What are some ways to alleviate chest pain without taking medicine?

[Anonymous]

It's non-cardiac chest pain, and I've been dealing with it ever since June of this year.
I tried Tylenol, Ibuprofen, Naproxen, and Mobic and none of them are helping, yet my doctor keeps telling me to take them anyways (she said take Tylenol, since the other things are worsening my GERD).

Tired of feeling ignored.

[doireallyneedone]

You need to define exactly what chest pain you are getting. Is it heartburn/indigestion type pain? Musculoskeletal pain? It is worse with movement, with physical exertion? is it worse before/after meals? worse when lying down? any vomiting associated?

Basically what I'm trying to say is there are a lot of non-cardiac things that cause you to have chest pain. It can be from your gastrointestinal system (oesphagus, stomach, pancreas, gall bladder, biliary tree), lungs, pulmonary vessels, ribs, chest wall.

If it your GORD, then it can be easily controlled, you just need to see your family doctor to have your medications adjusted. If it is not GORD, then you'll need further investigations since as you can see, so many things can possibly cause non-cardiac related chest pains.

[doireallyneedone]

Oh. And how do you know it's non-cardiac related?

[Asker]

I have heartburn/GERD, but I also get the chest pain when I don't eat, so it's most likely musculoskeletal or costochondritis. I feel like both of these conditions are contributing to the chest pain.
It's not heart related because all of my ECGs were normal.

[Asker]

I take Pepcid for GERD, and it's working. I have to take one pill by mouth twice a day for two weeks.

[Asker]

My doctor won't really do anything about the chest pain. She keeps telling me to take NSAID's but since I told her they're making my GERD worse, she said take Tylenol.
I asked about cortisone injections but she said I don't need them yet.
I've been to a cardiologist twice. The first one listened to my heart and said my heart sounded normal, so I don't need any further testing. The second one looked at my ECG which was performed by the nurse, and said it's normal. So it's not heart related.

I'll be seeing another cardiologist in like three weeks (around October 13/14), but it might not be necessary, since all of my ECGs were normal.

[doireallyneedone]

That's probably fine then, if two cardiologists have come to the conclusion your chest pain is non-cardiac, it's probably non-cardiac. What sort of things make it worse? It's rare for musculoskeletal pain to be carrying on for that long unless you have really strained a muscle or something. There's also the possibility of a peptic ulcer

[Asker]

Nothing makes it worse TBH. When I'm at rest, it occurs. I forgot to mention that I have anxiety, but even when I'm not anxious, I still get the chest pain.
Actually, it's not rare fro musculoskeletal pain to carry on that long- some people have it for several months or years. And I possibly don't know how I strained a muscle.

Speaking of a peptic ulcer, I saw a gastroenterologists yesterday because I started having the symptoms about three weeks ago. It kept waking me up wee hours in the morning, and the pain is worse when I have an empty stomach.
So, she scheduled me to have an endoscopy done next month on the 20th.

[Asker]

If I do have a stomach ulcer, it's from taking too many NSAID's. I told my doctor, but she didn't listen -_-
Now she wants me to take Tylenol. I'm not taking any more pain medicines. None.

[doireallyneedone]

Oh yes I remember you asking on her for advice a while ago for peptic ulcers. Those symptoms you described does sound like a peptic ulcer. But the chest pain I'm assuming is another pain. Is chest pain always there? Or is it intermittent? Does it get worse with taking in a deep breath?

[Asker]

The chest pain is intermittent- it comes and goes. Sometimes it lasts for a few minutes, and sometimes a few hours.
When I take deep breaths, the pain doesn't get worse, but the breathing doesn't help either.

I get dizzy when I do deep breathing and I don't know why. I mean I do it slowly.

[doireallyneedone]

Ok so you don't have what's called pleuritic chest pain (with breathing), that reduces the likelihood that it's musculoskeletal related. If it's a muscle around the chest wall, and you can imagine if you breathing in deeply, it expands the chest wall and thus puts increased pressure on the muscles and joints in that area, so if it is musculoskeletal, its likely to be exacerbated by deep breathing.

There's something called Prinzmetal Angina, which is basically vasospasm of the coronary arteries, nothing too serious but can cause the type of pain you are describing. It typically causes chest pain at rest and and can often be difficult to detect too.

[Asker]

I've heard of Prinzmetal Angina, and when I found some information about it, it sounded like it was pretty serious. Doesn't that mean I'm going to have a heart problem later or something?

And how would they determine it? Because my doctor keeps saying the pain I'm having is not heart related.

[Asker]

Maybe it's costochondritis.

[doireallyneedone]

Nah Prinzmetal can be managed conservatively with medication and is usually not threatening. Vasospasm on the arteries can cause narrowing of the arteries but it very unlikely it will be narrowed long enough to the point where it will cause ischaemia or an infarction alone. Usually if an MI were to occur on the background of Prinzmetal's, usually there is already some degree of atherosclerosis involved. Judging by your age this is unlikely. Testing wise, it is hard. You can detect if on ECGs sometimes, but only when the ECG is taken as you're having "an attack". Otherwise it's really only detectable if it's done some damage to your heart. The other way to tell, is to start taking medications empirically.

Costochondritis is unlikely diagnosis in my opinion, because it doesn't match the pain pattern you are experiencing. With inflammation of the ribs joints you would expect pain on deep breathing, you can also press on your rib joints to see if they the same type of chest pain.

