Heartburn Symptoms

What Does Heartburn Feel Like?

Many people have different heartburn triggers, but most people have similar heartburn symptoms.

• A burning feeling in the chest just behind the breastbone that occurs after eating and lasts a few minutes to several hours.
• Chest pain, especially after bending over, lying down or eating.
• Burning in the throat -- or hot, sour, acidic or salty-tasting fluid at the back of the throat.
• Difficulty swallowing.
• Feeling of food "sticking" in the middle of the chest or throat.
• Heartburn may cause chronic cough, sore throat, or chronic hoarseness.

Reporting these symptoms is usually all that is needed for your doctor to make the diagnosis of heartburn. However, your doctor may perform special tests to determine the severity of your problem or to monitor your treatment. Special tests may also be needed if you have unusual symptoms such as weight loss or suffer from the complications of GERD.

Is it Heartburn or a Heart Attack?

Chest pain is one of the most common reasons a person goes to the emergency room. While many of these patients are suffering from a heart attack, some actually may be experiencing severe heartburn.

Often, the pain caused by a heart attack and during a severe heartburn episode is so difficult to distinguish that sophisticated medical testing is needed to determine whether or not you are having a heart attack. To complicate matters even more, the two problems have many of the same symptoms and occur in similar types of people (For example, older age and overweight people.)

Possible signs of heartburn that could be mistaken for a heart attack include:

• A sharp, burning sensation just below the breastbone or ribs.
• Pain generally does not radiate to the shoulders, neck, or arms, but it can.
• Pain usually comes after meals, when lying on the back, when exercising or when experiencing anxiety.
• Symptoms usually respond quickly to antacids.
• Rarely accompanied by a cold sweat.

Possible signs of angina (severe pain in chest area) or heart attack:

• A feeling of fullness, tightness, or dull pressure or pain generally in the center of the chest.
• The feeling of a belt being tightened around your chest.
• Sudden chest pain or pressure that worsens.
• Dizziness.
• Pain may spread to the shoulders, neck, jaw or arms.
• Pain often responds quickly to nitroglycerin.
• Shortness of breath.
• Often accompanied by a cold sweat.
• Possible lightheadedness.

If you have any pain that lasts for more than a few minutes or any warning signs of a heart attack, seek immediate medical attention.

Reviewed by the doctors at The Cleveland Clinic Department of Gastroenterology & Hepatology.