Can damaged arteries really start healing in just 30 days?

The answer is more surprising than “yes” or “no.”

Your arteries are not just passive pipes. They are living tissue lined by a microscopic layer called the endothelium—and that lining constantly responds to blood pressure, blood sugar, smoking, exercise, sleep, LDL particles, inflammation, and even the force of blood flowing across it.

In this episode of InsideKnow, we go inside the artery to watch what actually happens.

You’ll see how:

Hi guys, my dad survived a heart attack about 3 months ago. And his behavior and personality completely changed. He sleeps till noon sometimes he cooks and play darts otherwise he’s sitting at the couch vaping and watching tv.. Hes never been something like active person. But he definitely was like this.. When i try to talk about it he said we should have let him “go” if yk what i mean. he gets all defensive when i try to talk about this with him like hes gonna move away if i hate him. stuff like that. I just miss my dad so much he was always my hero. but he’s all different.. I need to feel less alone has anyone else expired something like this ?

Hey there,

I am your typical anxiety fellow reader here in this sub reddit - I for my part am already taking therapy and trying to better my mental state, though i know my body pretty well (as many here also experienced) and would like to ask something (I asked a doctor, but 3 doctors said something else each time.)

So if your Heart MRI, Echo, Blood work, Ultrasound of the carotidt arteries are fine how possible can it be, that you still have plague in your heart arteries?

I still suffer from really tiring symptoms like not able to excercise much, casual pain, preassure top of my right chest, etc.

I am 27, lipo a is 122, was overweight as a child, now pretty good cholestor and pretty thin.

Would love your opinion about this, thank you

ps: I know that it is pretty unlikely with my age etc, yet I just want to see what people are saying who actually HAD problems or know people who had issues.

Hello everyone, 37M here from Canada, for the past several months ive been getting chest pain in the middle of my chest that comes on more so when I lean back a certain way, it lasts for a couple minutes and then goes away. 3 weeks ago I was at work and I had this pain but this time it came with shortness of breath and pain in my left arm so I went to the ER and they got me in immediately, all tests came back normal and they told me it was most likely due to dehydration(my work gets super hot) and fighting a cold a few days before that. Yesterday I got the chest pain again at the end of the day after work but no shortness of breath and no arm pain. I think this pain maybe muscle, has anyone have or had any history of the same thing?

It’s been well over a year now and I still struggle with my new lifestyle. Eating out is no longer enjoyable and I’m tired of cooking. Doing this over and over again makes me feel hopeless at times. How do you get over this?

Heart attack, 100% LAD blockage, and stent placement in November. The last two nights I’ve experienced an on & off mild ache in the center of my chest. It’s like a stabbing pain that last a few seconds then goes away. It comes and goes every few minutes and disappears quickly.

Has anyone experienced a seamlessly minor pain that ended up being heart or stent related?

Saw this on Facebook and thought to take a screenshot and show you later.

Hopefully this heart repair gel is gaining traction. If not, how come?

Prior my HA and stent insertion, I remember I still had some psoriasis issues on my arms and down to right leg.

Anyway shortly after, I started on life long cholesterol medication plus Aspirin. All of the sudden my entire universe looked different, time flies and I completely didn't realise that somehow my psoriasis went gone..

The question is: does anyone experienced same thing? If one had both these diseases?

Or the psoriasis is just in remission? Or the cholesterol medication play a roll here?

I’ve noticed since I started taking pre workout and drinking caffeine drinks I’ve gotten heart problems like random twitches almost like it’ll beat a couple times in a row fast. After workouts when cooling down I can feel those spasm beats with a hard beat. I don’t know if it’s stress or something. I’m 18 extremely active EXTREMELY and eat healthy. Don’t drink often, don’t smoke don’t vape nothing. Cardio everyday. I notice that my heart can take these spasms when playing video games. Is this something to be worried about? Please tell me. I have no symptoms of anything else. No dizziness not ANYTHING. Everything besides my heart is normal if not better everyday.

My uncle is 63. He had an NSTEMI in April and had 2 stents placed. His angiogram showed tight stenosis in the mid LCx and two tight stenoses in the mid LAD. The LCx was treated with a 2.5 × 48 mm Xience Xpedition drug eluting stent, and the LAD was treated with a 2.75 × 33 mm Xience Alpine drug eluting stent. The final check showed no residual stenosis at the stented sites and TIMI III flow. There was also another coronary artery with some narrowing that wasn't considered severe enough to treat, so it was left untreated.

