What You Should Know About Chest Pain

Chest pain, sometimes referred to as angina, is any type of pain or discomfort felt in your chest when the heart doesn’t receive enough oxygenated blood. Chest pain usually feels like a squeezing tightness, ranging from a mild ache to a sharp pain that spreads to the arms, back, jaw or neck. In this article, we will look at the main causes of chest pain and the possible Bakersfield chest pain treatments.

Symptoms

Chest pain is a symptom of an underlying condition that appears in several forms. Although there are many triggers for chest pain, the most life-threatening cause involves the lungs or heart. Depending on the symptoms, chest pain can cause many different sensations, ranging from a mild ache to a sharp stab. Since chest pain symptoms can pose a serious health problem; it’s advisable to seek immediate medical assistance. Some of the common symptoms of chest pain include:

●    Weakness or dizziness

●    Vomiting or nausea

●    Difficulty in breathing

●    Cold sweats

●    Crushing pain that spreads to your jaw, arms, shoulders, back, or neck

●    Searing pain that persists for a few minutes and tends to worsen with any strenuous activity.

●    Pressure, burning, fullness, or tightness in your chest

Other Types of Chest Pain

It is usually quite difficult to distinguish between heart-related chest pain and the numerous types of chest pain. However, below are some symptoms less likely to be caused by heart-related chest pain:

●    Tenderness when you push on your chest

●    Trouble swallowing

●    Pain that worsens on breathing deeply or coughing

●    A sour taste of food re-entering your mouth

●    Pain that lasts for many hours

●    Pain that worsens when changing your body position

Causes of Chest Pain

There are many potential causes of chest pain. Some causes of heart-related chest pain include:

●    Aortic dissection. This is a life-threatening condition that usually involves the aorta (the main artery leading from the heart). If the inner layers of this blood vessel are separated, blood is forced between these layers and may eventually cause the aorta to rupture.

●    Heart attack. A heart attack usually results from blocked blood flow, often due to a blood clot in the heart muscle.

●    Angina.  Another term for chest pain and is caused by poor blood flow to the heart caused by the excessive buildup of thick plaques on the interior walls of the heart arteries.

●    Inflammation of the sac around the heart (pericarditis). This condition usually causes a sharp sensation that worsens when breathing in or lying down.

Digestive Causes

Chest pain can also be triggered by certain disorders of the digestive system. This includes swallowing disorders, heartburn, pancreas, or gallbladder complications.

Other Causes

Other causes of chest pain can include:

●    Panic attack. Panic attacks are normally caused by several periods of intense fear followed by a rapid heartbeat, rapid breathing, shortness of breath, dizziness, and profuse sweating.

●    Shingles. Shingles usually cause pain and the development of blisters from your back all the way to the chest wall.

According to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, chest pain is the main reason people aged over 15 are taken to the emergency room every year. For effective chest pain treatments, consult Dr. Vinod Kumar, MD, FACC, a board-certified cardiologist at the Heart Vascular and Leg Center in Bakersfield, California. Book an appointment today by calling the office.