My grandmother and her niece have hypertrophic cardiomyopathy (thickening of the heart wall). So there is a chance that I may have it, but I have not been tested (though there really isn’t a test, all they can do is see if you have the gene but that doesn’t mean you’ve expressed it). I have noticed that for several years I have experienced some of the symptoms of it:
-Chest pain or pressure that usually occurs with exercise or physical activity.
-Syncope (fainting) with HCM may be caused by irregular heart rhythms, abnormal responses of the blood vessels during exercise.
-Palpitations due to abnormal heart rhythms.
I’ve only experienced syncope and palpitations very rarely (maybe four times in the past 5 years) but the syncope is always after exercise.
My question is that I’ve been running for about a year and a half. I’m 17 years old, female, 5′ 4″ and 137 lbs. Sometimes when I’m running I’ll get sharp or throbbing pains in my inner upper arms going down to my elbow(continued)