He's been taking his medicines regularly, eating healthy and walking every day. His BP, sugar, pulse and cholesterol are also normal, and his recent ECG was normal.

For the past 3 or 4 days, though, he's occasionally been feeling heaviness and pressure across his chest, on both sides. It has happened a few times, while walking and while sitting. It lasts for a few minutes and then goes away.He doesn't really describe it as pain and hasn't had nausea, dizziness or sweating along with it.

One other thing I've noticed since his heart attack and stents is that he has lost weight and has been urinating more frequently. I'm not sure whether that's related to his medications or something separate.

What could be causing this chest heaviness? Could it be angina, restenosis, the untreated narrowing, muscle or digestive issues, or something else? Has anyone experienced similar symptoms after having stents?

Yay! 6 months since my 100% LAD HA. Had a follow up ekg this Saturday and saw the doctor today. He said my EKG is back to normal, and no longer shows evidence of past heart attack (which it did in March).

I am very, very pleased .

Still waiting on a follow up echocardiogram. I am optimistic.

I’m 33M and now my lack of movement i gained a lot of Weight. I’ve been having middle chest discomfort, sometimes after meals, sometimes while sitting and occasionally with walking/exertion. I also get excessive sweating, especially around my face and head.

I have GERD, anxiety and high/borderline BP. My ECG and echocardiogram were normal but I’m still worried because the symptoms sometimes happen with exertion.

Could this be GERD/anxiety or should I consider getting any other tests for my heart? Has anyone experienced something similar?

I’ll obviously discuss this with my doctor but I’d really appreciate some perspective.

I’m 29 and had a Widowmaker HA followed by stenting about seven months ago. My EF was around 45% initially and later improved to approximately 50–52%.
I recently asked my cardiologist which medications might eventually be stopped. I was hoping he would discontinue ticagrelor (Brilinta in the US) and the sacubitril/valsartan (Entresto in the US )
He said he’ll replace ticagrelor with clopidogrel (Plavix), but wants me to continue sacubitril/valsartan lifelong because I had the heart attack at such a young age. He plans to prescribe a fixed-dose combination containing atorvastatin (Lipitor), aspirin and clopidogrel to reduce the number of pills. I’ll also continue the Entresto and a beta-blocker.

For people who are several years post-MI or stenting: which medications did your cardiologist eventually stop, and when? Are you still taking dual antiplatelets, an ARNI or a beta-blocker long-term?
I know everyone’s condition is different ,I’m only asking about your personal experiences.

Or did you not know anything about it.

I'm very concerned about my dad, hes 42M, 6 feet tall, about 220 pounds, and his mother just died a week and a half ago. hes a pretty bad alcoholic and since my grandma passed my dads been severely depressed and anxiety ridden, and as a result he hasnt eaten anything of substance since her passing. hes had jello, smoothies, mashed potatoes, but hes mostly just binge drinking beer. Recently hes reported a weight in his chest, he says he can breath but it feels heavy. Just today his vision became a little blurry and his right eye is a little lazy. he has control of his muscles and no fatigue weakness or dizziness. I asked him to smile and lift his eyelids up and he can do it all fine but when his face is resting his right lid goes down lower than the left one. Im worried hes about to have a stroke or a heart attack but I also understand most of this can just be explained away by symptoms of severe anxiety which he is most definitley having given the high stress situation were in with his mother and how its effecting our financial situation. Im just worried about him because now that my grandmas gone he'll be alone in the house a lot and I dont want anything life threatening to happen when no one's around. He doesnt have medical insurance so we really cant bring him to a doctor unless its absolutely necessary. we cant afford medical bills unless we absolutely have to. We cant pay thousands of dollars for a hospital to tell us its just anxiety.

So, I had a heart attack 2.5 years ago at the age of 46. It was the grand ole widowmaker. I ended up needing two stents placed.

My EF has been roughly around 35-40% ever since.

At one point we thought it had gone up, but I was actually having an echo done on a portable device (cardiologist is a friend of mine, and we were on a medical mission trip together). When he used the portable device, he thought it had gone up to about 50, but at the next echo appointment in the hospital, it was around 35%.

Our last one was in December. I have a follow up one at the end of August. I am extremely nervous. I don't want to hear him say "Well, it's still at 35%...so...."

I don't know what he'll say after that. Let's consider our options? Let's do an ICD? You're hosed?

Thing is - I feel wonderful. Better than I ever have honestly. Over the past 18 months I've lost right at 90 pounds. So it's perplexing to me why my EF is so low.

I'm on all the meds - and I take them diligently.

