A coworker had to go get some cloggage cleaned out of his arteries after getting a “shunt” (?) put in a couple of months ago. He said it hurt like hell. Why would there be nerves in your arteries around your heart? Do nerves do more than just signal the brain that your hurt?
Sounds like he had angioplasty, or ‘ballooning’ of the artery to open it up. They inflate the balloon, thus plugging the artery completely, and leave it inflated for up to a minute or more. Instant angina, or heart muscle pain, as it has the blood flow to it cut off. Leave it inflated too long, and the muscle dies, as in a heart attack.
QtM, MD
Well Dr,
why would the body have a monitor(nerve endings=pain) on the the internal workings of the heart? It is my ignorant opinion that the body didn’t have any extra parts. everything had a purpose along with a cost.
Okay, I was with you right up until this part. What do you mean by “extra parts” and “cost”?
I always wondered if this was painful too, since I almost needed to have something similar done for ventricular stenosis(sp?) when I was little. Thanks Qadgop!
And thank you justinh for giving me the chance to use “ventricular stenosis” in a conversation. 
What did you think the appendix was for?
Are you suggesting it would be better if the body could not warn you via pain when having a heart attack? Geez, if that’s an added cost option I hope I paid for one.
Nerves don’t just conduct pain. They also conduct impulses required for motion. Pumping is a motion. In fact, there is a rather complex system of nerve pathways that is required if our heart is to beat at all. I’d think that pain would be a part of this system, and in the case of a heart attack (which is a very painful phenomenon), desirable if action is to be taken quickly enough to save the victim’s life.
[sub]FYI, this is the question that tripped me up on my cardiology exam in coding school. I looked it up later and haven’t forgotten it.[/sub]
I could be wrong, and QtM is perfectly free to set me straight.
Robin
I think JUSTINH is trying to ask is:
Pain is the body’s way of telling us to stop doing whatever we’re doing to injure ourselves. We have no control over our heart rate, so why does our bodies hurt us when we suffer heart attacks? We can’t do anything about it except die.
Well, for starters, you might trying laying down during a heart attack … not all heart attacks are fatal, and not all heart pain comes from a heart attack. For many people, angina pain is an important warning to slow down before serious damage (like a heart attack) occurs.
Arjuna34
Here’s a new breakthrough on treatment of heart attack pain: Heart pain article
Note- IANAD, so you should check with your doctor before starting the above therapy
Arjuna34
let me try this again.
If you or a baboon has a heart attack (not implying that you are a baboon but some women look like madrill baboons with all that makeup they put on… but I digress) what good would it do to hurt you. does a male baboon stop chasing a female when he has a heart attack or does he act like a human and try to get some before he dies.
I think MsRobyn answered by question saying that nerves do more that transmit pain. but if nerves are needed to control movement then doesnt your stomach move and you can have horrible cancer there and not feel anything. now if you have an ulcer it hurts, and maybe that is natures way of saying “layoff the small rodents and eat more leafy stuff”
I thought appendix did have a use of some sort.
justin the body has nerves that sense pain almost everywhere (except for in the brain, go figure). Why? I don’t know, I’m not a Desmond Morris type, who comes up with interesting hypotheses for why we’re the way we are. You’ll have to make inquiries with the designer.
Let’s say a baboon has a weak heart. If he really exerts himself, he experiences chest pain (angina). This pain signals him to settle down and take it easy, thus avoiding a potential heart attack (and possible death). This is a USEFUL pain, a warning not to overtax a weakened heart. This is the purpose of having pain nerves around the heart.
The fact that these same nerves are stimulated by an angioplasty isn’t relevant to how they evolved in the first place.
Arjuna34
If the brain has no nerves then why do headaches hurt?
the “evolution” answer of protecting someone with a weak heart by paining them seems to be contrary to the master plan of evolution. survival of the fittest. of course you can’t reproduce if your heart is hurting like hell.
Not to completely hijack this thread, but I think the theory would be that young people generally don’t have angina pains, or bad hearts. Older people do, but there is an evolutionary advantage to their genes for them to stay alive for a while after they’ve produced offspring, thus the protections such as chest pain. This advantage tapers off as the parents get older, and thus so do the protections against aging and death.
Also, “survival of the fittest” is not the “master plan” of evolution. Fundamentally, the propogation of genes is the “driving force” behind it (not that there really IS a “force” per se). Maximizing the propogation of genes does not necessarily mean maximizing the fitness of any particular individual.
Headache pain is not pain from the brain, but from surrounding tissue.
Arjuna34