Chest Pain That Comes & Goes-what should I do?
Posted , 3 users are following.
Hello, I am a 23 year old male who experiences occasional chest pains. I am pretty fit and workout 4 times/week most weeks and eat as clean as possible. I turned to a vegan diet in July of 2017 for many reasons but one of them was because of fear from my on & off again chest pains. I have frequent chronic chest pains especially on the left side that always annoys and frightens me. Sometimes it suddenly comes on as a severe stabbing/stinging/sharp pain in my left upper chest that takes my breath away and really freaks me out and other times it is more of a dull ache. My left arm/shoulder sometimes feels tense or tight as well. When I workout, lift, play tennis, or do cardio it doesn’t bother me much but when I just straight run on a treadmill for 5-10 minutes my chest gets pretty tight and kind of a “heavy” feeling like I can’t get a full breathe. I just don’t get it because it is so off & on sometimes occurring a couple times per day, sometimes occurring for multiple days in a row, and sometimes only once every week or so but it always comes back. I do have anxiety and know some of it could be psychosomatic, but it for sure isn’t completely all psychosomatic because real pain does occur which freaks me out and then gets my anxiety going. I know most cardiac issues aren’t so off & on and I have been checked out by my doctor once before and he assured me that he believed everything seems okay but never did any tests or anything in depth. Should I explore this further, seek another opinion, or should I be confident in it being perfectly notmal & not being anything to worry about and just something I need to get used to it? If you have any ideas as to what it could be, ways to prevent/treat it, or suggestions moving forward please let me know! Thank you and have a great day!
0 likes, 7 replies
moon53540 Bearcud
Posted
Have you had any tests yet to rule anything out?
Bearcud moon53540
Posted
No other than a physical exam from my doctor! I have told him about it a couple times and he just always reassures me that everything seems fine & that he believes it is just inflammation of the cartilage/ligaments around my ribs & sternum (costochondritis)
moon53540 Bearcud
Posted
Get a pulse oximeter, then you can find out what your pulse and oxygen levels are doing when you are experiencing the pain and breathlessness. I would also recommend buying a blood pressure monitor. It may be heart related, but don't rule out lungs. I had the stabbing, stinging and sharp pains, palpitations, as well as not being able to take in a full breath and I had multiple pulmonary emboli. If you are worried ask your doctor for an ECG, echo and a D-dimer blood test. Young and healthy people can get heart and lung conditions too.
katie03012 Bearcud
Posted
I could have wrote this myself!
Ive been suffering a years now with sharp stabbing pains in the left side of my chest that come and go. Sometimes I get them several times a day, others once a day and sometimes can go a week without having one.
It scares the life out of me! I’ve had ECG’s and chest X-rays that have come back clear, the drs put it down to anxiety but I don’t experience the anxiety until the pains occur!
moon53540 katie03012
Posted
Hi Katie, do you get any breathlessness? Or trouble taking a deep breath in? Also, does the pain travel to your armpit?
katie03012 moon53540
Posted
no i dont get breathlessness but i do get pain in the armpit, not a stabbing pain its more like a muscle pain there
moon53540 katie03012
Posted
I was wondering if it could be pleurisy because that causes stabbing and armpit pains. Do your hormones affect your chest pain? For example, does it get worse before your period or when you are ovulating?