I was the healthiest I'd ever been... but then I had TWO heart attacks at just 26

At 26, Channing Muller was the healthiest she'd ever been - she was athletic, a vegetarian and had no family history of heart disease.

However, when she woke up one night experiencing debilitating chest pain, she knew something was terribly wrong.

'I had gone out with a bunch of friends the night before and woke up that morning thinking, we should probably like go to the gym. I feel like fine,' she told the Daily Mail.

Muller, now 41, recalled taking one step outside of her bed only for her heart to start racing uncontrollably and she thought she was going to be sick.

'I rushed to the bathroom but nothing happened. Right, didn't get sick, but I started feeling very clammy and very tingly all across my upper body,' she said.

When she looked in the mirror, Muller noticed immediately how pale she was.

'I was white as a sheet and having difficulty regulating my breathing,' she said. 'I kept feeling if I could make myself smaller somehow, that would get my heart to calm down. 

'I was laying on the floor in the bathroom, thinking, "what is going on?" Weirdest hangover ever,' she said.

After lying in the fetal position for a while, Muller considered that maybe she was having a panic attack - but soon realized she wasn't when the symptoms didn't subside. 

Eventually, Muller called her housemate, who helped her into her car and drove her to a nearby hospital.

Once there, Muller underwent a battery of tests and a few hours later was airlifted to a different hospital that specialized in cardiac health. 

'I spent the next four days in the cardiac care unit, undergoing every single test you can safely put the heart under to find out why a 26-year-old vegetarian runner without a family history of heart disease had a heart attack,' she said.

They discovered that the seemingly healthy young woman had a blockage in the lateral anterior descending artery.

However, about a month later, Muller felt the same familiar tightness in her chest and could feel her heart rate increasing despite taking two rounds of nitroglycerin, which is designed to dilate the blood vessels, so she was admitted again.

At the hospital, Muller had a stent put in, with doctors discovering one of her arteries was 95 percent blocked. 

'I could take a deep breath for the first time that I didn't realize I had been holding, like everything just got easier,' she said. 

Muller isn't the only one to suffer a devastating health scare at such a young age. 

In October 2025, Jai Berry started experiencing chest pains, knowing instantly that something was very wrong.

'It was a sudden, massive event - barring a few occasions where I suffered chest pains (which I foolishly ignored),' Berry, 31, told the Daily Mail.

'I had no symptoms,' Berry continued. 'I was found to have a 100 percent occlusion in both my Left Anterior Descending artery, often called the widow maker and my Right Coronary Artery.'

Berry said up until that point, he had considered himself reasonably healthy.  

'I rarely had any of the typical discomfort or breathlessness that people usually associate with cardiac conditions,' he said. 

'I wouldn’t say I was very active, as I was working a typical corporate job which is often quite sedentary but I even worked right through the entire time I had Covid without any major concerns.'

Both Muller and Berry said aside from the physical restrictions having a heart attack had on them both, the mental toll was huge.

'I had a really hard time coming to grips with, well, why was I [living so healthily] if I was still going to end up here?' she admitted. 'I did not have a family history of heart disease. I was not overweight. I was active. I was a vegetarian for a decade leading up to this.'

Berry agreed, citing the mental toll and isolation as having a major impact on his recovery.

'When you look completely healthy on the outside and doing well otherwise, people don't expect you to be fighting a chronic, life-threatening heart condition,' he pointed out.

'Navigating the recovery process, dealing with the medications and their supposed side effects, and managing the baseline PTSD that comes with surviving such an episode is a full-time job alongside my actual career,' he added.

Muller said it took around a year to feel confident in her body again and has been managing various diets and medications.

Now, at 41, Muller has run 15 marathons and says she feels 'safer' in her body, as well as knowing what to look out for.

Sameer Amin, MD, Cardiologist, Chief Medical Officer, L.A. Care Health Plan, told the Daily Mail that despite there being an increased awareness of healthy lifestyles and wellness trends, there are more heart attacks in younger adults than ever before.

'We are also seeing more young people being diagnosed with diabetes, high blood pressure, and high cholesterol, while obesity rates continue to rise,' he shared.

According to Dr Amin, a big part of this is how we live and work today. 

'Many people spend long hours sitting at a desk, looking at screens, eating highly processed foods, juggling the stress of busy lives, and have poor sleep habits,' he pointed out.

'All of this can take a serious toll on heart health. While people may know what healthy choices look like, finding the time and energy to make them consistently can be a real challenge.'

Dr Amin advised people, especially young adults, to make time to prioritize heart health. 

'It's never too early to start building healthy habits,' he encouraged. 'Watch what you eat, exercise, get plenty of sleep, learn to manage stress, and don’t skip your regular checkups. Small changes can make a big difference over time.'