Burning in the chest radiating into the arms
If the burning not only affects the chest but also the arms, it must be urgently ruled out that the patient has a heart attack. Most patients complain of pain in the middle to left chest. However, quite a few patients also describe a tearing to stabbing pain that radiates into the arms.
If there is also fear, nausea and cold sweat, everyone must listen carefully and call an emergency doctor as soon as possible. This burning sensation can also be caused by tension or blockages in the cervical or thoracic spine. Blockages can be caused by incorrect posture, incorrect lifting or insufficiently trained muscles. This results in a minimal malposition of the joint, which causes a reflexive tension and cramping of the surrounding musculature. Depending on the position, this can lead to pain and burning only in the spinal column, or to extensive discomfort that can extend into the chest or arms.
Burning in the chest with back pain
Back pain can occur especially with a severe cough. The pain and burning then extends from the chest to the back and causes pain there. Particularly with a chesty cough and a persistent cough that lasts for hours, the entire lung is irritated and the chest and back muscles are strained.
Coughing is an enormous strain on our body, sometimes pressures arise which can cause the lung skin to tear. This allows air to pass between the lungs and the chest – a pulmonary emergency. Typical symptoms of this clinical picture known as “pneumothroax” are sudden pain throughout the upper body, shortness of breath and “sagging” of the affected side of the chest during breathing.
However, back pain can also simply result from nerve entrapment or overexertion of the muscles during a coughing attack. Below each of our ribs runs one of the 11 paired intercostal nerves that supply the muscles and skin of the chest. A severe cough may cause these nerves to become trapped between the rib and the muscles.
This is known as “intercostal neuralgia“. In addition to fractures and diseases of the spinal cord, these also occur more frequently in lung diseases. The therapy is carried out by means of painkillers and by sparing the thorax. In addition, the cough must of course be combated, for example with cough tea or cough blockers.
Burning in the chest with a feeling of pressure
If a burning sensation in the chest combined with a feeling of pressure in the chest occurs, quick action must be taken. In the worst case, it is a heart attack. In this case, a vessel of the heart is blocked and the heart muscle is partially no longer supplied with blood.
The area that is no longer supplied dies and serious complications can occur. If the feeling of pressure occurs under stress or lasts only for a few minutes, an angina pectoris attack is more likely to occur, in which vessels are not completely closed and the heart muscle is still sparsely supplied with blood. In any case, if there is a burning sensation in the chest with a feeling of pressure, the emergency services must be called as quickly as possible, as the motto “time is muscle” applies. Therefore, no time must be lost to save as much heart muscle mass as possible.
