Pain or discomfort in the chest area is important to take seriously as it may be a sign of lung disease or heart disease. Typically, however, most pain in the upper body is caused by less serious problems, such as indigestion, acid reflux, and muscle strains. If you understand the common symptoms of lung disease and muscle strain, it’s easy to differentiate between the pain caused by the two. If you have any questions about the cause of chest pain, especially if the pain is getting worse or if you have heart risk factors such as diabetes, high blood pressure, high cholesterol, or obesity, go to the hospital for a thorough physical examination as soon as possible.

Learn about the different symptoms

Consider the duration and type of pain. Episodes of muscle pain are often very different from lung pain. Moderate to severe muscle strains tend to cause immediate pain, while pain from mild strains may take a day or so to appear. Muscle pain is almost always related to overexertion or some type of trauma, so the cause of the pain is usually obvious. Additionally, lung pain often cannot be attributed to any one time or event and often lasts longer.

• Car accidents, slips and falls, sports (soccer, rugby, ice hockey) injuries, and overloading during exercise can all cause sudden pain.
• Lung cancer, lung infection, and lung inflammation may gradually worsen over days to months and be accompanied by many other symptoms. Pneumothorax is a life-threatening lung disease that can occur gradually or suddenly, triggered by trauma, strenuous exercise, asthma, pneumonia, or cancer.
• If you experience pain when you breathe in, are short of breath, have a cold, or have a history of cough or bronchitis, the pain may be coming from your lungs. Additionally, costochondritis (inflammation of the cartilage surrounding the ribs) can cause localized tenderness and pain with movement.

Watch for coughs. Many lung diseases can cause chest pain, including lung cancer, lung infections (bacterial and viral pneumonia, bronchitis), pulmonary embolism (blood clot), pleurisy (inflammation of the lung membranes), perforation of the lung, and pulmonary hypertension (pulmonary hypertension) ). Almost all of these diseases cause coughing and/or wheezing. In contrast, a strained muscle in the chest or trunk will not cause a cough, but if the injured muscle is connected to the ribs, there may be discomfort when taking deep breaths.

• Coughing up blood is common in lung cancer, late-stage pneumonia, and lung perforation caused by trauma. If you find blood in your sputum, seek medical attention immediately.
• Muscles associated with the ribs include the intercostals, obliques, abdominal muscles, and scalenes. These muscles move with breathing, so a strain can cause breathing pain but not a cough.

Try to find the source of the pain. It is very common for chest or upper body muscles to be strained during gym workouts or sports. The pain of a muscle strain is often described as soreness, stiffness, or constant pain. This pain is usually unilateral (on one side of the body), and the source of the pain is easily found by feeling the surrounding area. So you can feel your chest and see if you can find the area where you feel discomfort. When a muscle is injured, it often cramps and feels like a rope-like band. If you can pinpoint the area where you feel discomfort, your problem is a muscle strain, not a lung disease. Most lung problems cause pain (often called sharp pain) that is spreading and not just localized to the outside of the chest.

• Feel carefully around the ribs, these muscles are often strained by excessive rotation or side bending. If the severe pain you find is near your sternum, you may be dealing with a torn rib cartilage rather than a simple muscle strain. Muscle strains usually only cause pain when you move your body or take deep breaths, while lung problems, especially cancer and infections, can cause ongoing pain. The muscles located just above the lungs include the pectoralis muscles (large and small muscle groups). These muscles can be strained while doing push-ups, pull-ups, or using the “butterfly machine” at the gym.

Check carefully for any bruises. Take off your shirt and underwear and carefully examine your chest or torso for bruises or redness. A moderate to severe muscle strain may partially tear the muscle fibers, allowing blood to flow into the surrounding tissue. The result is a dark purple or red bruise that turns yellow over time. Trauma from exercise or a fall may also cause redness in certain areas of the body. In contrast, lung disease usually does not involve visible bruising, except for a punctured lung caused by a severe rib break.