[Asker]

I guess I can talk to the cardiologist about this next month. I printed out a from about it from the Heart Foundation.
Honestly, I don't think it's angina because I never had heart problems in the past. But like I said, I'll ask the cardiologist.

Or maybe it's chronic musculoskeletal pain.

[doireallyneedone]

Could be. What is the nature of the pain? sharp, stabbing or a dull ache?

I'm a doctor but no cardiologist so they will definitely have more expertise than me. I brought Prinzmetal's because it's something that seems to fit your symptoms and is often difficult to diagnose/misdiagnosed. Also note that the mechanism of pain is very different for normal angina vs Prinzmetal Angina. Prinzmetal angina also is generally not related to the usual risk factors for heart disease.

[Asker]

The pain is sharp/stabbing.

I really hope and pray that it's nothing too serious. I have anxiety, but it really doesn't make sense to have chest pain when I'm not anxious about anything.

"Prinzmetal angina also is generally not related to the usual risk factors for heart disease. "

I didn't know that lol I was getting all worked up and anxious about it being heart disease or something.

[doireallyneedone]

OK if its sharp and stabbing... unlikely to be chronic musculoskeletal pain. Not saying its impossible, but unlikely.

What I meant was. Angina causes you pain because ischaemic damage to the cardiac muscles. Prinzmetal's causes you pain because of the arteries spasming, not necessarily any damage caused to the heart muscle. Obviously angina will be predisposed by things such as high chol, smoking, diabetes, obesity, family history etc etc. Prinzmetal's - not the case.

BUT if you did have those risk factors AND you had Prinzmetal's, then that can increase your likelihood of having an MI. Also Prinzmetal's usually has a later onset in life, but it doesn't mean it can't happen to a younger person.

Of course all this is only if you have Prinzmetal's, I'm just hypothesising here so don't get too worried about it - its pretty hard to make a diagnosis over the internet :p But definitely worth getting it checked again.

[Asker]

Ok well thanks so much for helping!! This is something that I will definitely bring up to the cardiologist.
It's hard to make a diagnosis when so many conditions can contribute to the chest pain (I have anxiety, GERD, and possibly a peptic ulcer).

I'll try to keep calm and not worry about it too much because that might make things worse :) x

[Asker]

My father had diabetes and heart failure (don't know what kind).
I don't smoke, but I cam overweight (in the process of losing weight now), and I haven't had my cholesterol levels checked-yet.

[doireallyneedone]

No problem. Even if you do have those risk factors, its unlikely to affect you now considering your age. All the best :)

[Asker]

Thank you!! :)

[GamerArtNerd]

You may be dehydrated. Drink plenty of water. Also eating fruit or drinking smoothies like Naked.

[Asker]

That's exactly what I'm doing :))

[GamerArtNerd]

When did you start? Also are you anemic?

[Asker]

Yes, I'm anemic unfortunately. I've been anemic ever since I was 14 in 2009. Now I'm 19.
And I've been on and off iron pills for the last five years.

[Asker]

Start what?

[GamerArtNerd]

When did you start what I recommended? And yea I'm anemic too, I guess it was a lucky guess on my part. The important thing about anemia is that though you are deficient on iron, it doesn't mean it's the most important thing. Your body needs B vitamins to absorb iron so try to invest in some B complex vitamins. Your body can overdoes on iron but it can't overdoes on B vitamins. That being said, you can take B complex vitamins and your body will just pee out whatever it doesn't need. This will ensure that your body absorbs every single ounce of iron that you take in.

[GamerArtNerd]

overdose* don't see how I typo'd that twice. My wording was a bit off too. I meant to say that your body has the ability to take in more B vitamins than it needs and you just pee out the extra. If you take too much iron then you can hurt yourself. B vitamins are needed to absorb the iron.

[Asker]

Well I ate some lunch and instead of buying orange juice or soda I brought a bottle of water :))

[Asker]

I hate taking iron supplements. Seriously...
It's like they really don't do anything for my anemia.

[GamerArtNerd]

I know that's why I said you need B vitamins. Everyone has this misconception that taking iron helps anemia. Iron is useless to the body without B vitamins to absorb it.

[Asker]

So do I need to combine the iron with the B vitamins, or take the B vitamins separately?

[GamerArtNerd]

You can just take them together. Personally I think I get a decent amount of iron in my regular diet because many foods have it. Simple red meat and leafy greens are loaded with iron but B vitamins are less common. That being said maybe you should try taking B complex vitamins and if you feel a difference then abandon the iron pills altogether. If you don't feel a difference then just take 1 of each every day with your breakfast in the morning.

[Asker]

I already abandoned the iron supplements. They suck lol :D
I'm going to ask my doctor to write me a prescription for B vitamins.

[GamerArtNerd]

That would be best :)

[Asker]

Yeah :))

[itsme_goodsamaritan]

1. Try having lots of water in between meals.
2. Yogurt or buttermilk.
3. Fruits, especially bananas.
4. Lemon juice with honey and rock salt on empty stomach.

It will take some time for things to improve, but these should help :)

[Anonymous]

You need to see a different doctor. Something could be really wrong

[Asker]

I saw a two different cardiologists, went to the ER more than three times, and saw three different doctors at my PCP office.

The EGC's performed at the ER and by the cardiologists were all normal.
The doctors at my PCP said it's not heart related, based on how I described the pain.

Honestly, there's no need to keep visiting cardiologists and doctors because I'm going to keep getting the same answers every time.

[Asker]

*I saw too*

[athorable]

Try some Pepcid.

[Asker]

I already take Pepcid.