Chest pain in the morning? Costochondritis?

[John23a]

Well its been about a year or so that I have been having this heart pain some days when I wake up. I think pain is not the exact word to describe the way it feels. Its more like a dull, gnawing pain. Its like feeling hungry but instead its right on your heart, if that makes sense. It’s a very different kind of pain but still hurts a lot. This doesn’t happen all the time. It happens mostly in the morning after I wake up and it usually goes away 20-30 mins after I get out of the bed. I have had some days (very rare like 5-6 days in the past year) where I felt the pain for a whole day and it had this sharp feeling to it and it would just come for few seconds and go and then come back after few minutes and it would have this kind of cycle. I have had a full blood test, 3 heart tests and they all came back normal. Some people say I might have Costochondritis but I don’t really know if that’s the case. Because I don’t do any exercises or anything that can trigger my rib cage and cause the pain. Any ideas what this might be? I told my doctor about it and he doesn’t seem concerned after I did all the heart tests.

[doctornee medical]

Hi
Thanks for writing to the forum!
You will be surprised to know that stomach ulcers and severe acidity can result in hunger pangs. Even GERD (where the food in your stomach is thrown up into your food pipe or esophagus) presents with similar symptoms. At times this wakes up a person in the wee hours of night or early morning with a hunger like pain in the chest area. Another possibility is hiatal hernia, where a portion of stomach herniates into the chest cavity through the diaphragm.
Omeprazole is a good drug to combat this. Along with it you can try over the counter antacids. However I would recommend you see a doctor and take medication under a doctor’s supervision. Avoid heavy meals. Avoid too much of caffeine, tea, fried food and drinks both alcoholic and non alcoholic fuzzy ones. Avoid heavy exercises within 4 hours of a heavy meal. Raise the head end of the bed by pillows to 30 degrees. Go to bed at least 2 hours after food.
Please discuss this with your doctor.
Hope this helps. Please let me know if there is any thing else and do keep me posted. Take care!