Chest pain can be caused by a host of issues. The most often cause of chest pain is usually acid reflux. Acid reflux is the result of stomach acid bubbling up into the food pipe causing a burning sensation with irritation that can mimic heart attack symptoms exactly in some cases. Ways in which you can differentiate between heart attack symptoms and acid reflux are via symptoms of gas/burping, possible vomiting, and a sour sensation in your mouth. It is usually the worse after eating acidic foods or spicy foods and can be made worse when laying down at night. Although this is not often times an emergency it is something that people do want treatment and consultation for. Call now if you think you are having chest pain due to acid reflux and need treatment today.
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Non-Emergency Chest Pain |
As outlined above acid reflux is a common cause of chest pain but here are many other organs in the chest that can be the culprit causing your chest pain.
Esophageal spasms are spasms of your food pipe that can classically present as heart attack pain. If you take nitroglycerin regularly for cardiac pain then this can confound you and your doctor even more due to the fact that your nitroglycerin will relieve this pain as well. The best way to decipher between chest pain caused by esophageal spasms and heart attack symptoms is to do further testing and undergo evaluation by a trained medical professional. If you are having chest pains then call for consultation today. |
Emergency Causes of Chest Pain |
There are multiple emergency causes of chest pain that go far beyond heart attacks and can be far more devastating if missed. First we will focus on the conventional heart attack. Heart attacks are the result of the arteries in the heart closing due to blockages from years of a diet that is high in cholesterol and saturated fats. The arteries of the heart are called the coronary arteries. These arteries will feed the heart nutrients and oxygen. When these arteries become blocked there is no opportunity for the heart to get oxygen and thus it will suffocate. That is the essence behind a heart attack. The symptoms that you can expect in a heart attack can vary from person to person. Typical symptoms include chest pain that is pressure, burning, or tightness that becomes worse with exertion and improves with rest. There are a subset of the population who will not experience these symptoms and can present atypically in an abnormal fashion. Atypical symptoms can include sharp chest pain, pain that is associated with numbness. This is why it is so crucial to contact your medical professional so he can use his training and judgement in order to decipher if you are in fact having a heart attack.
Other causes of chest pain that can be detrimental to your health can be anything that causes ruptures in the main vessel that leads from your heart to the rest of your body, the aorta. This is like the main highway that directs all of the oxygen traffic to the rest of you body. Think of it as the giant artery that feeds everything. When this breaks, it can be catastrophic. Risk factors for the rupture of this monster vessel include tobacco smoking, high blood pressure, high cholesterol, older age or diseases that can cause connective tissue issues. |