Chest Pain? The Causes Could Go Beyond a Heart Problem, Doctors Say Prevention 1/23/2021 Stephanie Dolgoff This article was medically reviewed by Raj Dasgupta, M.D., an associate professor of clinical medicine at the Keck School of Medicine of USC and member of the Prevention Medical Review Board, on January 21, 2021. There it is: that discomfort in your chest. It’s probably from the pizza you just inhaled. But wait—it is chest pain. In the moment, it’s not a giant leap from pass the Tums to could it be my heart? Well, yeah, it could, and you absolutely need to rule it out (more on that below). But the odds are also very good that it’s something else and not life-threatening.