Blog Post

Experiencing chest pain can make you understandably nervous, because it’s a common symptom of cardiovascular disease, indicating problems with your heart. But that’s not the only reason for chest pain, and not all of the causes are emergencies.

So let’s go over why you get chest pain and when it means it’s time to head to the emergency room.

If you have chest pains or other possible signs of an emergency and need immediate treatment, our team at Houston Medical ER in the Houston and Spring, Texas, area can help.

Reasons for chest pain

While you should always take chest pain seriously, it’s essential to know that many factors that cause it can be unrelated to your cardiovascular system. Reasons that trigger chest pain include:

Cardiovascular

Conditions affecting your heart include angina, heart attack, myocarditis (inflammation of the heart muscle caused by an infection), pericarditis (another heart inflammation), aortic aneurysm, dissection or rupture, cardiomyopathy, and valve disease.

Respiratory

These illnesses stem from lung problems, like pulmonary embolism, collapsed lung, pneumonia, asthma, chronic obstructive lung disease (COPD), pleurisy (inflammation of the inner wall of your lungs), lung cancer, and pulmonary hypertension.

Digestive

Most digestive reasons for chest pain are tied to issues related to your esophagus, such as gastroesophageal reflux disease (GERD), esophagitis, esophageal rupture, primary esophageal motility disorders (PEMDs), dysphagia, gallstones, pancreatitis, and hiatal hernias.

Mental health

Mental health is vital to living, and the signs of these problems bear similarities to other unrelated conditions, like panic and anxiety attacks.

Muscular

Chest muscle strains can lead to pains similar to cardiovascular system illnesses, fibromyalgia, injured ribs, and costochondritis.

Factors that require emergency care 

You need medical care for any type of chest pain, but if the problems associated with it last over five minutes and rest or medication does nothing to help, get to an ER or call 911. 

You also need emergency care if your chest pain is accompanied by:

• Sweating
• Nausea or vomiting
• Shortness of breath
• Fainting or lightheadedness
• Irregular heartbeat
• Back, jaw, upper abdominal, or neck pain

Many reasons for chest pain aren’t even related to your heart. Still, you should never take chances when dealing with chest pain, especially if you have other warning signs of a significant medical problem. 

Whether your chest pain is mild or severe, contact our team at Houston Medical ER as soon as possible to get it taken care of. We’re located in Houston and Spring, Texas.