• Minor muscle strains rarely leave bruising or redness, but often cause some localized swelling.
• In addition to bruising, injured muscles can sometimes throb or tremble for hours, or even days, while they heal. These “fasciculations” can provide further evidence that the pain is caused by a muscle strain rather than a lung problem.

Take your temperature. Many common causes of lung pain are caused by disease-causing microorganisms (bacteria, viruses, fungi, parasites) or environmental irritants (asbestos, sharp fibers, dust, allergens). Therefore, in addition to chest pain and cough, most lung diseases often have symptoms of increased body temperature (fever). In contrast, unless it is severe enough to cause hyperventilation, muscle strain has little effect on the body’s core temperature. Therefore, you can take your temperature by placing a digital thermometer under your tongue. The average oral temperature measured with a digital thermometer is usually around 36.8 degrees Celsius.

• A mild fever is usually helpful because it means your body is trying to protect itself from infection.
• However, a fever of 39.4 degrees Celsius is dangerous for adults and should be closely monitored.
• Chronic, long-term lung diseases such as cancer, obstructive pulmonary disease, and tuberculosis tend to increase body temperature only slightly.

See a Doctor

Booking. The best way to tell the difference between a muscle strain and lung pain is to see your doctor. Muscle strains will heal within a few days, and even more serious strains will heal within a few weeks, so if your chest or torso pain persists for more than a few weeks or gets worse, you should see your doctor. Your doctor will review your medical history, examine your body, and listen to the sounds your lungs make when you breathe. Noisy breathing sounds, such as crackling or wheezing, may indicate that debris or fluid is blocking the airway, or that the airway is too narrow due to swelling or inflammation.

• In addition to coughing up blood and chest pain when taking deep breaths, other symptoms of lung cancer include hoarseness, loss of appetite, rapid weight loss, and overall lethargy. The doctor will take a sample of sputum (mucus, saliva, blood) and try to culture it, which may indicate a bacterial infection in the lungs, such as bronchitis or pneumonia. Typically, doctors use X-rays or a physical exam to make a diagnosis.

Get a chest X-ray. After ruling out the possibility of muscle strain and initially suspecting a lung infection, the doctor will perform a chest X-ray. This test can detect broken ribs, fluid in the lungs (pulmonary edema), lung tumors, and any damage to the lung tissue from smoking, environmental irritants, emphysema, cystic fibrosis, or previous episodes of tuberculosis.

• Late-stage lung cancer is almost always detected through chest X-rays, but this examination sometimes fails to detect early-stage lung cancer.
• Chest X-rays can help detect signs of congestive heart disease.
• A chest X-ray cannot detect muscle strains or strains in the chest or upper body. If a muscle or tendon rupture is suspected, your doctor may recommend a diagnostic ultrasound, MRI, or CT scan.
• A CT scan takes a cross-sectional image of your chest and can help your doctor diagnose your condition if a physical exam and chest X-ray are inconclusive.

Get a blood test. The doctor may decide that a blood draw is necessary. Acute lung infections such as bronchitis and pneumonia cause a surge in white blood cell levels, as the immune system uses white blood cells to destroy pathogens such as bacteria and viruses. Blood tests can also show the oxygen content in the blood, which indirectly reflects lung function.

• However, even if a muscle strain or strain is severe, blood tests cannot confirm or rule it out.
• Blood tests cannot show your oxygenation levels.
• A test called sedimentation rate can determine whether your body is under stress and whether you have a chronic inflammatory disease.
• Blood tests do not help diagnose lung cancer, whereas X-rays and biopsies (samples) are more valuable.

Tips

• Pain associated with coughing up blood, phlegm, or discolored mucus, congestive coughs, and persistent coughs may be caused by lung disease.
• Mild discomfort in the lungs may be caused by inhaling irritants such as smoke, or by conditions such as pleurisy that irritate surrounding tissue.
• Breathing-related conditions or behaviors that can cause pain include asthma, smoking, and hyperventilation.
• Lung pain is a common symptom of pneumonia and can persist for weeks after recovery from the infection.
• The most common causes of hyperventilation are anxiety, panic, and reactions to emergency situations.