Brief Answer:

Detail below.

Detailed Answer:

Hello,

Tightness in chest can be a discomforting sensation experienced between the upper abdomen and the neck. Chest tightness can occur at any age and can be a sign of a serious health problem.

More often than not, chest tightness is a sign of a cardiovascular event or issue such as heart attack or cardiovascular disease.

It can also be brought on by excess caffeine, anxiety, or indigestion.

In order to narrow down on your cause for chest tightness, it’s important to be aware of your risk factors for various ailments.

For example, if you have high cholesterol and blood pressure, your tightness in the chest could be related to matters of the heart.

If you’ve just had more coffee than usual, than caffeine is the cause, and the uncomfortable sensation will resolve on its own. But if chest tightness is random or sudden, you should seek medical attention right away.

There are many different causes associated with tightness in the chest:

Angina: This is the pain emanating from the heart due to lack of healthy blood flow in the blood vessels lined with fat. As a result, blood gets stuck, causing the heart to overwork and triggering the pain and chest tightness.

Indigestion: When food is not well digested, it will travel upward into the oesophagus. Indigestion can be a result of a poor diet, stress, or smoking and drinking alcohol.

Infection of the gallbladder: Infection of the gallbladder can result in tightness of chest. The good news is, it can be easily treated.

The bad news is, many people overlook the symptoms of gallbladder infections, delaying the diagnosis and treatment.

Pleurisy: This is a type of lung infection which causes pain while breathing or coughing. Pleurisy is not a very common condition, but it is still a viable cause of tightness in the chest.

Myocardial infarction (heart attack): One of the first symptoms a person may experience when having a heart attack is tightness in the chest. It’s important that a heart attack is treated immediately or else it can have deadly outcomes.

Hope I have answered your query.

Take care

Regards,
Dr Rakhi Tayal, OBGYN

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