence and refusal to talk. Cardiovascular disease.
Melancholy, with stupor and mania. Sits in a stupid manner; notices nothing; Sullen indifference. Frenzy of excitement; shrieks, curses. Aimless wandering from home. Delusions of impending misfortunes. Puerperal mania. Mania, with desire to cut and tear things. Attacks of pain, with delirium driving to madness. Cursing, howling all night. Palpitation with anxiety and rapid audible respiration. Pulse irregular, feeble. Tobacco heart (sniffing, smoking, chewing). Intermittent action of heart in feeble persons with some hepatic obstruction. One of the best heart stimulants in Homeopathy.
Lilium Tigrinum
Angina pectoris with pain in the right arm, pulsation all over the body, the patient feels suffocated. Sensation as if heart were grasped in a vise. Feels full to bursting. Pulsations over whole body. Arrhythmia – palpitation; irregular pulse; very rapid. Pain in cardiac region, with feeling of a load on chest. Cold feeling about heart. Suffocating feeling in a crowded and warm room.
Ammonium Carbonicum
Audible palpitation with fear, cold sweat, lachrymation, inability to speak, loud breathing and trembling hands. Heart weak, wakes with difficult breathing and palpitation. Hands cold and blue; distended veins. Fingers swell when arm is hanging down. Panaritium, deep-seated periosteal pain.
Strophanthus
Strophanthus increases the contractile power of all striped muscles. Acts on the heart; increasing the systole and diminishes the rapidity. Cardiovascular disease. Angina pectoris due to heart weakness. Dropsical accumulations. In small doses for weak heart. cardiomegaly. Mitral regurgitation with oedema and dropsy.
Strophanthus is a good diuretic, and is safer for the aged, as it does not affect the Vaso-motors.
Cardiac diseases after the long use of allopathic stimulants; irritable heart of tobacco-smokers and chewers. Arterio-sclerosis; rigid arteries of aged. Restores tone to a brittle tissue, especially of the heart muscle and valves. Especially useful in failing compensation dependent upon fatty heart. Hives. Anemia with palpitation and breathlessness. Exophthalmic goiter. Corpulent persons.
Angina and all other heart diseases are completely Curable with Homeopathic medication. Visit our clinic or order your medicine (courier) – please send your details and address at WhatsApp- +923119884588.
P. S: This article is only for doctors having good knowledge about Homeopathy and allopathy, for learning purpose(s).
For proper consultation and treatment, please visit our clinic.
None of above-mentioned medicine(s) is/are the full/complete treatment, but just hints for treatment; every patient has his/her own constitutional medicine.
Dr. Sayyad Qaisar Ahmed (MD {Ukraine}, DHMS), Abdominal Surgeries, Oncological surgeries, Gastroenterologist, Specialist Homeopathic Medicines.
Senior research officer at Dnepropetrovsk state medical academy Ukraine.
Location: Al-Haytham clinic, Umer Farooq Chowk Risalpur Sadder (0923631023, 03119884588), K.P.K, Pakistan.
Find more about Dr Sayed Qaisar Ahmed at:
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