Hello,

I am a 36 year old male who has been having chest pains for about 2 months now. I don't smoke and I rarely drink alcohol. I first got them in February when one day they started as I was driving to pick up some items. I remember that I was a bit nauseous that day and had some pain in my left forearm too. I also had a tingling feeling in my jaw briefly. The pains started mid-morning and lasted most of the day so I called a government helpline and they sent paramedics to see me. They did an ECG and said it was fine and that I wasn't having a heart attack (I knew I wasn't). The reason I called was because there is a history of heart disease on my father's side of the family (him, his mother and his uncle, all smokers and all had heart attacks in their sixties) and I just wanted to be safe as this was scary as I'd never had anything like this before.

The pains have continued (chest and left forearm usually) but have become slightly more severe and more frequent. They come on at random times and there is no consistency to them. I have had them when sitting at work and also sometimes when exerting myself (even though any exertion is moderate at best). I went to see my doctor and she said I was low risk re heart disease and not to worry and just manage the pain. She basically said it was unexplained. She said it wasn't angina because I hadn't been exerting myself when it came on, which at that time was true (I was very sedentary until fairly recently). So I felt reassured as I figured it was stress related (I am a lawyer and got married recently so have been stressed). I've been a lawyer for a while now and it's always been stressful but I never had chest pains until 2 months ago. There were also stressful times in my relationship with my now wife but again I never had chest pains.

However the pains have been getting a bit worse and staying for longer periods, even when on honeymoon and just walking leisurely to the shops. I don't know what's going on and looked online. I just wonder if it could be unstable angina. The pains last more than a few minutes and follow no set pattern. Can you just get unstable angina suddenly? My diet is not the best - I do eat vegetables fairly regularly but do eat too much fast food and too many ready meals and have a very sweet tooth. Could this be the culprit even though I am fairly young?

Sorry for the long post but I am just worried that I should be going to hospital and I'm not but don't know if I am worrying too much about nothing. The only other relevant thing would be that I am about 3 pounds overweight and have been since October last year but was about 20 pounds overweight for about a year and a half before last October.

Any advice would be greatly appreciated.

Many thanks.