Body & HealthFact

Why a heart problem can show up in the left arm.

Pain fibres from organs and from skin converge on the same nerve cells in the spinal cord. For the heart, the cell bodies sit in dorsal root ganglia T1 to T4 or T5 – the same segments that supply the skin of arm and jaw. The brain then can't tell the sources apart.

Useful: Referred pain shows that where it hurts isn't necessarily where the problem is.

Source: en.wikipedia.org

NervenSchmerz

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