She’s also a former ACE-certified personal trainer.Amy and Rebecca from Houston Sent us these two heartburn acid reflux related questions over the past few days: Lorra Garrick has been covering medical, fitness and cybersecurity topics for many years, having written thousands of articles for print magazines and websites, including as a ghostwriter. Gerson devoted herself to solving her patients’ most difficult and longstanding health challenges. Gerson passed away in July 2017 after a valiant battle against metastatic melanoma. You may not even have GERD or acid reflux it could be a soft-tissue strain.Īt any rate, you should get to the bottom of the cause of your left side chest pain so that your anxiety doesn’t return and cause you to revert back to worrying it’s coming from your heart – even if a cardiologist said that everything is working just fine.
You’ll have blood drawn for a cholesterol test and possibly for other markers that may indicate a potential heart problem.You’ll get a blood pressure check, EKG and stethoscope exam.Hopefully by the time you see the doctor you will have kept notes on any apparent triggers of this symptom, such as lying down, eating certain foods or anxiety.Report any accompanying symptoms of these episodes such as shortness of breath or dizziness.
Report that you’re having left side chest pain.
Get the most serious possibility checked out first. The first doctor you should see is a cardiologist. Having left sided chest pain but have not seen a doctor about acid reflux?Īnd what if also, you have not seen a cardiologist, and you’re a nervous wreck, struggling to get through each day, hands on chest, terrified the pain might be coming from your heart? Unfortunately, the way this actually feels cannot be distinguished from the way a heart related pain can feel – whether it’s from an imminent heart attack, one in progress, or angina (transient shortage of blood flow through the coronary vessels due to plaque buildup). The contractions of the esophageal muscles in spasm could be such that most or even all of the pain is felt on the left side of the chest, or as a left-dominant type of pain. Though the esophagus is located squarely behind the sternum (chest bone), this doesn’t mean that when it goes into spasm from acid reflux, that the pain must necessarily be felt smack in the center of the chest. “This acid backup can sometimes cause non-cardiac chest pain, which likely occurs due to the spasm of the esophageal muscles that results from stomach acid refluxing into the swallowing pipe, causing the pain receptors in the area to be activated.”