Angina
Angina (pronounced an-JI-nuh), or severe chest pains that may accompany exertion, is a symptom of impaired circulation affecting the heart and should of course be evaluated and monitored regularly by your physician. Most of the information discussed in our entry on HEART DISEASE is relevant to angina, so we recommend that you consult that part of the book. Here, we will deal specifically with just two of the many aspects of angina.
Although we usually associate angina with periods of unusual e ertion or emotional stress, angina can also strike in the middle of th night, shattering sleep with a painful and terrifying real-life nightmare Digitalis and diuretics are often used to treat such nocturnal angina on the theory that one of the major mechanisms of this disorder is increase in the return of blood from the veins when the body is in supine position. Recently, heart specialists at two medical centers in Israel decided to see what would happen if the entire body was simply tilted slightly during sleep, with the feet down and the head up. Would this simple change in sleeping position affect blood flow enough to make a difference in episodes of nocturnal angina?