Chest Pains?

Question

Im 21 and am having chest pains on my left side. Ive had these before and went to hospital. They did loads of tests and said its because im stressed. Does anyone else suffer from this? even though im not particularly stressed it happens and its painful. Does anyone have any suggestions or does anyone else have similar problems?

Answer 1

always check out chest pains they can always be wrong with a diagnosis

Answer 2

Heart chest pain is in the centre of the chest, a crushing feeling which also goes across the collar bone and down into the left arm. You would find it difficult to breathe and your lips would be blue from lack of oxygen. I presume that the doctors in the hospital did ecg scans, chest xrays and blood tests. Angina can mimic a heart attack but is easily relieved by a nitroglycerin spray or nitrous oxide - the gas they give women in labour.

I had it, but before I also had chest pains that turned out to be nothing sinister, just stress. After the angina they put me on an excersise machine but did not manage to create angina again that time, though I have had it again since, because mine was an unstable angina they gave me a spray and so far it has worked.
A blood test the next day confirmed that it was just angina (frightening all the same) and not a heart attack.

When you are tensed up with stress your breathing is likely to be shallow and all your muscles are tensed up and that is all the pain is - and as I said, the pain would be in the middle too. So, this could really be what happened. I hope this reassures you. I am sure that the doctors would not dismiss this if it were a heart problem. I hope you are recovering.

Good luck.

Answer 3

Hi Charlotte A, I've had the pains your talking of I'm only 28 & went threw 3 years worth of check ups before they decided to do something for me because I also collapsed 3 times with the pains being so bad, & I would'nt say it's because your stressed because I've never been stressed & I wouldn't say I'm unhealthy either so they can't use that as an excuse but the end result was I got an operation where they inserted a device into my chest called a Reveal monitor which is simular to a pacemaker but it's job is only to monitor the rhythm of your heart & monitor that it's working well I'm going back & forth to the hospital every 4months to be checked out, I'm not sure but maybe you should mention something like this to your doctor see what they say

Answer 4

I had the same symptons chest pain ect but im 59 and the tests i had which included an ecg stress test on a treadmill showed up a slight problem which after an angiogram was found to be a blockage I had been putting pain down to indegestion /muscle strain ect .DO NOT ignore chest pain if you are not happy ask for a 2nd opinion and more tests,

Answer 5

See a chiropractor and massage therapist.

Much pain is from muscles below is an example of what may help (based on headaches).
Begin with a couple swigs of molasses or a couple of bananas daily - magnesium (which regulates many things in the body) and potassium (a needed building block for muscles).
Drink at least 1/2 gallons of water per day. Running a body low on water is like running a car low on oil is the analogy the head of neurology at UCDavis told my husband about 10 years ago.

Now to the cause - muscles - your back, neck shoulders and head have tender spots. They are knots in the fibers of the muscles called trigger points. It makes the muscles tight which makes them press on nerves and other things causing the pain.

The cure - start with a professional massage, you will also want to go back over any place you can get to 6-12 times per session up to 6 times per day rubbing (or lightly scratching on your head) every where that is tender until the knots go away. The place where the skull connects to the spine press up under the edge of the skull (to get to those muscles).

For more information read The Trigger Point Therapy Workbook by Davies. It teaches what to do and where the pain comes from.

Answer 6

oh please . medics these days blame everything on stress. Stress itself cannot cause pain as it is a complex interaction of the hormones, neurotransmitters and organs of the endocrine and autonomic nervous sytems. The only way pain can be caused is if too much of a relevant hormone is being produced and causing some kind of spasm/tension in one of the organs or a vessel. Can you identify a particular trigger at all? If you can the best thing you can do is avoid the trigger. Though if exercise brings it on it could be a severe muscular contraction.

Answer 7

best thing to do is go to a cardiologist.. i had the same thing,went to the cardio,was told i have a hole in my right ventricle but take note it's not the prob..i had some inflamed muscles near the hear so my heart was perfectly ok..so yea best thign is to be sure..if it's anything serious,better to know now than later.. anyway,you've sent me an email but i couldn't reply to it so you might want to ym me personally at [e-mail] o yes stress can make things worse specially if you're born with a faulty heart like mine..otherwise stress DOES make the heart work more than usual which is why my dad died,overworked heart,grew too big for it cage eventually gave up working alltogether..

Answer 8

I do and Ive went to the doctor and they ran a bunch of tests and they didn't find anything. They told me i was stressed and i needed to stop breathing from my chest and breath through my stomach. I don't know if you know what i mean but try to understand because it really helps!!!

Answer 9

I get them too. First time I thought I was having a heart attack, went to hospital they did ecg and said I was fit and healthy. I still have them to this day but all the doc says is its a panic attack. just a fact of life and will have to live with it.

Answer 10

yep i have similar problems i go to hostpital nearly every week aslo have heart problems and somthing rong with my head ! so trust me think how i feel but at night i just sit in a hot bath and relax really helps me to think about things.