It hurts under the left breast: the causes and consequences

Our body can be compared with the clock mechanism. Breakage 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 run wild.

Pain under the left breast

If you have pain under your left breast, then first of all you do not need to panic and wind up all sorts of diagnoses. This may indicate both serious diseases, and not to mean anything with a single attack. But if it hurts under the left breast permanently or with a certain periodicity, you should immediately call your doctor and go through all the procedures necessary for examination.

Possible causes of pain

The reasons why it hurts under the left breast, can be set. The most common are diseases of the heart, lungs, stomach and spleen. Severe pain under the breast can 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 on the prevalence are diseases associated with the lungs and respiratory tract. Possible pneumonia, bronchitis in severe form and pleurisy of the left side.

The third cause of pain in the lower chest may be problems with the spleen or pancreas. Diseases associated with these organs: trauma to the spleen, the formation and enlargement of the cyst, a heart attack against a background of blockage of blood vessels.

Older people often complain that the left side hurts under the chest. Culprits can be malnutrition, muscle tissue, which over the years become weaker, obesity.

The fourth reason why the area on the left side of the chest can hurt is the diseases of the autonomic nervous system and the appearance of intercostal neuralgia. This malaise occurs both in the elderly and in middle-aged people. They never suffer children. VNS participates in the functioning of all internal organs, except for skeletal muscles.

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 trauma can be the beginning for a number of changes.

Types of pain and possible diagnoses

Without a full examination and delivery of tests, no doctor could determine why a person hurts under the left breast. Because the pain sensations in themselves are not a definite sign of any disease. Pain can manifest itself in different ways, and even give in hand, collarbone and shoulder blade. If you have pain under the left scapula, the chest from below, you first need to determine the nature of the pain. It is necessary to distinguish the types of pain: nicking, strong, sharp, stitching.

It's a dull pain

Aching pain in the left part of the chest can talk about 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.

If there is a stomach ulcer, painful sensations in the left part of the abdominal cavity may be accompanied by nausea or even vomiting. The duration of seizures with these diseases is not more than 15 minutes and has a non-permanent character. It hurts the left side under the breast mainly at night.

Strong pain

Severe burning pain under the left breast during movement or coughing can be a sign of pneumonia, pleurisy, stenocardia and acute pericarditis, which is associated with inflammation of nerve endings. If the rib hurts under the left breast and external pain is observed, then the cause may be irritation of the intercostal nerves as a result of muscular spasm. Most often, this determines the diagnosis of osteochondrosis or intercostal neuralgia.

Pay special attention to whether the pain is in the left arm or under the shoulder blade. If there are such passing unpleasant sensations, then it may portend a myocardial infarction. Severe pain, which appears even with mild dyspnoea, speaks of thromboembolism in the lung.

Sharp pain

In case of severe severe pain, which is repeated at regular intervals, urgent medical attention should be sought. These symptoms can talk about serious diseases that can end in a fatal outcome:

1. Ischemia of the heart.
2. Spasm of coronary arteries, which are the main source of blood supply to the heart.
3. The appearance of thrombi in the lungs.
4. Infarction pneumonia that occurs after a circulatory disturbance in the lung tissue.
5. 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 side of the chest and immediately diagnose cardiac problems. But few know that the heart is, rather, in the center of the chest cavity than in the left side. This type of pain indicates a violation in the work of the spine and the central nervous system.

Stitching on the left side of the chest is most likely caused by muscle spasms and is not associated with heart disease. But the stitching pain is easily confused with a cutting pain that occurs with injuries of the abdominal cavity and petrification of the walls of the stomach.

Stitching pains are permanent, they appear with sudden movements or a strong cough.

Pain under the scapula

When you have pain under the left breast, give under the shoulder blade and the pain becomes like a sharp, urgently call an ambulance. This is the main precursor of myocardial infarction.

The physiology of the scapula suggests that many pathologies respond immediately to this area. The fact is that due to the structure and location of the bone, there is the aorta, the largest arterial vessel that connects the heart, stomach and spleen. And therefore, even a slight deviation from the norm and pain in these organs is often given to the scapula. The most common cause of pain in the scapula, not related to cardiac problems, is osteochondrosis. This is due to the erasure of cartilaginous discs.

Chest pain in women

The pain that occurs directly in the mammary gland 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 rearranged to feed the future child).

Pain in the breast of a nursing mother may be a sign of developing mastitis. And it is urgent to take appropriate measures for prevention and treatment. But the breast of a woman can also hurt with cancers in the mammary gland, which threatens to amputation at later stages of the disease.

Conclusion

Sometimes, a sudden pain is taken by surprise. And often when pain occurs, people do not know which specialist to apply to. This information will help you determine the primary source of pain. But we strongly recommend that you consult a doctor when there are cuts in the chest area. Independently to put the diagnosis in no event it is impossible.