If you suffer with acid reflux or GERD, you're no doubt well aware that one of the main features of GERD is pain in the chest. The pain may not be just heartburn - which most people recognize and appreciate is related to digestion.

GERD also produces a deep pain in the chest that can be described as an ache or a boring pain, that can also radiate into the back and side. As covered on Acid Reflux and GERD Cures, this may be caused by spasm of the esophagus or by ulcers in an irritated esophagus, such as a Barren's esophagus.

Doctors often find it difficult to differentiate between this sort of pain and the pain due to angina pectoris - pain due to heart disease. If they find it difficult, it's not surprising that you, the person with the pain, also find it worrying.

So how can you reassure yourself that the pain you are experiencing is not angina? I'll start to answer that with a definition. Angina is simply the medical word for pain. Angina pectoris means pain in the chest, but the two words together have become, in common usage, synonymous with heart pain.

However, many pains in the chest have no connection with the heart. For example, injuries to, or inflammation in, the spine, ribs and chest muscles can lead to persistent pain that can frighten you into believing you are having a heart attack. Nerve irritations from shingles can mimic angina. Pleurisy, an inflammation or infection of the lung surface, can cause severe chest pains, all of which are not linked to the chest pains that acid reflux and GERD can cause.