What is Chest Pain?
Chest pain can manifest in many ways, such as a sharp, stabbing sensation or a dull or achy feeling. The pain's quality, severity, duration, and even location can be different from person to person [1]. Chest pain is also one of the most common reasons people visit the emergency room (ER) [1].
Causes of Chest Pain
There are many different causes for chest pain, some of which are life-threatening and need to be dealt with urgently, while other causes are less life-threatening.
The causes of chest pain related to the heart include heart attack, angina, pericarditis, myocarditis, cardiomyopathy and aortic dissection [1].
Gastrointestinal causes include:
- Acid reflux or heartburn
- Swallowing difficulties related to disorders of the oesophagus (the tube that links the mouth to the stomach)
- Gallstones
- Gall bladder or pancreas inflammation [1].
Other pulmonary causes of chest pain include pneumonia, viral bronchitis, pneumothorax or collapsed lung, pulmonary embolus or blood clot in the lung, and bronchospasm [1].
Another source of chest pain may be traumatic or degenerative muscle or bone disorders, such as bruised or broken ribs, sore muscles from exertion or chronic pain syndromes, and, insidiously, a compression fracture impinging on a nerve [1].
Other causes can include shingles, which can cause pain along your back or chest before the rash becomes apparent, and panic attacks [1].
Risk Factors of Chest Pain
Chest pain can lead to various illnesses, and the associated rate factors are diverse. Coronary artery disease (CAD) is the most critical risk factor for chest pains. 21% of patients who had chest pains were affected by CAD. The median time between the onset of chronic chest pain and CAD diagnosis was five years [2].
The other determinant is age. Chest pain is also a higher risk factor in older men [3], and CAD in older people above the age of 64 occurs more frequently [4].
Females have a greater future risk of CAD. It’s also a gender matter. Gender also tends to play a role. Chest pain complainers who are women have substantially more future risk of CAD [2].
The risk of CAD is further increased by so-called lifestyle factors such as inactivity and loss of high-density lipoprotein (HDL) levels identified in many patients with chest pain [2].
Other health diagnoses also confer risk. For example, prior diagnoses of coronary heart disease and gastroesophageal reflux disease have both been found to confer a risk of a diagnosis of chest pain [3].
Other risk factors include diabetes, atrial fibrillation and hypertension – these are predictive of cardiovascular disease in patients with non-attributed chest pain [5].
Can Food Consumption Influence Chest Pain?
Food intake can have a direct causal relationship with chest pain. Some foods and eating behaviours have been shown to cause chest pain, partly because they can irritate the digestive system or affect cardiac health.
Gas buildup may occur due to high-fibre foods, caffeinated drinks, carbonated drinks and foods your body doesn’t digest well, producing chest gas pain [7]. Overeating food or eating large meals can also lead to a burning sensation in the chest, called heartburn – a kind of indigestion [8]. The burning sensation occurs mainly due to eating spicy, fatty or more acidic foods [9].
Often, this symptom of chest pain may be associated with much more severe underlying pathologies. In fact, in a study of 1,013 patients with chest pain, food ingestion brought on the symptoms of acute coronary syndrome (ACS) in patients, where blood supply to the heart muscle is interrupted by a blockage [10]. Second, in another study, dietary fat is related to the risk of coronary heart disease, a major underlying cause of chest pain [11].
Swallowing foreign bodies, such as fish bones, can cause chest pain. The foreign body causes irritation or injury as it goes through the oesophagus and into the stomach [12, 13].
In other words, when chest pain occurs from eating, eating does not cause chest pain and discomfort. Instead, chest pain is caused by eating, and there are also other causes of chest pain (e.g., heart issues, lung conditions, and psychological conditions). Therefore, specific investigations should be done to establish the cause and provide appropriate chest pain treatment.
Can You Have Chest Pain After Drinking Water?
Generally, drinking too much water does not cause chest pain, although some unusual conditions could result in discomfort or chest pain after water consumption.
Another is gastroesophageal reflux disease (GERD), often called acid reflux. It's where stomach acid flows back or splashes up your throat, leading to a burning sensation or chest pain [14, 15]. Water drinking and vast gulps of water might trigger this condition in some people.
Another explanation of chest pain after drinking water is that it is associated with particular cardiovascular reactions triggered by drinking water. Specifically, drinking water triggers the autonomic nervous system and acute haemodynamic changes, sometimes leading to discomfort or even pain in the chest [16].
But they are, strictly speaking, potential causes, not certainties. If you drink water and get chest pains, the diagnosis should include that possibility as part of a differential, ruling out more severe diagnoses such as heart disease.