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Can you have a heart attack in your 20s or 30s?
Yes. It's uncommon, but it happens, and young people are more likely to delay because they don't believe it could be their heart. Heart attacks in younger people are most often linked to:
Cocaine and your heart
Cocaine narrows the heart's arteries, raises blood pressure and heart rate, and makes blood more likely to clot. It can cause a heart attack or a dangerous heart rhythm within minutes of use, or hours later. Mixing it with alcohol makes this worse. FRANK has confidential advice.
If you have chest pain after taking drugs, call 999 and tell the paramedics what you took. They are there to treat you, not to judge you or involve the police. It genuinely changes your treatment, because some heart medicines are unsafe after cocaine.
Inherited heart conditions
When a young person collapses suddenly, it's usually not a heart attack but a cardiac arrest caused by an inherited heart condition. Examples include hypertrophic cardiomyopathy, where the heart muscle is abnormally thick, and heart rhythm conditions such as long QT syndrome and Brugada syndrome. The charity Cardiac Risk in the Young (CRY) reports that every week in the UK, about 12 apparently fit and healthy young people die from an undiagnosed heart condition.
Warning signs that need a GP appointment
- Fainting or blacking out during exercise, or when startled, for example by an alarm
- Chest pain or palpitations during exercise
- Being much more breathless than friends doing the same activity
- A close relative who died suddenly and unexpectedly under the age of 35, including unexplained drowning or a road accident with no obvious cause
The GP can arrange an ECG and, if needed, a referral to a cardiologist. CRY offers free heart screening for young people aged 14 to 35.
So what else causes chest pain in young people?
Most chest pain in teenagers and young adults comes from the muscles and joints of the chest wall, inflammation of the rib cartilage (costochondritis), anxiety and panic attacks, acid reflux, or asthma. Two serious non-heart causes to know about are a collapsed lung, which is more common in tall, slim young men and smokers, and a blood clot in the lung, which is more likely after long journeys, surgery, or on the combined pill.
See what causes chest pain for how these differ. The rule doesn't change with age: heavy or tight chest pain lasting more than a few minutes, or with breathlessness, sweating or fainting, is a 999 call.
Sources
This page is based on the published guidance below. It was last updated on 30 September 2026. Read how we write our content, or email hello@chestpain.org.uk to report a mistake.