Is it my heart?

  All right.  Back in August I had really bad chest pains and wasn't sure if it was my heart or a pulled muscle.  I went to a doctor who didn't do any tests on me, just had me push against him with my arm.  In this way he determined my intercostal muscles had been pulled.  Oh yeah, he had checked my blood pressure and heart rate and said that they were fine.  Well, I was fine and now I'm in pain again.  I'm male, 24, don't smoke, and exercize regulary.  I don't know of anyone in my family's history that's had heart trouble.  The gym I go to has free weights so I figure I must've not had very good control of the weight in my left hand or something, and mananged to hurt myself without realizing it at the time.  The reason I'm wondering if it's my heart is because sometimes I'll run on the treadmill until I'm short of breath and I'll keep going for a bit like an idiot.  Is it possible to stress out your heart in this way?  Also the shortness of breath might sometimes continue on until the next day, but then I'm fine.  This is how the original problem began, I didn't realize I had hurt myself until after one particularly grueling run on the treadmill.  It doesn't hurt when I breathe, and the pain is off and on, spreading from the center of my chest to my left torso, right over my ribs.  I have a doctor appointment for next week, but I wanted to know if I should go to an emergency room before that.  I've been having the pain since last thursday, and in that time I've worked out my biceps and done some cardio exercizes, and I didn't have a heart attack or anything.  Man, sorry I rambled on so much.  Thanks,
  Joe

[CCF Cardio MD - MTR]

Dear Joe, thank you for your question.  Given your age and good physical condition, I very much doubt that you have any cardiac problems.  You may have mild asthma which could cause your shortness of breath, so that at least should be checked out.  I don't think you need to go to the ER when your symptoms recur.  If you do have intercostal muscle inflammation, then pain medications like Motrin or Aleve will help (take with food though to prevent an upset stomach).  Overall, your physician should be able to handle this problem for you.
I hope you find this information useful.  Information provided in the heart forum is for general purposes only.  Only your physician can provide specific diagnoses and therapies. Please feel free to write back with additional questions.  Good luck.
If you would like to make an appointment at the Cleveland Clinic Heart Center, please call 1-800-CCF-CARE or inquire online by using the Heart Center website at www.ccf.org/heartcenter.   The Heart Center website contains a directory of the cardiology staff that can be used to select the physician best suited to address your cardiac problem.