Is shortness of breath and difficulty exercising a sign or symptom of heart disease?

Consultant Cardiologist Ahmed Elgahamaz speaks about shortness of breath and difficulty exercising and how these symptoms are linked to heart disease.

If you experience breathlessness this is a very common symptom of heart disease.

It can represent underlying coronary artery disease or other forms of what we call heart failure and the hearts ability to pump adequately to maintain good circulation.

Breathlessness is often a difficult symptom for the patient to assess because we all experience it at different levels because it’s affected by your fitness, your weight and your usual activity level.

However, anybody feeling out of breath while doing everyday activities, especially if you haven’t experienced this before, should have this investigated by an expert. We want to make sure it does not reflect underlying heart disease, which can be diagnosed early so that we take the appropriate steps to avoid any future problems to the heart.

I strongly urge you to take our heart disease online self-test to assess your risk of developing heart disease in the future. It will take you less than five minutes and will give you a good idea if you are at increased risk and whether or not you need to see a specialist.

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About the cardiologists

The Many Beats team consists of not one, but four highly experienced consultant cardiologists

Dr Navtej Chahal

Consultant Cardiologist

PhD FESC FACC

Navtej is a Consultant Cardiologist at Many Beats. He also consults at the London Northwest NHS Trust and the Royal Brompton Hospital, London having qualified from Guy’s and St Thomas’ Medical School in 2001. He is an Honorary Senior Clinical Lecturer at Imperial College London

Dr Navin Chandra

Consultant Cardiologist

MD, MRCP, MBBS, BSc

Navin is a Consultant Cardiologist at Many Beats. He is also a Consultant Cardiologist at Frimley Health NHS Foundation Trust and an Honorary Consultant Cardiologist at Royal Brompton & Harefield NHS Foundation Trust. He qualified from Guy’s, King’s & St. Thomas’s in 2004...

Dr Ahmed Elghamaz

Consultant Cardiologist

FRCP, MB BCh

Ahmed is a Consultant Cardiologist at Many Beats. He also consults at Northwick Park Hospital and London North West Healthcare University Hospitals NHS Trust and is an Honorary Consultant Cardiologist at Royal Brompton & Harefield NHS Foundation Trust. He completed his junior…

Dr Joban Sehmi

Consultant Cardiologist

BSc, MBBS, MRCP, PhD

Joban is a Consultant Cardiologist at Many Beats. His NHS practice is at West Hertfordshire Hospitals NHS trust. He sees patients privately at Spire in Bushey and Bishops Wood Hospital in Northwood. He trained in medicine at Guy’s and St. Thomas’ medical school and qualified in 2003 with numerous academic awards…