I am experiencing extreme tiredness and heaviness in my chest. What could be the reason?

Hello,

Welcome to icliniq.com.

I read your query and can understand your concern. However, the symptoms you are experiencing could be due to multiple reasons.

I suspect you to be caffeine sensitive as you say caffeinated beverages and poor sleep aggravate your symptoms. People who are caffeine sensitive may suffer from palpitations, raised blood pressure, or chest pain due to poor blood flow to the heart. Also, caffeine may relax the lower esophageal sphincter (a bunch of muscles present at the lower end of the esophagus where it meets with the stomach) and aggravate acid reflux or gastroesophageal reflux disease (a digestive disease in which the stomach acids irritate the stomach lining) by allowing acid to reflux into the chest and cause chest pain. Chest pain may also derive from other causes like peptic ulcer disease, cardiac problems, respiratory diseases, muscle-related issues, bone problems, psychological disorders like stress, anxiety or depression, etc. Some investigations like ECG (electrocardiogram) or echocardiogram, chest x-ray, CBC (complete blood count), endoscopy of upper GIT (gastrointestinal tract) should be done to detect the exact underlying cause and then treat them accordingly.

I hope this helps.

Hi,

Welcome back to icliniq.com.

I have gone through the symptoms you have mentioned. As I mentioned earlier, there are multiple causes for the symptoms you are experiencing. The other reasons for chest pain and fatigue could be chronic fatigue syndrome, pulmonary embolism (blockage in the pulmonary artery in the lungs), hormonal changes during menstrual periods, thyroid hormone dysfunction, fluctuation in blood sugar levels, etc. On the other hand, chronic fatigue syndrome is characterized by extreme fatigue, which persists for at least six months; it also aggravates physical or mental activity, and taking rest does not improve this situation. In addition, low hemoglobin levels due to blood loss or electrolytes imbalance cause chest tightness and fatigue.

Without undergoing some investigations, it is challenging to predict the exact cause of your present symptoms. Therefore, some investigations like thyroid function tests, CBC (complete blood test), RBS (random blood sugar), pelvic ultrasound to check for an ovarian cyst, CT pulmonary angiogram (computed tomography pulmonary angiogram) to rule out pulmonary embolism, serum electrolytes, etc. also should be done along with the previously mentioned investigations. As your present sufferings are not so severe and you can carry on your daily activities, you can delay getting medical help for some time. But ensure you get the investigations done as early as possible and revert with the reports.

I hope this helps.