Most of my life I have had occaisional chest pain after waking up in the morning, find my self whincing at each breath. Deep breaths with sharp or dull stabbing pains that would subside after a few hours of holding deep breaths. The pain worsens while bending over. When I draw long breaths through my nose, my nose flares and my chest and back seem to suction together. Long deeper breaths through my mouth produce the pain in the lower chest in the sternum region.
I was a smoker for 12 (being only 25, thats a long time) and when I was younger and experiencing these problems, I merely chalked it up to my horrible habbit. Now that I have quit smoking for more than a year, I find that these problems are reoccurring. Only now I am active, jog regularly, and have a very physically demanding job. My problem is also not just giving me trouble in the morning any more, it seems to be all day long (when it happens, which is often but not frequent).
I have had much trouble with bronchial infections when I was younger, but none since I was about 18.
I have also, in the past, had GERD related chest pains that were nothing like this. The GERD problem was much worse, perhaps even disabling. And I don't have much trouble with reflux any more since I don't smoke and no longer drink emmense amounts of coffee.
I am not very worried about it, but am getting rather tired of it. Shallow breathing, lower chest pains, and my wife even says I have sleep apnea (she says I often stop breathing in my sleep). I just want to know what's wrong so I can be done with it.
please help if you have any information

run a google search on "costrochondritis" and "Tietze Syndrome"

good luck

Greetings. So sorry about your chest pain! My wife has had hard chest pains -- esp. under stress or when walking up inclines. She did a stress test - failed it - and the cardiologist gave her a nitroglycerine spray which, when used prior to walking, totally eliminated the symptoms! He was quite sure she had significant blockage of the coronary arteries. Yesterday (8 September), she had an angiogram which showed that her c. arteries were "totally clear". SO, whence the pain?
Diagnosis: "cardiac syndrome x" - a faux angina that has been much studied.
That MAY be your problem, as it is often debilitating.
(Rev.Dr.) Johnny Long - London

Here's a bried description and some links:

What is it?
The term cardiac syndrome X was first used in 1973 to describe a condition that to this day remains a bit of a mystery.


Patients with the syndrome suffer the same chest pain as those with angina

For example, patients with the syndrome suffer the same chest pain as those with angina. In angina, this pain is often triggered by exercise and is caused by a narrowing of the arteries allowing insufficient blood to the heart. In cardiac syndrome X, the pain may also be triggered by exercise. When a treadmill or stress ECG test is performed to investigate the cause of the pain, the result is positive. However, when an angiogram - an x-ray dye test of the coronary arteries - is performed, no narrowing or hardening is found.

There's still no agreed definition of cardiac syndrome X. However, it's generally thought that to make a diagnosis the following criteria need to be fulfilled:

angina chest pain
positive stress test
completely normal coronary angiogram
(article continued on the web page).

For the MAYO CLINIC take on the subject, see:
http://www.mayoclinicproceedings.com/inside.asp?AID=1263&UID= and:
http://www.mayoclinicproceedings.com/inside.asp?AID=3098&UID=
which virtually rules our microvascular dysfunction which is commonly assumed
to be the cause.