Nausea from acid reflux

Is it possible to have acid reflux and not have burning.  I have been dealing with nausea for 10 months.  I had a cat scan and endoscopy and they were both normal.  I get nausea mostly in the morning.  If I drink OJ, coffee, tomato juice it gets really bad.  Chocolate also upsets my stomach.  I have mostly eliminated these trigger foods but I will still get nauseous.  I have tried prilosec and nexium and did not like the side effects.  I have been taking OTC prevacid for two weeks and it has seemed to help.  Any advice would be appreciated. Thanks

Hi meg1227,
Welcome to Healing Well! I second Joy's question...have you seen a GI specialist? If you're suffering you should try to find the cause and a solution. There are many kinds of PPI's, and a GI doc will help you discover one that works for you.

Yes, nausea can be a problem associated with GERD, and yes you can have "silent GERD" without heartburn sensations. Your triggers are certainly typical of GERD.

I hope you feel better soon!
Denise

Hi everyone,

Yes I did see a GI doctor. He performed the endscopy and proceeded to tell me there was nothing wrong with me and that it was all in my head.  I then went and saw a new GP and he put me on nexium because he thought it might be to much acid in my stomach.  I didnt like the side effects of nexium so I started to take otc prevacid.  I didn't know if I should go back and see him or go see a new GI doctor.  I do use anti nausea medications when it's bad.  I have tried reglan and had a horrible reaction to it.  How well does domperidone work?

what you're describing sounds more like a gastritis then GERD, if your egd was normal and you arent having reflux but nausea after acidic foods then it could be your stomach lining is irritated. I would ask the dr for carafate which coats your stomach, and also try zantac or an over the counter coating like pepto. Stay away from those foods and make sure you have something in your stomach when you wake up like crackers or toast.

Nausea was one of my main symptoms and the one that made me try medication. Unfortunately omeprazole side effects include nausea so I couldn't tell if it was helping or not. Eventually the nausea settled down on ppis. I am now off them cos of severe side effects, so I get the nausea occasionally now that I'm only on Zantac. I have to eat often and foods like dry crackers help.

You could try keeping a food and symptom diary, especially if the nausea isn't daily - that would help pinpoint trigger foods. If your gastroscopy was normal and you weren't on antiacid medication then it's also possible the nausea is caused by something else - food intolerance or allergy or gall bladder disease are all possibilities. Some people experience nausea when their blood sugar is low too. Your nausea could be related to GERD, but equally it could have a separate cause or you could have something like a food intolerance triggering both the GERD and the nausea!

Meg1227 - I have food allergies and I can't help but think my stomach problem is related. Though I've had my allergies a long time and not had GERD, I still wonder if there's a connection. I got tested for eosinophilic oesophagitis but that wasn't present - just signs of reflux.

DGL (chewable) helps me first thing in the morning - I chew one as soon as I get out of bed. My nausea is bad if anything wakes me during the night (kids....bladder.....) - my stomach expects food as soon as I'm awake, even if it's 3 am! I meant to try chewing the DGL in the night but haven't done yet. My nausea appears whenever the GERD isn't under good control.

Oh just remembered - the other thing that helped me was taking the Omeprazole at night! It's supposed to be taken shortly before breakfast but I always felt that meant it had worn off just at the point when I felt worst i.e. on waking. I took Omeprazole about an hour before bed and that did make a big difference. I'm now on Zantac instead because I couldn't cope with the severe skin reaction I had to all the ppis - but I did reach a point where my stomach was OK on it!!

If you're on Prevacid (Lansoprazole to us UK folk) you could try it at night, or ask for a small top up dose to take at night (e.g. 10 mg) - or ask if you can take Zantac (Ranitidine) late at night. If you can get it under control with antacids then that at least confirms it's part of a reflux type problem.

If you struggle with dairy, have you tried lactose reduced? Maybe worth an experiment with that. Also, if you're reluctant to try drugs, you could hunt down some digestive enzymes, but look for some without betaine hydrochloride because if you do have excess acid that will only make you feel worse!

Personally I would try the drug route in the short term, just to see if it works, so that you know what you're dealing with, and then you can experiment with other stuff later after you've had a break from feeling yukky!

scrapster50 - Is there a cause for your gastroparesis? Have they checked auto immune diseases, thyroid the works?

