clicking sounds in chest!!!

[Stephie1982]

hi - i'm a 22yr old female and i just wondered if anyone out there has any idea to why i get (which i can only describe as..) clicking noises when i take a deep breath. It doesnt happen all the time, but when it does its very uncomfortable - i've had it now for about 7yrs, and it has got worse as i've aged. I did go to the docs when it started years ago, an got sent for xray but everything seemed fine, and the doc couldnt tell me why - so i got discharged and carried on with it, but it has got worse - and the clicking noises louder!! anyone know what this is?? - Thank you - Steph

[GMER13]

I have the same slim, tall build with a very wide shoulder span. Every time i try to breath in deep, i feel as if i cannot fill my lungs all the way up with air. When i breath in deep, i feel a popping type of noise right around the lower left area of my sternum. Also, when i breath in deep, i feel as if a sticky substance is releasing and then sticking again whenever i release the air.
Another thing, whenever i begin to yawn, i feel the popping sound and i can never finish my yawns anymore.

I have had an experience where i felt as if I was having a heart attack, (I wasnt) and it does trigger some severe anxiety wich causes the pain to worsen. I am very cocerned that I may have a lung disease . please comment if you have any similar experiences.

[Chkchad]

So every time I've looked up any information regarding this popping sensation it's always been the same result: tons of people with the same complaint and tons of theories about why it's happening, many of them perhaps right, but none applicable to my case, or so I believe.  I guess I'll start with listing all the other typical info I've seen.  It's gotten worse over the years, I've gotten X rays a couple times and there's "nothing wrong" (talk about a lie) and I grow nervous that something I did in the past is cutting my life short. Guess I'm getting what was coming.  I seem to recall the general time period during which it occurred and I had been smoking tobacco out of a hookah quite often (an hour a day for a week straight) and snorted some smarties candy within a week of it's occurrence. Both of these contain sugar in them which someone I spoke with proposed to be extremely difficult to remove from the lungs and could be potentially quite damaging to them.  Back when I first began experiencing this I was convinced my lung had partially collapsed,however I think I would be suffering more if that were the case. Since then the popping has increased an insane amount to an uncountable number each day. I seem to think though that when I exercise more that it goes down as well as the severity of the pop, which relieves less but the tension is not as great in the first place.  Anywho, I figured the best way for us to eventually find out what is wrong with us is not just a submitting of our symptoms, which is the easiest part, but also a proposal of how we feel we developed this... bizarre trait.  Could be heredity influenced but I'm sure some things we exposed ourselves to (ie smoke or physical trauma) was probably what finally caused it.  I have asthma as well if that is somehow related, which it very well could be and I do believe it is. If you're really searching for what's wrong take that extra step. If listing symptoms could have solved it, the "doctors" would have helped us by now.

[stunninglyblue]

I have the same thing. My rib would pop or click when I would take deep breaths or lay on my stomach. My doctor said it was caused by poor posture. One of the ways to help this is to 1. Stand up straight and 2. Take a tennis ball, lay on your back and place it under you (aprox. Under the rib that pops). Lay there with it under you for 5 minutes a day and it really seems to help!

[LightninLew]

I have the same thing, but I think it's just starting. I have been getting small clicks with a little discomfort for a couple of months when I sneeze, it is always the same rib.
About 15 minutes ago I sneezed and it popped louder and actually hurt, a lot, it hasn't been constant but the pain isn't going away and a visible red patch (like a slap) has formed on my sternum.
I am 18 and have had joint problems for a long time and clicking all my life but never as strange as this. I have taken a few wrestling spear tackles (real wrestling not messing around WWE style) to this area but I stopped training a few months ago now.
This has coincided with my hip getting painful, it has been cracking for years but started being painful around the same time as the rib. I have been to doctors about my joints before because I have very loose shoulders, stiff hips and pretty much all my joints crack. They say I don't have arthritis and kept passing me around to specialists, and I haven't heard back from the last one.

[Loveronfire]

I have had this issue for a year and a half now... one night I was just laying down on my side and I woke up to that same gross popping sound that everyone here is talking about. It hurt so bad it was like it knocked the air out of me. Since then almost every night I have had the painful popping and clicking.  I sleep on a sleep by number, Tried both soft and firm, even added 4 inches of memory foam. That did nothing.  I know that I am hyper mobile with all of my joints and my doctors haven't even bothered to do x rays but they just said that it was probably due to that.  Knowing that so many other people have this issue makes me think otherwise.  I have never had any trauma to my chest, I do not lift weights. This simply happened in my sleep.   Last week I went on a tilt table for my back, and the noise that my chest made was disgusting!  It was this nasty squishing sound like my muscles turned to liquid. Since then my ribs almost feel like they are floating... I do not really recommend going on to any traction device if you are having this issue.

[oldclicker177]

Hello everyone. I am 30 years old and my chest has been clicking since I was about 16. The reason mine is, is because I started lifting weights when I was about 14 and I was in the gym doing dumbell flys, I know, a bit young!! to late now!! anyway I lifted too heavy being a bit of a plank!! I took the dumbells down and snap, my sturnum made 1 allmighty click and since then I have had the sturnum problem, had x rays and all sorts no joy.
So I do think this problem is caused by a strain to the chest centre, not the end of the world, i'm still lifting weights now, very heavy and also pushing my chest in to click it is a habbit that I would be lost without!! it still gets painfull but manageable, just hope if I have heart attack I can tell the difference!!!!!!!  
Jon Jon.