Gerd and palpitations

Hey guys,

I'm 26yrs old and have suffered gerd here and there from certain foods but had a weird accident at the pool about a month ago now which has sent it crazy!

I am pretty fit i play/train for indoor hockey most days of the wk So I got swam over and as I came up for water ended up swallowing AlOT of chlorinated water some went down the wrong way and I sort of chocked for a big. Afterwards I wasn't to bad had dinner only then started to develop severe chest pain, it felt like I had a whole bunch of water wanting to come back up and kept burping it up. The chest pain got worse which then has me freaking out like crazy. I went to the after hours but the lady turned me away and said they were clearly busy without even asking what was wrong. My mum have me an anti acid tablet which seemed to help slightly so I tried to go to sleep and planned to head to dr in the morning. During the night I woke up struggling to breath and ended up having to take some ventalin my mum had. It sort of helped. I stayed up
Most of the night worrying.

Went to Gp next morning who was concerned for a PE. Did a chest X-ray but came back clear. She said it was still a possibility to have inhaled a small amount which didn't show up on scan but should be ok. Due to the pain I was in she prescribed me with Naproxen 1000mg slow release anti inflam tablets. I took these as perscribed it worked to reduce the pain but really didn't clear it up. I began taking some anti acids I previously had which helped slightly. But then during sport i noticed after I would ruwho was getting heart palpitations??? I went back to the dr as I was sick of the pain, didn't seem to be improving... and thought it was my lungs/chest. The dr then told me it was gerd and the naproxen would only make it worse and to stop taking it. By this stage I was on it nearly 2wks an apparently it makes gerd worse! I was given a higher dose of anti acid tablets to take for 7 days. After this time it was still terrible, I have chest pain, reflux, burping like crazy (which is rare for me) kept getting hiccups and had this rank taste in my mouth. At this stage I had forgotten to actually mention the palpitations as I had all symptoms of gerd! That afternoon the palpitations were full on like someone was punching me from the inside. I went straight back to the dr the next day and told him. He told me to increase my somac 40 tablets to twice a day and put me on an event monitor. This was due to me only really noticing these palpitations at sport once my heart rate was up. Within a day I recorded the events at sport and then to my Suprise it went off 3 times itself during the night.

I got my results back and turned out I have sinus tachycardia which means my heart beats quicker then it should during these events.

Now when I was jogging upright I don't seem to get the palpitations but the minute I'm bending forward and playing fully and increase my heart rate bang it happens. I can't get into the cardiologist til the 30th nov which sucks. I've had to stop playing coz along with this my chest starts to hurt. It's a sharpe pain in between my boobs and sometimes a little lower but still in the centre and i burp alot. I just wanna know if this could be related to gerd??

I've never had any heart troubles prior and just think its weird that since suffering this bad gerd fair up might be related. Although it could be a side effect from the naproxen I was given? I just wanna be better so i can do the things i love again and don't know what to do.

I have also changed my diet drastically according to the dr which has really helped the pain in general but it's the minute I think I'm fine and try to play sport it happens badly again which I's upsetting me coz I love to play.

Welcome to the forum Neeks and Sweet.

Neeks, since you have noticed a connection between GERD from certain foods, it would be helpful to keep a really good food journal. There are loads of old threads and posts about this you can look up in the search box at the top of the page.

Basically, just write in a smallish notebook with a page for each day, the time, what you eat drink, meds and any reactions. My allergist had me do this and it helped us find out that I have specific food intolerances, which she lumps with allergies. My symptoms are a bubble feeling in my stomach followed by heart arrhythmias, usually tachycardia. Burping often stops the spasms. Some people are helped by starting with a bland diet. I don't have to eat bland food, just avoid the ones containing my particular allergen (sulfite). Other people can have other triggers!

Burping is sort of a Valsalva maneuver, which you can google also. When I get a long run of arrhythmia my cardiologist has me take an Inderal, which works very quickly and usually helps stop the reaction.

Since the stomach, trachea, esophagus and heart and more are all connected by the vagus nerve, it's not surprising that a problem with one organ can cause a reaction in another. Names for this are: cardio-esophogeal reflex or linked angina. There are loads of research papers online now for you to read. I've even had abscesses on my intestines cause tachycardia.

It's always best to see a qualified doctor for serious problems, and I'm glad you are doing this. We posters can only tell our personal experiences. We're just patients!