You may want to check Median arcuate ligament syndrome which is uncommon but does cause gastroparesis and most doctors overlook that. A simple CT scan or a doppler ultrasound of the celiac artery can diagnose it.

Thanks for the info lilitiger2.

Did you have any other symptoms of gastroparesis besides nausea? Do you take any medicine for it? I haven't had the hida scan yet either for the same reason as you.  I don't want to end up worse off.

what were your gastric emptying times if I may ask?

when i took the test mine was 50% empty in 2 hrs and some doctors thought that was slow, some thought it was normal. When I took it again and I did a 4 hr test I had 92% emptying in 3 hrs. But for both tests they gave me different foods. For the first test they did oatmeal for the second one they did egg beaters with toast and jam.

I had three HIDA scans so far and all of them showed different results. First one was below normal 24% second one was really high 94% and third one 34% which was borderlined. So the test can be complete BS but I feel if your fraction is really low like 3% then something is not right with the GB.

Post Edited (efplaya85) : 6/9/2011 9:46:35 PM (GMT-6)

On so many of the chat boards in this site recommend Domperidome and they mention it's only available in Canada. Well look up the side effects! The FDA has put a warning on this drug because of the serious side effects. It's better to look for a different drug for nauseousness and other stomach symptoms. My girlfriend took it for less than 1 week and thought she was going to have a heart attack (one of the major side-effects) so she stopped taking it. Now she has to go back to the specialist and ask for a different drug. She just had her gallbladder out 6 weeks ago and still experiences nauseousness and can't eat a lot of normal foods. She has lost almost 25 pounds which really concerns me.

My first symptoms in June 2013 were a burning "on fire" throat in the middle of the night. No amount of ice water would cool it. Now I am nearly 4 months into nausea which has been very discouraging and also my major symptom.

My tests started with a hydrogen breath test, barium swallow to test my gallbladder, an endoscope that showed no H-pylori or Celiacs, only inflammation in the stomach. I also had a stricture in the upper esophagus which the gastro doctor stretched (and tore). 2 weeks later I had a Colonoscopy as well as a Pap Smear to rule out anything else, all was negative.

That was 4 weeks ago. I have been on Omeprazole once a day and Zantac morning and night. The nausea is worse than ever. I have never really had acid reflux back up, just this awful feeling like my throat is swelling at the same time I get the nausea.

I have cut out caffeine, alcohol, fried foods and fats, butter, chocolate, tomatoes and sauce, creamy sauces, desserts etc. etc. I have also lost about 20 lbs. Recently my throat has been sore, my nasal passages burning with dripping nostrils.

Unlike some of you I wake up feeling great....usually at night the nausea starts up. I tried taking apple cider vinegar and aloe vera juice during the nausea.....it doubles the nausea in intensity which makes me think it may not be gerd?? Those things are supposed to help symptoms! Ginger tea with manuka honey helps me somewhat, makes me burp a little.

I never had a follow up after all the testing but I'm going to see the PA in a couple weeks. My daughters wedding is coming up in 4 weeks and the thought of being sick at her wedding is more than I can bear. My GP gave me Xanax to get me over the depression this is causing, but I know that will only mask the problems. I am one who tries to help others, I have never really been sick. This is the weirdest thing I have ever heard of. Thanks anyone who took the time to read this long post!

I've been on FODMAP and it didn't really make a difference for me. I avoid fibre anyway since I discovered it was causing me a lot of pain and nausea. What made a massive difference for me was cutting out sugar, which also got me suspecting a bacteria problem. I used to eat a lot because I'm losing a lot of weight and was desperate to stop. I couldn't tolerate fats or even too much protein so I turned to sugar.

I have since stopped all sugar, the only carbs I have are brown rice, and I have just had to stop worrying about my weight. So far I have been noticing improvements, I have also been taking cabbage juice and probiotics which pretty much cured my stomach pain. Still battling with the nausea though. Sometimes it feels like my stomachs nauseous, but other times it actually seems like irritation in my esophagus is causing the nausea.

I take domperidone in quite a small dose, sometimes it helps, other times it doesn't. With my diet I think my stomach is emptying fine at the moment, but im not sure how it will cope once I reintroduce some fats etc.