Chest pain

[Eric Day]

I've had a chest pain a couple of time (about two months apart) that's troubling me.
It feels like if my chest was being squeezed on the right side, not very painfully, and like is you are running out of air.
It last about a couple of minutes and it has always happened at night, say 11:00pm.

Any ideas? Need more info, please tell me.

[Jon Allen]

No idea.  But if you are at all concerned, I would go see a doctor.  It's not worth risking anything with chest pains.  We can help with running injuries, but for chest pains I strongly suggest seeing a professional.

[Eric Day]

Thanks Jonathan. This year I had a full medical check-up. Everything in order and where it should be.
I just thought that maybe somebody had had this before or maybe it's sort of gas build up or some weird thing like that.

[April G]

While I think you should seek medical attention for chest pain,  I can say that I have had something that I call "lung cramps".  I have attributed them to years of smoking.  It feels like both sides of my chest are compressed and crampy and my breathing gets very labored.  It happened a lot when I first quit smoking and started running, but now happens hardly at all.  I don't know if this is similar to your chest pain experience or not. 

[Eric Day]

yes April, although I only feel it on the right side.
I will keep a close watch on it. I promise to go to a doctor if this continues or get worse.

Thanks for the comment.

[Michelle Lowry]

Sometimes you can have chest pains when you are having a panic attack.  I have only experienced one personally, and it was in the middle of the night, and it involved chest pain and difficulty breathing.  I thought it might be a heart attack, but recognized after a few minutes that it was a panic attack.  This was 6 years ago so I don't remember the experience vividly enough to give much more of a description than that.

[Eric Day]

Michelle, panic attack? out of the blue? at midnight? sounds weird that it happens like this.
The first time it happened, I thought it could be a heart attack, but since it was on my right side it couldn't be & also considering I had just gone through a full medical checkup (I even did it a year before it was due).
The funny part was that I was falling asleep when it happened (both times)

[April G]

Eric, did these pains by any chance happen after eating a very fatty or greasy meal earlier?  I have seen a lot of people with gallbladder problems present with right sided chest pain.

[Eric Day]

April, good question. Don't really remember, but will keep an eye on that point.

[Michelle Lowry]

Hey, like I said, I only had one once and it was in the middle of the night, and I was at least 1/2 asleep.  I was going through a stressful time (it was the first or second night my second child was home and he had a medical issue that put is life at risk).  I thought of it because you said you had just had a physical and nothing came up.  It's just a possibility.

[Eric Day]

Just updating.

No chest pains so far (last 4 weeks). Maybe my body was getting rid of the cigarette left overs in me...

I feel great! =)

[Paul Thomas]

I realize this thread is several months old, but I just noticed it and thought I'd add my experience. There is a history of heart trouble in my family, so 4 or 5 years ago when I felt chest pain while on a run I quit running immediately and scheduled an appointment with my doctor. He scheduled a treadmill stress test and CT scan...which found nothing...but the pain and tightness in my chest continued to bother me. One night my back was bothering me so I asked my wife to gently push where it was bothering me. It "cracked" in a positive way and I felt much better. The next day I scheduled a visit with the chiropractor. When I told him of my symptoms he began to smile. He said it was a classic case of someone who thinks they are having a heart attack when their back (including rib cage) is just out of adjustment. (Ironically, my father was at a chiropractor once for back pain and they sent him to the emergency room because he was having a heart attack.) The chiropractor adjusted me that first day and I felt much better. I went a couple of more times (including to get orthotics because of my 1+ inch leg length difference and over pronation) and I've run thousands of miles (including 8 marathons) since then without feeling any chest pain.

Summary: one possible cause of chest pain/tightness is a back that is "out" (but heart attack pain feels very similar so don't take chances)

[Eric Day]

Interesting comment Paul.
Only odd symptom is that it is usually at night, and the discomfort only last a couple of seconds. The pains feel more on the left side of the rib cage, a little below the arm pit.

[Eric Day]

I talked to a local doctor, just coffee chat about the chest pain.

He thinks its not heart related, its probably stress or worries.

[ChromeDome Steve]

I once had a *very* nagging chest/lung issue that drove me crazy for months, and prevented me from playing golf.

It turned out that I had a mis-aligned rib!  (May also have been related to pulling an oblique muscle or small muscle in-between the ribs).

I didn't even know ribs could be mis-aligned like that without being broken or something. I would only feel it when doing certain motions or even lying a certain way in bed (or playing golf, of course).

Sometimes muscle tension can exacerbate this, for example being under stress, consuming a lot of caffeine or other stimulants (chocolate, sugar) that can contribute to muscle tension, dehydration, and the like.

Chiropractic adjustment can work, so can massage, or anti-inflammatories, or even a muscle-relaxer (pill) from the doc can cause it to go back into place, or lower the inflammation enough to fix things.

I tell you, I thought I had pneumonia or something pressing on my chest at times, it really felt strange.