Can Myofascial Pain feel like a Heart Attack?

How Can Pain Develop?

repetitive strain

There are countless reasons that pain develops:

  • Accidents, injuries or direct trauma

  • Repetitive strain as a result of muscular overuse during work, sport, driving etc

  • Poor technique during sport, training or lifting

  • Changes to posture because of weight gain or weight loss

  • Dental braces (especially invisalign) moving the jaw

  • Natural ageing

  • Auto-immune Illnesses or degenerative medical conditions

  • Incorrect posture

  • Conditions you are born with, which cause irregular spinal curves

  • Ignoring small strains in muscles, which develop into increasingly more complex pain patterns over time, involving more muscles, until a more noticeable injury occurs

  • Psychological stress from work, relationships and unavoidable life events, which make injury more likely & compromise the body’s natural ability to heal

If pain develops over time, many changes happen in the body as it tries to compensate and correct itself.  After a while, the original pain can be overtaken with symptoms which do not seem related at all. Tightness in the neck can lead on to cause blinding headaches or numb hands. It can also feel like angina and has been mistaken for the onset of a heart attack. Stress-related belly pain is often investigated for a dysfunctional gall bladder or appendicitis. Psychological distress can irritate inflamed nerve endings to send out pain with many different qualities.

What Can Myofascial Pain Feel Like?

myofascial pain

  • Sharp, stabbing pain

  • Dull ache

  • Deep, throbbing pain

  • Tingling

  • Burning

  • Pins and Needles

  • Hot or cold sensation

  • Numbness

What Other Symptoms Can Occur?

Shortened muscles and tight tissues can impinge nerves and distort nerve messages from the brain. These changes can cause a number of worrying symptoms, which can sometimes mimic serious health conditions:

  • Nausea

  • Fainting

  • Headaches/migraines

  • Palpitations

  • Vertigo

  • Sinus pain

  • Ear ache

  • Equilibrium disturbance

  • Blurred vision

  • Chest pain

  • Sciatica

  • Loss of grip

  • Weakness of limbs

Many people do not recognise these as part of their original pain at all. Learning about individual stressors and addressing the root causes of myofascial pain can quickly reverse symptoms.

Are you experiencing long-term pain and symptoms you do not understand? Would you like to discuss your case?