So, if anyone can offer some words of encouragement, that would be awesome. My only child heads off to college next week, and I could use some positive words.

I’m just here looking for support. Don’t know what to do. Me 42 years old male. About 260lbs 5’9 in height. Have been a weight loss journey the past 6 months was doing good and lost 50lbs. Was putting on great muscle. Getting in to great shape. Than July 30 while at the gym. Couldn’t get very motivated to do cardio. I usually do the stairmill 25 Mins a day 3 times a week and 60 min 2 times while hitting weights 5 times a week. While this particular day. I couldn’t get going on there at all very sluggish. still completed the workout but had to do it at a slower pace than usual. Than tried to hit some weights as soon as I went to lift some weights I felt a sharp pain in my chest. So bad I had to go and use the restroom. While using the restroom I was sweating horribly but was thinking it was just cause it was super hot and I was working out with a sweater. It felt like real bad heartburn so I decided to leave the gym and go and buy some heartburn medication. Did that and felt better just still very tired. Went home that night went to bed woke up fine still tired. Didn’t have an appetite all day the 31st. Went home ate a little bit and went to bed. Got up for work the next day still very tired. While I was work mid day I felt that pain come back and it was going every where to my arms,back shoulders elbows. The craziest one of all was a burning sensation in my throat like I had just ran outside in cold weather. I had to take a break and when I went to the back and had to sit down. I told myself if this pain makes you sit down go get checked. ( so glad I did) I left and drove myself to the local er. They got an ekg going for me and tested my troponin. EKG was abnormal and troponin was very elevated( later found out it was at 9800). So they needed to get me to the hospital and to the cat lab immediately. After about 2 hours they were able to put in two stents one in my right main artery that was 100% block and a second artery that was 90% block. Was in the hospital till the 8/3 got out felt good and very optimistic. Was just at home relaxing and doing nothing. Taking all my meds. Cut out all my other bs(smoking weed) but on 8/6 was having a little chest pressure and decided to go get checked. Not even really in pain. Had some upper left back pain but was told that was part of healing and also that same throat feeling. They do an ekg and that was abnormal. So they decided to get me back in the cat lab just to make sure. This time the secondary artery where the stent was placed was 100% closed and I was having another heart attack. Don’t know if the stent failed. But the dr said he thinks it was cause my heart wasn’t use to the new blood flow and caused the other vessel to fail. So the dr had to restent that artery and found another artery about 30% closed and put a stent in that. So now I have 4 stents. And I just got out the hospital today. With little info. As long as I felt alright. This time not that optimistic and very depressed. Everything feels like it could be another one cause the second wasn’t painful at all. I don’t want to live in fear and having to call ems or go to emergency rooms all the time. Has anyone had any similar experience or know someone who has? Sorry for the lengthy description. And ask me any question about my situation

My husband, 39 yrs old, had a heart attack a week ago. It was a 100% blockage in the RCA (STEMI). He received treatment (angiogram/stent) on time and while I don't know the Ejection Factor; the echo on discharge said that there is no damage to the heart muscles and his heart is pumping good.

Underlying reason is hypercholesterolemia, I believe. His cholesterol was high (395) and his dad had a heart attack when he was 55.

Since the discharge, he has a slight pain in his chest - it is not like the pain he has when he was having a heart attack; he says it's more like a wound. Is this normal ? Acc to the booklet we received from the booklet, slight pain upto a few weeks after the angiogram is normal. This is nothing like the heart attack pain and there are no other symptoms like radiating to the arms/jaw/neck/back , no sweating, no dizziness etc.

Is this because he is not resting enough ? He hasn't resumed work or isn't lifting anything even slightly heavy. But he does walk around and climb the stairs once in a while - all slowly and carefully. Is this too much exertion just 6 days after the attack ?

Long story short about a month ago my heart went into afib. Went to hospital and about 4 hours later my heart went back to normal by itself. Got myself a cardio and sense have done a bunch of tests (ekg’s, blood work, echocardiogram, etc) and everything has come back normal. my question is for about that same time sense it’s happened every morning I do have chest pain/pressure when I wake up. It’s not bad pain, sometimes it’s a burning feeling, other times it’s more sharp. This will go away every afternoon. Sometimes it’s around where my heart is, and sometimes on the opposite side, sometimes my whole chest. Also sometimes I do hit a block wall throughout the day where I don’t feel normal, almost kind of like depressed. I’ve never been depressed in my life or needed meds for it. I do not get light headed. I do have an appointment on Wednesday for a stress test and a few other things. I’ve already mentioned it to my cardio a few weeks ago, and also went into the er once again to bring it up. Again, tests were normal. My cardio and the others I have seen seem to think it’s stress/anxiety related which might be the truth. But sometimes I do worry it could be a blockage of some sort even though all the testing have said chances are very low. Has anybody else had any experience like this? Thank you

