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Posted 2/16/2015 8:16 PM (GMT 0)
Does anyone here have shortness of breath after meals? If so, how have you dealt with it?
Posted 2/16/2015 8:57 PM (GMT 0)
Welcome to the forum.

What do you mean by "shortness of breath?" Is it accompanied by any pain or rapid heartbeat?

Have you seen a doctor? That's where I'd start, since we aren't doctors here and can't diagnose.

I used to get tachycardia after eating certain foods, especially delicious cereal with dried fruit or barbecued spare ribs or jello. I went to an allergist who had me keep a food journal (look this up in the search box at the top of the page). This gave me a list of "trigger foods" that I put into Google with "food allergy." I found the whole list contained one chemical that causes my problem. Now I just avoid those foods.

But that's my story, and it's not necessarily yours. I'd see a gastroenterologist to see if there's something wrong with the stomach, and also a cardiologist about the shortness of breath.
Posted 2/16/2015 9:43 PM (GMT 0)
Thank you for your reply. Its interesting that you mention food allergies as I am starting to believe I do have sensitivities. I should have mentioned my history, sorry about that. I have been diagnosed with Gerd had an endoscopy 8/13 and a barium swallow 12/14 they came back normal though they did show a small hietal hernia. I have asthma, that has gotten much worse since the onset of GERD. I see that shortness of breath/heavy breathing after a meal can be a symptom of GERD, and I was just wondering if anyone has dealt with this. Thanks
Posted 2/17/2015 8:20 PM (GMT 0)
I have had this intermittently and had it really bad today. I had 2 small slices of pizza stolen from my sons plate and boy have I paid for it! I think I might need to start keeping a diary as its only with certain foods. I have had my tea this eve with no problem. I get rapid heartbeat and palpitations and it lasts a good hour or so after eating. It's a horrible sensation. I've seen a cardiologist and had 24 hr monitor and a scan which came back fine so I definitely think its related to gerd.
Posted 2/17/2015 11:14 PM (GMT 0)
Thanks for the reply trotters, that sounds so much like my issue. If I eat the wrong thing the palpitations and shortness of breath comes soon after. Its really miserable!
Posted 2/18/2015 1:34 AM (GMT 0)
What the two of you are describing sounds like what I've had - specific food triggers that cause arrhythmias and tachycardia. For me, the specific ingredient in my foods is sulfite. It's a common preservative and bleaching agent used in processing foods.

A few of my trigger foods are corn starch, gelatin, maple syrup, molasses, brown sugar, bottled lemon juice (but not frozen juice), corn syrup, jam made with lemon juice (bottled) and corn syrup, all boxed or canned potatoes, and pork. In larger amounts some other things set me off: onions and garlic, beef, wine and beer. All these things are processed with sulfur dioxide, or sulfites, or contain sulfites naturally.

Pizza is definitely on my list! The dough has sulfites in the "conditioners." As long as I keep the rest of my meals very low in sulfites, I can tolerate one slice. A soda ups the sulfite level because of the corn syrup and the caramel color. Many vitamins, food colors, artificial sweeteners and medicines contain sulfites.

Most teas are fine. Just read the labels! Some are sulfited.

There are studies showing links between the esophagus and stomach and the heart - called linked angina or cardioesophageal reflex (not reflux). When something irritates the digestive system it can trigger a heart problem. (I've also had bad tachycardia when I was getting an infection in a diverticulum in the colon.) Years ago I had a run of tachycardia after eating a delicious bowl of cereal containing dried fruits. It didn't stop and triggered a heart attack by causing my coronary arteries to spasm. I have lots more stories of ER and cardioversions. So, you see, this is serious.

If you keep a food diary/journal/log, you can easily rule out foods being the cause of the heart problem. Search lots more on food journal in the search box at the top of the page!

Now that I've scared you, you may not have this problem at all or may have a different chemical trigger. Most doctors and some allergists have never heard of this sensitivity, and sometimes "true" allergy. There is no test for it other than keeping the food journal. At least my test is cheap! Just put a notebook on your kitchen counter and write the time, everything that goes in your mouth and and any symptoms and the time of those. I usually find a reaction in half an hour to a couple of hours. People with migraine reaction can get it as much as two days after ingesting sulfites.

At least the cure is free and easy. Just avoid foods containing sulfites.
Posted 2/18/2015 9:59 AM (GMT 0)
For about a decade since my early twenties I was finding more and more often that each time I ate I was experiencing asthma-like symptoms. To begin with it was only after eating very big meals, but a few years down the track it had progressed to anything and everything I ate. My GP placed me under an ENT specialist at the local hospital who was mainly concerned at my progressive voice degeneration, but one day when I told him that I would get an asthma attack from drinking a glass of plain water he had a bit of a lightbulb moment and sent me for oesophageal manometry (measures the contractile force of your swallow along the length of the oesophagus). Turns out my swallow reflex started fine, but then faded into nothing well before it reached my stomach. My lower oesophageal sphincter had pretty much had-it. After a weightlifting accident had left me with a tear in my diaphragm I had developed a hiatus hernia; with reflux acid regularly burning my oesophagus my LOS was getting weaker and weaker. My ENT specialist put a camera in through my nose to look at my vocal folds but discovered in the process that my whole oesophagus-throat-trachea system had become hypersensitized, which was transferring the burning sensation of reflux into my lungs. Three or four times a day I was eating something, refluxing about 10 minutes later, and within 15 minutes I would be wheezing, breathing heavily and have a hoarse voice. Fast forward to now and I'm nearly a week out from my Nissen fundoplication. The recovery is not pleasant at all, BUT since I woke from the surgery I've had neither reflux nor any hint of asthma. It's a little wierd actually, I keep breathing in and out to test if I am short of breath because it's such a foreign feeling being able to take a deep breath and not feel the immediate urge to cough.

