can anyone enlighten me to the basic differences, assuming there are some, between indigestion pain and heart related pain???

Sam
       Heart pain will be more intense and spread into arm. If you are in ANY doubt PLEASE phone NHS Direct  0845 4647
http://www.nhsdirect.nhs.uk/index.aspx

I suffer with acid indegestion and thought it was my chest/heart the first time

The most common symptoms of a heart attack are:

Central chest pain
The pain can spread to the arms, neck or jaw
Some people can feel sick or sweaty as well as having chest pain
Some people can feel short of breath as well as having chest pain
There are also less common symptoms, such as light-headedness, a pain that feels like bad indigestion, and a dull ache or 'heavy' feeling in the chest.

This is from the British heart Foundatio web site :)

Also the signs of heart problems in women can be different.  http://womenshealth.about.com/cs/heartdisease/a/sympofheartatta.htm http://www.nhlbi.nih.gov/actintime/haws/women.htm 

It seems that more womern die of a first heart attack than do men, because they are not recognising the signs, some of which areoften mistaken for other things like hot flushes etc..

If in any doubt get it checked out.

Someone who worked for the same company as me died of a heart attack, when they cleared out his company car they found loads of empty packet of indigestion tablets. He obviously thought that was what he had.  He was only in his late 30's.

Central chest pain is either indigestion or heart...................get it checked!
Too many people dont recognise the difference, so please play it safe. 
Karen

There is very little difference. It is NOT true that heart pain is always more intense, and it is NOT true that heart pain always goes down the arm. As a general rule, ALL chest pain should be treated as potential cardiac pain, and medical help should be sought.
Cathy
(Who works in a heart surgery unit and sees this daily!)

If in doubt get it checked! I've spent time this week getting radio-active so that they can check out my heart (I'm 47!) If you are stressed out you could also be getting panic attacks, which can feel like heart problems, but without getting it checked out you will never know. Until it's too late :( The consultant was telling me he'd rather see 100 people with no problems (after checking them out) than miss one person with, and they die.