How To Tell If Your Chest Pain Is A Heart Problem

Concerned your chest pain might be heart-related? Look for these signs to know what you're dealing with — and whether you need reach out to your doctor ASAP.

Experiencing chest pain is scary and shouldn’t be ignored. At best, it’s uncomfortable; at worst, it’s a concerning warning sign. Chest pain is also fairly common: Non-traumatic chest pain is the second-most frequent cause of emergency department visits among adults, accounting for as many as 8 million visits a year, according to a 2016 study in JAMA Internal Medicine.

With so many potential causes of chest pain (which we’ll get into in a bit), how do you know what you’re dealing with? Is it heart-related pain or something else?