Aching Chest Pain

[JaymzB2]

I am a 27 yr. old male.

I have been smoking about 20-25 cigarettes a day for the past 12 years.

For the past 2 months now, I have had a persistant aching pain in my chest. It is more acute when I "flex" my chest ie. push my shoulders down. On occasions, I do have more sharp pains in my chest area, but these do not last very long. The pain is located generally in the upper chest area and shoulders. At times the pain will radiate to my upper back.

I had similar pain like this before, first time about 1 year ago, and again about 6 months ago. The pain currently varies in intensity. Sometimes there is almost no pain at all. Sometimes it is fairly sever. Waking up every morning, I usually have this pain to some degree.

I had an EKG as well as a stress test done about 1 month ago, but the doctor said there is nothing wrong. 1 year ago I had a chest x-ray done, and the doctor said they didn't see anything wrong.

I have a cough, but it is quite infrequent, and is not very sever. When I do cough, I sometime cough up a clear mucus, which is thick and sticky.

I have been diagnosed with a high cholesterol level.

The other 2 times in the past I visited the doctor, they told me it is all probably due to stress or anxiety. I don't think I have a high stress level, but do suffer from bouts of high anxiety (not clinically diagnosed, I just no I get nervous at times).

To be quite honest, I'm kinda scared to know what the heck is going on. I am trying to quit smoking, but I haven't been able to yet. If anyone has any thoughts it would be appreciated.

[National Jewish]

Your description of the pain suggests a muscular cause.  In most cases this is related to physical activity.  Such pain can originate in muscle, tendons, ligaments or nerves.  The nerves may be stretched in the area of your armpit.  Also the nerves may be compressed, most commonly as they come out from between your vertebrae.  This is not the pain of anxiety or heart disease.  Stretching exercises and/or yoga are often helpful for this type of pain.

More important are your cholesterol that needs to be lowered and your smoking that needs to stop.  Some people are more vulnerable to the toxic effects of cigarette smoke.  They are likely to develop chronic bronchitis and emphysema.  Having a productive cough at your young age suggests that you may fall into this category.  The use of nicotine replacement therapy and Wellbutrin® (bupropion) can help make quitting easier.  The newest smoking cessation medicine, Chantix® (varenicline), was recently released.  A number of reliable reports suggest that it may even be more effective than the other two.  You should make up your mind to quit.  Then ask your doctor about these options.  Everyone in the United States has free access to telephonic counseling for quitting tobacco at Quitline (800) QUIT NOW.  You may want to look at our giving up smoking information at http://www.nationaljewish.org/disease-info/wellness/smoking/index.aspx for ways to help you quit smoking.  Also check with your doctor for other quit smoking resources in your area.

[thagerman]

hey  i got the same syndromes for the last 2 years ,nobody could tell me what it is up til now ,i'm still scared and don't know what to do,every now and then it hit's me so hard that i can't work for a while 2-3 weeks at the time ,then i go to the doctors just to hear ,,,it's not your heart'don't worry.....
this is not what i wanna hear it's affecting my life so negatively that i have sirious thoughts about suicide allready.
so if you got positive nu's please share them as will i.

[paul90162]

I'm in the same boat,31 years old been having lung ache for 10 years or so. Sometimes its so painfull i cant take it.Those types of attacks are rare  and brief but very concerning to me. I've been 5to the docters alot and am told I'm fine and im to young to have these symptoms,nice eh?............would'nt mind some answers     Cheers  ;)