Causes of Chest Pain
| December 11, 2012 | Posted by admin under Angina, Chest Pain, Heart Disease |
What brings about anxiety related stabbing chest pain on the right or the left side of your chest? Or burning indigestion chest pain?
There are several different cardiac causes of chest pain; some are more dangerous than others. When most people feel chest pain, they immediately think of a heart attack but there are many different common causes of chest pain besides a coronary. However, a heart condition is one of the causes that you shouldn’t ignore.
The first, of course, is a full-blown coronary, heart attack. This comes from a blood clot that blocks the flow of blood to the heart. Heart attacks often start because of coronary artery disease.
Plaque builds on the walls of the inside of the arteries, which transport blood to the heart. If the area with plaque builds too much, it blocks the artery and eventually may cause it to burst.
Just like any other area that bleeds, your body has a built-in mechanism to stop the bleeding called a clot.
Clotting prevents you from losing too much blood but it is dangerous inside your arteries. Some clots become large enough they block the entire artery. When this happens, there’s little or no blood flow to the heart. The lack of blood flow means a lack of oxygen to feed the heart muscle. If it lasts too long, the muscle tissues in the heart dies.
Angina comes from plaque build-up on the interior of the arteries carrying oxygen rich blood to the heart. The build up of plaque in this case slows the flow of the blood and may actually block the flow if there’s too much built up in the heart, again causing chest pains.
Two other cardiac chest pain causes include aortic dissection and coronary spasm. Coronary spasm isn’t as serious as aortic dissection. Aortic dissection is a life-threatening condition. It occurs when the inside layers of the aortic artery separate. It might be from a blow to the chest or simply high blood pressure. A coronary spasm comes from the arteries temporarily going into a spasm and resulting in a slowing or stopping of the blood flow.
While there are several other cardiac causes of chest pains, these are the most common
types of chest pain and require diagnosis. Viruses can also cause an inflammation of the cardiac sack around the heart and cause temporary discomfort and upper chest pain. Both pericarditis and myocarditis come from viral infections. Other causes may be from problems with the chest muscles themselves such as hypertrophic cardiomyopathy.
Chest pain doesn’t always come from the heart since there are respiratory causes of chest pain or chest pain when breathing. You may have heard of a pulmonary embolism but not known what it is. While it is a life threatening condition, it seldom occurs without specific factors occurring before it starts. These risk factors include such things as immobilization or a recent surgery.
Pleurisy, another lung condition, causes pain in the chest. This pain is sharp and occurs when you inhale and exhale. It comes from an inflammation of the lining of the lung. Many times, it’s a symptom from pneumonia but can be from autoimmune disorders too.
If you have a collapsed lung, you’ll feel excessive chest pain. In addition, asthma brings chest pain as does high blood pressure in the lung area called pulmonary hypertension.
If the way to a man’s heart is through his stomach, the way to a man’s chest pain may also be through his stomach. There are digestive or gas
causes of chest pain. Heartburn is one that most people have felt. It comes from stomach acid backing into the esophagus in the chest.
Other digestive cause of chest pain include esophageal spasm. It may cause pain upon swallowing because the muscles don’t work together properly. A hiatal hernia occurs when part of the stomach moves above the diaphragm. It also may cause chest pain.
Stress and a hiatal hernia occurs when part of the stomach moves above the diaphragm. It also may cause chest pain.
Gallbladder problems or diseases and conditions of the pancreas cause chest pain that radiates from the organs to the chest. Alchalasia, the disorder that causes the valve that connects the stomach and the esophagus to open improperly, is another reason for digestive causes of chest pain.
Musculoskeletal issues is one of the causes of chest pain. If you’re back is out of place, or a rib out of place, it may result in not just chest pain but also acid reflux, rapid heartbeat and shortness of breath. It may produce chronic sore muscles just as fibromyalgia does, both of which cause chest pain.
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