palpitations and Gerd

[kattjo5220]

For those of you posting about herat palps & reflux.
Your vagus nerve runs next to your esophogus, I believe it also is connected or runs close to your stomach & lungs.

When The acid shoots up your esphogus it can irritate the vagus nerve thus causing heart palps. My GI called these A-Typical symptoms, I have a silent reflux, no heart burn, only heart palps, nausea, breathing difficulties, dizziness eventually I ended up with LPR because I had reflux for years and had no idea.

Also since laying down makes reflux worse then laying down will make the heart palps worse and so will eating or any activity that may make your reflux worse.

It causes a lot of anxiety to have your body acting crazy and not having an explanation. I never had anxiety problems until I spent a year with unknown reflux.
I have to say also tht I have tried countless meds, zegrid, nexium, pepcid, prilosec OTC & RX, tagament, zantac... Most of which increased my heart palps.

I am back for a scope next week, I have been off meds except tums for 14 months. I may try the remaining few meds there are.

I hope this helps with anyones anxiety. It helped me so much to know that there is a physical reason for my symptoms and that I am not losing my mind. Nothing is wrong with my heart.

Good luck
Katt

[taape]

Thanks for letting us know why it could be worse when laying down. I still wonder why the medications would make it happen more often or worse. Is it possible to have acid coming up and not notice it because it happens when your asleep and you just sleep through it?

[lulu123]

Yes you can sleep through an episode. I was waking up most nights when I was in my 30's with a feeling of something in the back of my throat. The doctor told me at that time that I was experiencing heartburn and that I should not eat or drink anything a couple of hours before bedtime. As time went on the episodes got worse. Four years ago I started regurgitating in my sleep and on two occasions actually inhaled a small amount. That was a rude awakening and extremely painful!

The doctor put me on Prevacid and a motility drug (my stomach takes an awful long time to empty) to aid in quicker digestion. I think the Prevacid may be part of the "heart palp" problem, but when I think about what I had been drinking that day I can chaulk some of it up to an increase in CAFFIENE!

The doctor also said that when I have an increase in chest pain it is due to the reflux so I should use a little spray of nitro. I know that sounds drastic (it certainly did to me!) but it actually works! The chest pain goes away and I feel much better...except for the nitro headache of course! Remember though I have been completely checked for heart problems and my nitro is endorsed by my doctor specifically for the reflux symptoms. Maybe those of you who are having increased chest pain with no heart problems could ask your own physicians about this treatment.

Good Luck!

[taape]

What is a motility drug and how do you know if you need one? If your stomach empties slow does that mean your full or feel all the time?

[lulu123]

If I understood the doctor correctly, my digestion is so slow that it takes a long time to leave the stomach, therefore there was more time for the contents to spill up into the esophogas. Taking the motility drug did not change how my stomach felt one way or the other. It just moved the food out at a quicker rate.

The drug that I am taking is called Ran-Domperidone 10 mg. I take it four times a day. Perhaps looking up the drug on the internet would give you more information than I am able.

Check out the healthboard as well. Someone has posted some information about "esophageal motility" in a past thread. I don't know if that relates to my situation however.