Our body can be compared to a watch mechanism. Failure of one small part can lead to disruption of the entire structure. In the same way with the human body. To prevent serious malfunctions, you need to notice and diagnose the disease in time. And even more so, never let your health drift.
Pain under the left breast
If you have pain under your left breast, then first of all you do not need to panic and cheat yourself with all kinds of diagnoses. This can indicate both serious diseases and may not mean anything with a single attack. But if it hurts under the left breast constantly or with a certain frequency, you should immediately consult a doctor and undergo all the procedures necessary for the examination.
Possible causes of pain
There can be many reasons why it hurts under the left breast. The most common are diseases of the heart, lungs, stomach and spleen. Severe pain under the chest may indicate oncology, which requires very serious treatment.
The first thing that comes to mind why it hurts under the left breast is heart disease. Such ailments include myocardial infarction, angina pectoris, pericarditis, aortic aneurysm.
Further prevalence are diseases associated with the lungs and respiratory tract. Possible pneumonia, severe bronchitis and pleurisy of the left side.
The third cause of pain in the lower chest can be problems with the spleen or pancreas. Diseases associated with these organs: trauma to the spleen, the formation and enlargement of a cyst, myocardial infarction due to blockage of blood vessels.
Elderly people most often complain that the left side under the chest hurts. The culprits can be poor nutrition, muscle tissue, which over the years becomes weaker, obesity.
The fourth reason why the area on the left side of the chest may hurt is the disease of the autonomic nervous system and the occurrence of intercostal neuralgia. This ailment is found in both the elderly and middle-aged people. Children never suffer from it. The ANS is involved in the functioning of all internal organs except skeletal muscle.
The fifth reason concerns only women. Pain in the mammary gland itself can be a bell for a large number of pathologies, gynecological and oncological problems. In addition, banal injury can serve as the beginning for a number of changes.
Types of pain and possible diagnoses
Without a full examination and testing, no doctor could determine why a person has pain under his left chest. Because pain in itself is not a definite sign of any disease. The pain can manifest itself in different ways, and even give to the hand, collarbone and scapula. If you have pain under the left shoulder blade, chest below, you first need to determine the nature of the pain. It is necessary to distinguish between types of pain: aching, strong, sharp, stitching.
It's a dull pain
Aching pain in the left part of the chest can indicate a slow-flowing inflammation inside the body and be the basis for suspicion of the following diagnoses: inflammation of the mucous membrane of the stomach, intestines, spleen, pancreas.
In the presence of a stomach ulcer, pain in the left side of the abdominal cavity may be accompanied by nausea or even vomiting. The duration of seizures in these diseases is no more than 15 minutes and is intermittent. The left side under the chest hurts mainly at night.
Strong pain
Severe burning pain under the left breast during movement or coughing can be a sign of pneumonia, pleurisy, angina pectoris and acute pericarditis, which is associated with inflammation of the nerve endings. If the rib under the left chest hurts and external pain is observed, then the cause may be irritation of the intercostal nerves as a result of muscle spasm. Most often, this determines the diagnosis of osteochondrosis or intercostal neuralgia.
Particular attention should be paid to whether pain in the left arm or under the scapula gives off. If there are such transient discomforts, then this may portend myocardial infarction. Severe pain, which appears even with mild shortness of breath, indicates thromboembolism in the lung.
Sharp pain
With severe severe pain, which recurs at regular intervals, you need to urgently seek medical help. These symptoms can indicate serious diseases that can be fatal:
- Ischemia of the heart.
- Spasm of the coronal arteries, which are the main source of blood supply to the heart.
- The appearance of blood clots in the lung.
- Heart attack pneumonia that occurs after circulatory disorders in the lung tissue.
- Perforation of the stomach or intestines (through damage to the walls of the organ).
Stitching pain
Elderly people often complain of stitching in the left part of the chest and immediately diagnose cardiac problems in themselves. But few know that the heart is located more in the center of the chest cavity than in the left side. This type of pain indicates disturbances in the functioning of the spine and central nervous system.
Stitching pain in the left side of the chest is most likely caused by muscle cramps and is not associated with heart disease. But stitching pain is easily confused with the cutting pain that occurs with injuries of the abdominal cavity and the petrification of the walls of the stomach.
Stitching pains are permanent, they appear with sudden movements or a strong cough.
Shoulder pain
When you have pain under your left breast, give under the shoulder blade and the pain becomes like sharp pain, urgently call an ambulance. This is the main harbinger of myocardial infarction.
The physiology of the scapula suggests that many pathologies immediately respond to this area. The fact is that due to the structure and location of the bone, there passes the aorta, the largest arterial vessel that connects the heart, stomach and spleen. And therefore, even a small deviation from the norm and pain in these organs is often given to the scapula. The most common cause of pain in the area of the shoulder blades that is not associated with cardiac problems is osteochondrosis. This is due to the erasure of cartilage discs.
Chest pain in women
Pain that occurs directly in the mammary gland itself in women can be associated with both hormonal changes and organ pathology. Pain in the chest associated with a change in the level of hormones in the female body is quite common. For example, pain may appear before menstruation or during pregnancy (the mammary glands are rebuilt to feed the unborn baby).
Breast pain in a nursing mother can be a sign of developing mastitis. And urgent measures must be taken to prevent and treat. But a woman’s breast can also hurt with cancers in the mammary gland, which threatens to amputate in the later stages of the disease.
Conclusion
It happens that a sudden pain is taken by surprise. And often when pain occurs, people do not know which specialist to contact. This information will help you determine the source of the pain. But we strongly recommend that you consult a doctor if there are cuts in the chest area. It is impossible to make a diagnosis on your own in any case.