Chest pain can be described as pain or pressure that seems to crush or squeeze your the chest. It is a symptom of numerous diseases. It can be due to mild reasons, such as heartburn, or it can be very serious that can lead to death, like heart attack. Because of the various possible causes of this symptom, even medical professionals sometimes have a hard time ruling out the real reason why the patient is experiencing chest pain. Heart, muscles, lungs, bone, skin, esophagus, and even stomach or other organs can cause chest pain. This symptom can in fact originate from any body parts. To have a deeper understanding on this, below are some identified causes of chest pain.
- Heart attack. This happens when the heart is not receiving enough blood or oxygen, in particular, due to blockage. Such condition leads to the damage or death of the heart muscle.
- Pulmonary embolism. When one of the primary blood vessels supplying the lungs has a blood clot, it is called pulmonary embolus which can actually cause death. One of the symptoms of this disease is chest pain but it is not really related with the heart.
- Angina. This happens when the oxygen going to the heart is not sufficient. Angina is different from a heart attack since the arteries in this case are not entirely blocked. There is just a narrowing or a blockage in the blood vessels causing less blood supply going to the heart. There are actually two kinds of angina. One is stable angina, wherein the condition always happens or as expected. The other is unstable angina, which happens irregularly and chest pain is not reduced through resting.
- Perforated viscus. This condition happens if the wall of your gastrointestinal tract has a tear or a hole. Due to this damage, air can slip through the abdominal cavity leading to diaphragm irritation. Such can bring about chest pain as well.
- Cocaine. This drug can actually cause narrowing in the blood vessels, therefore reducing the flow of blood to the heart. As explained earlier, such condition can instigate chest pain. Also, cocaine helps in the development of atherosclerosis which can be possibly lead to heart attack.
- Acute pericarditis. This happens when the sac covering the heart gets inflamed. If you have acute pericarditis, you can also experience chest pain as part of its symptom. But unlike other diseases, this is not life-threatening, especially if treated immediately.
- Pneumonia. It is an infection on the lung tissue. Chest pain is one of the signs of this illness because of the swollen lining of the lungs.