An acid reflux pain is a sensation felt on the chest area due to the backflow of the acidic juice from the stomach up to the esophagus.
A heart attack is a crushing pain on the chest caused by a decreased flow of blood to the heart.
Both painful sensations are felt at the chest.
Heart attack is an emergency while acid reflux pain is not a serious condition.
Both have different methods of relief.
Each of the two is sometimes confused to be the other one.
The similarities between the two painful sensations are very obvious.
When the pain strikes, how do you know what it is, a heart attack or just an acid reflux pain? The brain is the one which interprets the signals of pain stimuli telling a person which part of the body is hurt or injured.
Acid reflux pain is not the only condition that presents symptomatic pain that mimics that of a heart attack's; pancreatitis, cholelithiasis attack, and ulcer are other conditions that also make the body feel pain on the chest area.
The problem is that because the affected organs are internal such as the stomach, esophagus, lungs and heart, the brain would only send signals of pain on the chest.
Some physicians have even admitted that this ambiguity in the symptom of pain is a problem in the diagnosis.
There are cases when patients are given nitroglycerin for a heart attack while all they are experiencing is only an acid reflux pain.
The other way around has also happened; patients experiencing the pain were given antacid for reflux pain relief only to find out that the medication is futile because the patients are experiencing a heart attack.
On the other hand, diagnosis of the condition would be difficult when the placebo effect comes to baffle everything.
This happens when a patient feels relief from chest pain after taking an antacid when in fact the patient was actually experiencing a heart attack.
Although the symptom of pain on the two different diseases may be indeed confusing, there are ways in differentiating the two.
The key in knowing is by identifying the nature of pain, the timing and the risk factors.
A heart attack is a sensation where a person feels tightening, pressure and burning on the chest that can radiate to the neck and jaw as well as to the back and to the arms and is exacerbated by stress and exercise.
The pain is also accompanied by dizziness and sweating.
Additionally, if a person with the chest pain is a diabetic, obese or with a family history of heart disease, he or she is more likely to be experiencing a heart attack.
A heart attack can also last from minutes to a few hours.
An acid reflux pain, on the other hand, is a painful, burning sensation felt from the area of the abdomen to the neck.
The pain usually occurs after a meal and/or while lying on a surface or bending and is not usually accompanied by sweating and dizziness.
The pain felt from heartburn can last for many hours and can be really sharp especially if a person is suffering from an underlying gastrointestinal disorder such as GERD, which causes the reflux.
A heart attack is a crushing pain on the chest caused by a decreased flow of blood to the heart.
Both painful sensations are felt at the chest.
Heart attack is an emergency while acid reflux pain is not a serious condition.
Both have different methods of relief.
Each of the two is sometimes confused to be the other one.
The similarities between the two painful sensations are very obvious.
When the pain strikes, how do you know what it is, a heart attack or just an acid reflux pain? The brain is the one which interprets the signals of pain stimuli telling a person which part of the body is hurt or injured.
Acid reflux pain is not the only condition that presents symptomatic pain that mimics that of a heart attack's; pancreatitis, cholelithiasis attack, and ulcer are other conditions that also make the body feel pain on the chest area.
The problem is that because the affected organs are internal such as the stomach, esophagus, lungs and heart, the brain would only send signals of pain on the chest.
Some physicians have even admitted that this ambiguity in the symptom of pain is a problem in the diagnosis.
There are cases when patients are given nitroglycerin for a heart attack while all they are experiencing is only an acid reflux pain.
The other way around has also happened; patients experiencing the pain were given antacid for reflux pain relief only to find out that the medication is futile because the patients are experiencing a heart attack.
On the other hand, diagnosis of the condition would be difficult when the placebo effect comes to baffle everything.
This happens when a patient feels relief from chest pain after taking an antacid when in fact the patient was actually experiencing a heart attack.
Although the symptom of pain on the two different diseases may be indeed confusing, there are ways in differentiating the two.
The key in knowing is by identifying the nature of pain, the timing and the risk factors.
A heart attack is a sensation where a person feels tightening, pressure and burning on the chest that can radiate to the neck and jaw as well as to the back and to the arms and is exacerbated by stress and exercise.
The pain is also accompanied by dizziness and sweating.
Additionally, if a person with the chest pain is a diabetic, obese or with a family history of heart disease, he or she is more likely to be experiencing a heart attack.
A heart attack can also last from minutes to a few hours.
An acid reflux pain, on the other hand, is a painful, burning sensation felt from the area of the abdomen to the neck.
The pain usually occurs after a meal and/or while lying on a surface or bending and is not usually accompanied by sweating and dizziness.
The pain felt from heartburn can last for many hours and can be really sharp especially if a person is suffering from an underlying gastrointestinal disorder such as GERD, which causes the reflux.
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