GERD and Cardiac Symptoms

[bin tenn]

Many of you don't know me, but I come from AZ as well. I don't struggle with anxiety often at all anymore. In fact, it's been several weeks since I had any health related worries. I like to stick around and offer advice regarding anxiety because I've learned a lot over the past several years, mostly from some great folks who supported me on AZ.

Anyhow, for those of you who have cardiac-focused health anxiety: do you also have GERD? The more I learn about both anxiety and GERD, the more I see some connections.

I had an episode of afib four months ago in August. I woke up around 2am with very bad reflux, acid basically pooling in my throat. It choked me. I coughed for several minutes, went to the restroom, and when I laid back in bed is when the afib episode began. I ended up going to the ER via ambulance, as the paramedics' ECG showed abnormalities (atrial fibrillation). I was discharged from the hospital after twelve hours or so. I had an echo and stress test a couple weeks later and all was clear. Cardiologist said it was "lone afib", almost certainly triggered solely by the GERD that night.

Since then, I've been on a med (Pantoprazole/Protonix) for GERD. I've not had much GERD at all, as I've modified my diet and I began exercising daily (walking at the very least). Sometimes I splurge and treat myself to chocolate, or soda, or caffeine, and I get very mild bouts of GERD/heartburn.

During those episodes, my heart rate is often slightly elevated. I also get other cardiac-like symptoms. That sucks because I have worried about heart complications for a long time. Not really anymore, however. GERD seems to be a common cause of my symptoms.

If you worry about heart problems and you have GERD, I'd recommend getting the GERD under control. It may very well alleviate most or all of your "cardiac" symptoms. I've read studies about GERD and heart links. GERD is in fact known to be one cause of arrhythmias (hence my afib episode) among other things, though I haven't found a direct link between GERD and palpitations.

Regardless, even the symptoms that seem to be telling of serious problems (e.g. heart problems) are certainly not always what they seem to be. The body, I've learned, is a very complex system. Its internal workings are interconnected in ways that we often don't suspect, it seems.

GERD for me has been known to cause:

* shortness of breath
* chest tightness
* increased heart rate - not drastic, but noticeable
* afib - NOT everyone will get it, but it can happen if conditions are just right
* chest/arm/shoulder/back pain
* feeling of panic/impending doom

How do I know? Well, unless it's psychological, I take two Tums and as soon as it alleviates the GERD, all the other symptoms disappear as well.

Hope this is helpful for some of you. Take care!

[motherof3girlies]

GERD is the root cause of ALL my anxiety, I hate it! I never had heart palps in my life until I had GERD. I ate something today that didn't agree with me so now I have had an irritation/chest pain in my sternum area all night. So annoying and also scary at times. Hope your feeling better.

[bin tenn]

I know what you mean. It can definitely be scary but I've figured out that I don't need to worry about it. I'm not worried anymore. I had some heartburn/reflux last night, but didn't have any problems. Just took some Tums and it was gone, like usual.

[PanickyGuy]

Bin, I swear you sound like my twin concerning this particular issue. Your entire first post sounds just like me for the past 5 1/2 years. Although you didn't mention having a 24hr heart monitor placed on you yet. Have you gotten to a point where you've done that one yet?

I did that one last year in August when my palpitations or irregular heartbeat was so bad it was driving me to near insanity. During that time, I would of swore to you that I had some kind of damn killer afib about to do me in. Lol - I even drove myself to the ER about a day later, after having the 24 heart monitor done, because I felt a sharp chest pain one night. Anyway, my doctor said nothing unusual showed up on the heart monitor results and on that night after spending about 10 hours in the ER, they didn't find a darn thing wrong with my heart.

And after all of that, wouldn't you know it, those highly active irregular heartbeats I was having sort of slacked off or they weren't as bad as they were before. Now I still get them from time to time, but I know now, after lots of research, that it's mostly likely associated with my GERD and one other thing...a nerve called the Vagus Nerve.

Now this damn nerve is connected to just about every organ in our bodies and it's like sensory bio loop feedback kind of thing. So whatever bad thing is going on in your stomach at the time, can affect your heart and your brain because of this vagus nerve. So when our GERD starts acting up as usual, with acid reflux, indigestion, bloating, gas, etc. guess what? The vagus nerve registers that with our brains as something is terribly wrong and tries to compensate for it, hence begins the anxiety or panic depending on how bad our GERD is acting up, which therefore sends feedback to the heart, which begins to race with fast heartbeats and irregular heartbeats when our GERD is usually not that bad as our brains are led to believe.

