What causes chest pain?
Last updated September 6, 2026.
Chest pain comes from many sources, including the heart, lungs, esophagus and stomach, the chest wall muscles and ribs, and anxiety, and the pattern of the pain points toward the cause. Heart-related pain often feels like pressure, tightness, or squeezing that lasts more than a few minutes, may spread to the arm, jaw, neck, or back, and can come with sweating, nausea, or shortness of breath. Pain that burns behind the breastbone after meals or when lying down usually points to acid reflux. Pain that gets worse when you press one spot, twist, or breathe deeply usually comes from muscles, cartilage, or ribs. Sharp pain with fever, cough, or breathlessness suggests a lung cause such as pneumonia or a blood clot. Keeping a note of what you were doing when the pain started, how long it lasted, and what made it better helps a clinician sort the cause quickly.
What to do
- Treat sudden severe pain as an emergency: Call 911 for chest pressure lasting more than a few minutes, or pain with sweating, breathlessness, fainting, or pain spreading to the arm or jaw.
- Do not drive yourself: Ambulance crews can start treatment on the way and get you seen faster than arriving on your own.
- Describe the pattern: Note where the pain sits, what it feels like, how long it lasts, and what brings it on or eases it, since that guides the workup.
- Track reflux triggers: If burning pain follows large meals, alcohol, or lying down, try smaller meals and staying upright for three hours after eating, then tell your clinician if it continues.
- Know your risk factors: High blood pressure, high cholesterol, diabetes, smoking, and a family history of early heart disease make a cardiac cause more likely and are worth reviewing with a clinician.
- Book a visit for repeat pain: Chest pain that keeps coming back with exertion, or any chest pain lasting more than a few days, needs an in-person exam even if it settles on its own.
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