Dull Chest Pain

A dull chest pain can be a matter of serious concern and quite frightening to the person who is going through it. Even doctors or medical professionals are sometimes not able to tell whether the chest pain that is being experienced is life threatening or not. The human body has a complex nervous system and due to this, the origin of the dull pain in chest may be in another body part. Before you acquire information on the causes of dull chest pain, learn about the common causes of chest pain.

Causes of Dull Chest Pain
There are numerous causes due to which a person may experience a dull chest pain. They are mentioned below:

Angina due to Coronary Artery Disease: A person can suffer from angina when there is imbalance in the amount of oxygen required by the heart and the amount of oxygen delivered through blood. In other words, this condition called ischemia is caused by oxygen starvation of the cardiac muscle. It can be of two types, stable angina and unstable angina. Stable angina is accompanied by shortness of breath, nausea, fatigue, dizziness, belching and restlessness along with a dull continuous chest pain. It starts in a predictable manner through anger, exercise or even a large meal. You may experience typical stable angina starting with a dull chest pain left side, especially dull chest pain under left breast as well as in the center to the neck, jaw and back. Usually stable angina is controlled easily with medication and rest. As for unstable angina, the symptoms are same as those of stable angina but in the former there is no recognizable pattern or trigger and symptoms may last longer than five minutes or occur even when one is resting.

Heart Attack: Acute myocardial infarction or simply heart attack is a type of heart disease in which the blood supply to a portion of the heart is not enough. This happens due to some sort of blockage in the heart's arteries. Since there is not enough blood flow, the muscle of the heart does not receive oxygen. As a result, blood clots and this forms a blockage in the blood flow to the coronary artery which may result in a heart attack. Some of the symptoms of a heart attack are discomfort, lightheadedness, dull chest pain when breathing in, stress, anxiety, nervousness, sweaty skin, irregular heart rate, etc. with an occasional dull chest pain right side. Read more on chest pain from stress and anxiety.

Heart Burn: Heart burn often takes place after you have taken a large meal and is accompanied by a dull chest pain after eating along with burping. If you are eating a large meal or using tobacco, alcohol or caffeine, you may suffer from symptoms that are worse. Heartburn is also known as acid indigestion which is characterized by an acid taste that occurs in the mouth. Women are more likely to suffer from indigestion. So a dull chest pain in women may occur due to heart burn which may result from indigestion.

Disorders of the Esophagus: Chest pain resulting from esophageal disorders may occur due to three causes: acid reflux disease, esophagitis and esophageal spasm. Gastroesophegal disease or acid reflux takes place when the stomach contents, i.e. the acidic digestive juices flow backwards to the esophagus. Esophagitis takes place when the esophagus inflames and esophageal spasm is the contractions in the smooth muscle of the esophagus. Symptoms of esophageal disorders include continuous chest pain, difficulty in swallowing, hoarseness, asthma, etc.

Lung Cancer: Another leading cause of dull chest pain is lung cancer. Lung cancer is different from other types of cancer and hence more menacing, in the sense that they often go unnoticed since even when there are tumors, the symptoms do not show up. People with lung cancer are often diagnosed accidentally, for example, through a chest x-ray which may be taken to diagnose another ailment. Along with a dull chest pain, patients with lung cancer will have symptoms, like, cough with sputum and blood or blood in itself, shortness of breath, etc.

Apart from the above, other other non-threatening causes of a dull chest pain are pneumonia, asthma, chest pain due to inhalation of cocaine, costochondritis, herpes zoster, etc. Timely medical assistance and a healthy lifestyle will help you overcome chest pain induced by the above mentioned diseases.