So this Vagus Nerve is the prime suspect in the connection between our stomachs, brain, heart. And it always made sense to me as to the "how this happens" or the connections between these organs, which all goes hand in hand with anxiety\panic disorder.

Here is one article I've found over the years that probably explain things about the vagus nerve and how it works, much better than I can;

https://healdove.com/disease-illness/Is-Your-Vagus-Nerve-Causing-Your-Stomach-to-Bloat

If you google "Vagus Nerve" you'll find plenty more articles about it and here is another article that is off topic, yet related in someways to all of this, that I know for sure describes me to a 'T' with my anxiety/panic disorder problems, but you and others may also find it interesting in relation to all of this too;

http://www.cardiac-neurosis.com/

So there you go. Some interesting stuff to contemplate upon for your peace of mind.

[Anxytips]

This is a great post. Literally me at the moment. Been having so many weird symptoms for months and after mri scans, stress tests, ECG's, blood tests, camera in, and x rays, not one Dr has picked anything up! For me I don't get really bad GERD or heart burn as such but the more I go the more I sit there thinking what on earth has caused/is causing my pain/symptoms.

And what I am coming to the conclusion of is that I seem to get most my symptoms when I feel my stomach digesting my food!

Irregular heart beats
Feeling of not being here
Dizzyness/lightheaded/falling/unsteady
Slight nausea
Tingling in chest and left arm and face
Neck ache
Chest ache
Slight abdominal cramp

If you ask my pain score out of 10 for the above its like a 2 or 3. Very manageable but very annoying as I don't want to feel like this!

[bin tenn]

PanickyGuy, thanks for the added detail! Yes, the vagus nerve is something I've researched along with GERD and the correlation with palpitations and similar symptoms! It's crazy how it's all connected, but knowing these things has been one of the most helpful aspects in regards to anxiety. Because I'm aware of how connected these things are, I was able to get away from "my chest burns and I'm having palpitations, it's a heart attack." My first thought now is "my chest burns and I'm having palpitations because I ate this or that food, and I'm also feeling reflux - let's take Tums!"

I wore a cardiac event monitor for seven days after my physical last year. It detected nothing but some benign palpitations. Not even high in number - just a moderate number over the full seven days.

Full list of tests I've had:

* Seven-day event monitor - clear aside from benign palpitations
* Three EKG's (physical, one last Dec, one this past Jan or Feb) - all clear
* Echocardiogram and treadmill stress test - all clear, not a single abnormality whatsoever (heart is great in size as well as strength)
* Blood tests for triponin when hospitalized for afib - all clear, so no indication of heart damage at all
* Exercising every day - no issues; occasionally a "skipped beat" so I chill for a sec then continue

Also, did you know the esophagus and heart share many nerve pathways? As such, it's often not possible to distinguish pain from one organ or the other. Hence, GERD pain, being in the esophagus, can feel specifically like it's from the heart instead. I found that out from the cardiologist.

Anxytips, I'm glad you like the post as well, and thank you for sharing, too. It's always nice to read experiences of others so we can all see things from a different perspective. I think that's something that has helped me greatly when learning to control anxiety - seeing things from an outside perspective. Thanks!

I've also learned that short, sharp "pains" in the chest are highly unlikely to be cardiac in nature in terms of heart disease/blockages. Another point that helped me move past the anxious thoughts.

Being an anxious person, I do still notice my palpitations. However, I don't react anxiously. I have a palpitation, I accept it, and life goes on. That's a freaking awesome feeling, coming from someone who used to have a major freak-out after feeling the adrenaline rush following some palpitations. Haha.

Thank you both for sharing. I'm glad you enjoyed reading my post. :)

[Kb97]

Hey,
I know this is an old post but my god has it made me feel better. I was rushed into hosptial last Thursday with what I don't know. But the paramedics hooked me up to an ECG and would you look at that afib showed up. I suffer from gerd (been told it was from when I was on the prozac), this attack felt like a panic attack but a lot more intense and my gp doesn't really want to take it further or offer me a monitor. I was discharged after 8 hours, I had a chest x ray, a blood tests and 4 ecgs. The only ecg that showed afib was in the ambulance. I'm hoping now it could be just a one off reading this.