***CAN WE RISE ‘IS THE LINE GOING TO EXPLODE? OR SOMETHING SIMILAR? What about not being able to breathe because of the pain or something like that ****
If you’re a regular at the yoga studio, you’re no stranger to poses that involve contorting your body and tying you up in pretzels.
And while yoga is a great form of exercise, some yogis report a stabbing pain in their chest after their workout that can be so severe that they mistake it for a heart attack and rush to the hospital.
The sharp pain, which affects both men and women, can last for minutes to hours after a strenuous workout, period of heavy lifting or muscle strain.
But despite the similarity to a heart attack, if other common symptoms are not present: radiating pain to the shoulders, neck, arms and jaw; shortness of breath; sweating; nausea; and dizziness – you may have costochondritis,
This benign condition occurs when the cartilage that connects the rib to the sternum (sternum) becomes inflamed.
The condition is common, with about 200,000 Americans affected each year, but that’s likely an undercount because many people let the pain pass without reporting it.
Erin from New York City told DailyMail.com that she once experienced such severe pain for fourteen hours that she felt like she had to go to the hospital to rule out a heart attack or blood clot.
‘The pain was so bad I couldn’t sleep, I couldn’t eat, I couldn’t do anything. I had to squat forward to get air,” she said.
Inflamed cartilage connecting the breastbone to the ribs causes costochondritis. The inflammation causes pain that radiates from the front of the chest to the back and up to the neck
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Costochondritis pain may increase with deep breathing as the chest wall expands and contracts, and people may also experience pain when coughing or pressing on the area where the ribs meet the sternum.
The pain is caused by inflammation of the protective tissue called cartilage that connects the ribs to the breastbone.
When that cartilage becomes inflamed due to excessive exercise or excessive coughing, the regular movements of the rib cage can lead to pressure and pain in those areas.
From there, the pain can radiate backwards, reach the spine and move downwards.
Costochondritis is a diagnosis of exclusion.
When people seek medical attention thinking they are in the early stages of a heart attack, doctors first try to rule out as many potentially serious conditions as possible, including heart attack, a blood clot in the lungs, broken ribs, pneumonia, and a collapsed lung. lung, before arriving at a diagnosis of costochondritis.
People with the condition describe it as a stabbing pain in the center of the chest, which can radiate backward and down the torso.
A TikToker named Melissa described the radiating pain as ‘a terrible cycle.’
She said, ‘So you have chest pain and it’s also in your back because your rib is always bandaged all around.
‘I’ve also seen a chiropractor before and they thought it might be a rib problem and not costochondritis. I made some adjustments, maybe it helped a little.
“And because it’s stuck here (gestures to her chest) and goes away, you also get arm pain. I always have shoulder and neck pain so when this flares up my arm gets really bad, it goes up to my neck and stuff.
“When I feel all those things, it creates anxiety and makes me feel nauseous.”
A Reddit user with the condition said: ‘My case of Costo (or what I assume is Costo) mainly manifests as back pain/tightness that comes and goes, but overall is quite persistent. No chest pain.
‘Sometimes it’s in my right ribcage and I feel like I can’t breathe properly, now it’s between my shoulder blades. However, the one consistent symptom is the cracking/popping in my back and chest when breathing, and this is the symptom that bothers me the most. It happens all day long, just like every other time I take a deep breath.”
Another described the pain as feeling “like someone was rubbing sandpaper over specific areas).
‘It was easier to tolerate while moving; the worst was lying at a 45 degree angle or just lying down – it felt like something was going to explode there.
‘It comes and goes, it’s not constant. When I breathe in, it feels like someone poured acid into my chest.”
Two women told DailyMail.com they believe they suffered from the condition because of their yoga practice.
Erin from New York attributed it to the chaturanga dandasana pose that requires the yogi to float on a low plank and keep their elbows at a 90-degree angle to the body.
It is a more advanced pose that requires the yogi to keep his body parallel to the ground as he lowers to his stomach and pushes his chest up and forward in a pose called upward dog or cobra.
When the body is in a low plank position, the weight of the body pushes down through the chest, placing stress on the rib cage and costal cartilage.
The downward movement in the pose can also worsen the painful condition because it compresses the rib cage, putting extra pressure on the inflamed areas.
At this point the yogi can injure himself if he does not isolate the parts of his body to ensure that one muscle does not overcompensate for the other.
The chaturanga pose involves applying significant pressure to the chest and rib cage. It engages the muscles of the upper body, especially the chest and shoulders, and can strain the cartilage that connects the ribs to the sternum
A New Jersey yoga instructor warned that while the workout is good for flexibility and strength, you can cause or worsen an injury if you don’t move from one pose to another properly.
“What I often see is people slumping down, pulling their elbows out, and that puts too much pressure on the shoulders, so all the attention goes to stabilizing the shoulders and not the rest of the body,” Cathy Narchese , a yoga instructor and owner of Thrive Yoga in Towaco, New Jersey, told DailyMail.com.
She said people often think they just have to go through the motions or copy their neighbors, so they push themselves through a position they’re not ready for, and this is when injuries occur.
Chaturanga involves engaging your chest, core, glutes, thighs, shoulders and biceps, “because that chain of flow makes it possible and the chain of engagement allows you to pull yourself up into your Up Dog or Cobra,” said Narchesis.
“So if you don’t involve that properly, if they don’t involve their core, that can certainly be 100 percent the case.”
Heavy lifting, workouts that use your body for resistance such as yoga, and repetitive movements that use the chest such as swimming, twisting, coughing and sneezing can also cause pain and may be confused with a broken rib.
Costochondritis is more common in women than men, and of the 62 million people who visit the doctor annually, 18.5 million may be affected.
A 2019 report from the American Rib Pain Institute found that of all people diagnosed 80 percent of that those who have the injury are women and most do not receive proper diagnosis or treatment.
Some people only experience pain for a short time after the strenuous movements, but some can experience pain for months, with the discomfort becoming so severe that people have rushed to the emergency department for answers.
Those suffering from costochondritis have described undergoing a battery of tests only to come back negative for any problems, including X-rays, CT scans and echocardiograms.
No laboratory or imaging test can detect inflamed cartilage.
Several other conditions can mimic costochondritis, including arthritis, nerve pain caused by fibromyalgia, neck or shoulder injuries, or a chest wall infection.
The treatment of costochondritis is aimed at reducing inflammation of the connective cartilage in the chest.
It is recommended that people use over-the-counter pain medications such as ibuprofen, aspirin, or acetaminophen. Holding a heating pad against your chest a few times a day can also help.
TikTok user Ezzy Ayala said she is receiving physical therapy to alleviate the acute costochondritis diagnosed by doctors, but she is constantly advised to take ibuprofen. Now she is concerned about the possible damage this has done to her liver.
In rare cases, a doctor may suggest lidocaine or corticosteroid injections to relieve pain and inflammation.
Costochondritis usually goes away on its own within three to four weeks, but can return several times after a while. When it strikes, it is advisable to opt for an easier workout or more downtime.