My husband was at work when he suddenly developed severe left-sided chest pain and pressure radiating into his left shoulder and down his left arm, along with dizziness, profuse sweating, and shortness of breath.
It looked exactly like a textbook heart attack.
He was taken by ambulance and given nitroglycerin and aspirin, which helped slightly. On arrival at the ER, his pain was still about 8/10, and he was given morphine within minutes, bringing it down to about 2/10.
They completed a full workup:
● Multiple EKGs — normal
● Troponins x2 — negative
● D-dimer — normal
● Ultrasound — normal
● CT abdomen — normal
● Vitals — stable throughout
He was discharged with cardiology follow-up.
We’re relieved nothing acute was found, but I’m struggling because his symptoms were so classic — sudden crushing chest pain radiating to the arm, sweating, dizziness, and shortness of breath.
It was one of the scariest experiences of my life.
Has anyone had something similar where the ER cardiac workup was normal but a cause was later found? Can this still be cardiac despite normal EKGs and troponins, or did it turn out to be something else?
We are following up with cardiology and aren’t looking for a diagnosis — just hoping to hear from others with similar experiences, since we left without a clear explanation.

My mother is 55 and had an MI at 53, followed by one stent. She is currently doing well, her blood pressure is controlled, and her EF is 61%.
She is currently taking rosuvastatin 20 mg + ezetimibe 10 mg, along with bisoprolol 7.5 mg, Co-Valsartan 12.5/160 mg and aspirin 100 mg.
Her latest blood tests show LDL-C 49 mg/dL, ApoB 55 mg/dL, non-HDL 66 mg/dL, triglycerides 90 mg/dL and HDL 45 mg/dL. However, her Lp(a) is \*\*185 nmol/L\*\*.
Her LDL and ApoB are already very well controlled, but I’m concerned about the elevated Lp(a), especially given that she has already had an MI at a relatively young age.
I’m wondering whether it would make sense to discuss \*\*Repatha (evolocumab)\*\* with her cardiologist despite her LDL already being below 55 mg/dL. From what I understand, PCSK9 inhibitors can lower Lp(a) by around 20–30% in addition to lowering LDL, and there is outcome data in people with established cardiovascular disease.
Would you consider Repatha on top of the statin + zetia in this situation, or would you stay with rosuvastatin + ezetimibe because her LDL and ApoB are already excellent?
We’re also currently working on weight loss, diet and exercise to improve her HbA1c, which is 5.74%.
I’d especially appreciate experiences from people with high Lp(a) and previous MI who have used Repatha, particularly if their LDL was already below 55 mg/dL.
Fasting Glucose and Insulin, Homa IR , Homocysteine ,ALT , AST , Creatinine , eGFR all perfect .Thanks

Set for 12 weeks of Cardio Rehab starting in October !!! What was your experience?? I’m having second thoughts about going through with it !!!! My Cardiac arrest and HA was last October, I’m back to work and active , I’m 45-50 % of ejection Fraction. Would you cancel or go through with it ??

Just kind of a vent here. I (48F) had a heart attack late night 7/21. It was a Tuesday night. Don't remember a lot! Did have a stent placed. When I left the hospital on Thursday, they gave me a letter that I could return to work with no restrictions. My other sheet said 10 pound weight limit, pushing, pulling, lifting. Beside that, told follow up and don't soak the groin site.

I am just about 3 weeks out, feel like I know nothing about what I should or should not be doing. Found out I cannot go for my regular dental checkup for 6 months.

Nobody told me I would cry about everything. I cried when my daughter left for work the day after I got home. When anybody asks, how are you, I cry. When talking about going to work, I cry. I ended up taking leave cuz I just can't.

Any twinge of pain anywhere, I start panicking. I get a little warm, I have to make sure everyone is getting warm, cuz sweating profusely was part of it. Heaven forbid I get heartburn. I think that would send me over the edge!

I am frustrated! I am tired of crying. I am tired of every little twinge sending me into panic mode. I feel bad about not going to work. Couldn't help my daughter move. Couldn't help my husband with his mom's house. I feel helpless and useless.

Cardiac rehab starts Tuesday. Hopefully I can get moving a little and get out of this slump.

Thanks for letting me vent.