Can stomach problems mimic heart disease?

For years now I have had chronic stomach problems. I suffer from GERD, severe bloating and nausea. If that wasn’t enough - I also suffer from some alarming “heart issues” which have been written off by my doctor.

I can tell that these two problems are linked (ie. the more bloated I am, the more likely I am to have heart symptoms), but because of the severity of my symptoms I’m wondering if there’s an organic problem in my heart that the bloating is bringing to the surface.

I get runs of ectopics and feelings that my heart is struggling to find a rhythm. Sometimes it feels like it stops for a few seconds and then pounds so hard I lose my breath. But most worryingly, I get chest pains that spread to the shoulder, jaw and left arm with spells of dizziness and sweating.

This pain feels like a tightness and I’d rate it about a 6/10. It’s not stabbing or anything like that. At first I thought it may be heartburn but it doesn’t feel like a “burn” at all. Just tightness/discomfort.

I’ve had an echocardiogram which showed that my valves are all working correctly and structurally normal. A 24 hour holter monitor showed a run of SVT and PACs but otherwise unremarkable. I’ve had several EKGs - a majority of which said normal sinus rhythm, but twice it said “non specific ST and T wave changes.” My doctors shrugged this of as an anomaly, but it worries me.

I’m a 27 year old female, with a low body weight, normal cholesterol levels, no family history of heart disease and low blood pressure. I know the odds of me dropping dead from a serious heart attack would be extremely rare. However something about these symptoms doesn’t settle right with me. Something is going wrong somewhere.

So I guess my question for you is... Could stomach problems manifest in this way? Can they mimic symptoms of heart disease and arrhythmia? Could bad trapped gas or gerd cause shoulder/arm pain, etc?

Any thoughts anyone? 😣

They definitely can. I had multiple heartburns that caused me a lof of pain and discomfort in the chest along with nausea. If you googled that, you would be sure to think it’s a heart attack! You are young and have no risk factors for a heart condition. Anxiety may cause many irregularities that appear on EKG. When I was referred to a cardiologist for tachycardia, the EKG even said “consider ischemia”, which, of course, I did not have, so I wouldn’t worry about your EKG readings.Dizzy spells and other symptoms are also a result of anxiety.

I'm wondering the same - I am always burping and I'm hoping that wind is the reason for the 2 day pain in my collarbone - sometimes it goes momentarily into my jaw. Can you get wind under the left collarbone? I had an (Unrelated) MRI scan 5 months ago - would that have shown any heart irregularities? I can't focus on anything - so worried.

Yes.

It's caused by irritation of the vagus nerve. Chest pain caused by reflux can be severe too.

But, it's not mimicking heart disease. That's just your mental connection. They are symptoms of reflux plain and simple.