If someone would have told me 5 years ago that all of this would pan out the way it did, I would never have believed them. The changes happened so slowly that I was just dealing with every little symptom of GERD as it popped up, I never would have linked reflux to asthma, or to my husky voice, or to chipped teeth, or to my appetite slowly increasing as my stomach valve got looser etc. But when I started seeing GERD (GORD in NZ) on all of my hospital documents and had a look on the Internet at what it actually was, it all started coming together. You can imagine my excitement when I realised that after surgery there was a chance I might not be asthmatic any more. Obviously a week is to soon to tell for sure and I will be wanting my GP to check it out, but this has been the only week in my life (since I was 4 or something) that I haven't needed Ventolin (Salbutamol) even once.

Fingers crossed
Posted 2/18/2015 11:48 AM (GMT 0)
Thank You Alcie for the advise. I will most definitely be looking to see if there is a pattern and a link to the foods I have been eating. It very hard to accept the whole idea of GERD and to have to start paying such attention to the things that I'm eating. I've always been very active, slim and have always been able to eat what I have wanted. Used to joke that I have cast iron stomach! Think instead of brooding and getting depressed abour the whole thing I need to just accept it.

Wozza, this is brilliant news, I am so pleased to hear a success story for your type of symptoms prior to surgery. I am in the same boat you were. Lots of asthmatic type symptoms. I'm under a respiratory consultant who has told me we need to hang fire with further diagnostic tests ( methacholine I think) until after my redo surgery. If possible, can you pleased keep me posted of your progress, I am really interested to hear about your experience . Thanks
Posted 2/18/2015 11:56 AM (GMT 0)
wozza another thing, did you have a 360 wrap? Thanks
Posted 2/19/2015 7:22 PM (GMT 0)
I had the 270 degree wrap. My surgeon says he basically never does the 360 wrap anymore - according to him the preponderance of data suggests that the final 90 degrees hugely escalates adverse sideeffects forthe patient and risks of need for redo while not showing significant benefits over the toupee. He's the go-to guy for this procedure in NZ so I was fairly comfortable with this.

Yesterday was day 8 after surgery, and while I'm not up to going back to work, it was the first day where I felt human again. Headaches gone, nausea mostly gone, appetite beginning to re-emerge. More importantly I still haven't had a single coughing fit, and as my diaphragm heals I can breath ever more deeply without the coughing reflex.

Both my surgeon and my ENT are interested in seeing how cases like mine pan out. Apparently there is growing speculation about how often the asthma-like symptoms of GERD are misdiagnosed as asthma. I wouldn't claim to have any learned opinion on that matter, other than to say that I was always told asthma was a lifelong auto-immune/allergic condition, yet now mine seems to have been literally switched off.

I'll need longer than 8 days to confirm this of course but as you can probably tell, being able to breath easily after nearly 30 years of slow decline is strange and exciting to get my head around.
Posted 2/19/2015 7:39 PM (GMT 0)
Also, I've noticed for the past 3 mornings that I just wake up, like I could just wake up and get out of bed... almost as though I've had a real night's sleep. My wife is not used to this behavior - I have always been useless in the morning.
Posted 2/19/2015 9:56 PM (GMT 0)
That's brilliant, as one sufferer to another I'm genuinely pleased you have found relief! Great news you are obviously sleeping a lot better.

I had a "Dor" fundoplication which I have only just found out!! I was under the impression I was having a full 360. My les only improved from 6-7. For some reason it just hasn't been successful.. To be honest they could turn my insides upside out and back to front if it were to ease my symptoms!

I have also been told that by the physiologist who performed my testing that she believes an awful lot of people are misdiagnosed as asthmatics when in actual fact it's gerd. She also said that up to 30% of people who are tested by standard ph testing and told its normal actually need impedance to acknowledge reflux to proximal oesophagus. Think it's an area that needs lots more research.

Anyway if you could check in and key us know of your progress that would be great. Good to hear success story from someone who had similar symptoms to me.

Happy recovery 😊.
Posted 2/20/2015 5:52 PM (GMT 0)

rover78 said...
Does anyone here have shortness of breath after meals? If so, how have you dealt with it?

I have dealt with feeling sick after eating, short of breath and dizzy. I also was having shortness of breath not after eating. Since I started taking nexium I have noticed I am doing better in that department. I have zero history of asthma or any other breathing troubles.
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