Chest Pain - alka seltzer not helping

if your sternum (that breast plate in the center of the chest) starts to feel pressure or pain, or if your jaw hurts or if you have shooting pain in either arms you should call 911 or go to ER.

You wrote this a month ago, so I'm assuming you being only 19 you should be fine by now.

The irony of this is you took Alka Selzter for indigestion. What's Ironic about it is indigestion mimics a heart attack in many ways. So much so, People who have it severe enough will get an ECG (EKG) in ER. I get them a lot. The other irony of this is Alka Seltzer has 500mg of Aspirin in it, which is used to break up the plaque that causes blood clotting which causes heart attacks. it's why people with heart or stroke problems take a baby aspirin a day. Its why doctors tell you to carry a chew able aspirin with you at all times. Then there is this irony that aspirin can make indigestion far worst by causing irritation to the stomach wall.. enough to make it bleed.

LOL. it is also said that the type of acid in Alka Seltzer also helps heart problems.

So if it's indigestion, it can get worst with alka seltzer but it will most likely stop the heart attack in 12-15 minutes (The time it takes for the aspirin to get into the bloodstream using alka seltzer. Chewable aspirin take 8 minutes.

But the bacarbinate in Alka Seltzer reverses the irritation of aspirin and make the indigestion go away. unless you're allergic to it.

So next time, take Mylanta extra strength. chew a aspirin first (I think its a baby aspirin of 89mg and not 320mg as a normal aspirin) wait 5 minutes then take 2 spoonfuls (I think tablespoon) of Mylanta. if that doesn't help, have someone ruch to to ER or call 911.

if it's really bad indigestion, they will give you a mylanta cocktail. It's really great. It's about 2 shots of mylanta (about 1/8th of a cup) mixed with Lidocain and Tylenol. numbs your pain right up. They would give it to me first to see if it was heart related. If the pain didn't go away, most likely it was muscle or heart.

BTW.. I'm not a doctor (obviously) and I don't play one on the Internet. Just sharing a common experience with you. Go talk to a Doctor or Advice nurse and not someone on the Internet. With all respect to the physicians and registered nurses on here, Someone on here might be posing as one and give you disinformation that could be life threatening. So with respect to the doctors on this site, I think you should get medical attention in a real facility next time. Cheers!

my 16 year old son just had the same reaction...he took the alka seltzer and started to say that he had severe pain in his chest...this lasted for about 20-30 minutes...he threw up...and is now sleeping..i have checked on him several times now and he says the pain is going away and is not as bad...any ideas on this?