Pinched nerve in neck/back causing GERD?

Hi all,

As detailed in my previous post here, I've been suffering from GERD symptoms all year.

I'm H. Pylori negative, blood work is fine, EKG is fine. I had suspected it was a hiatal hernia due to bad posture/stress.

Yesterday, I finally had an endoscopy done which showed nothing. No ulcers and apparently no hernia. I'm at a complete loss.

The only other thing I can think of is if this is related to my back problems. In February 2015, I started seeing a physiotherapist due to back spasms and general pain/numbness in my upper back between my shoulder blades. I was told it was a muscle imbalance and was given a regimen of strengthening exercises, which I did for a couple months, and the numbness mostly went away.

Then, in April 2015, I had a GERD episode that has been with me fairly consistently ever since, along with constipation, gas/bloating, headaches, and a pronounced heartbeat in my stomach/sternum area that won't go away. Also, my upper back pain is back, with occasional numbness. Finally, whenever I take a deep breath, I can hear/feel a popping/cracking sound in the middle of my back, which I haven't gotten an explanation for. This also started around the same time as the GERD.

Could my GERD be nerve/back related? Has anyone had experience with GERD relief through a chiropractor or physiotherapist?

Welcome to the forum SConductor.

Your GERD is far more likely to be caused by what you are eating or drinking, though I'm not ruling out issues with your back as a tie in. My own chiropractor would say that nerves being pinched could possibly cause GERD. Though I haven't found any evidence of this in my medical research, but that doesn't mean it's not possible.

What kinds of foods do you habitually eat? It's very important to keep a food journal to see if certain foods make your symptoms worse. Just the other day I was suffering from an episode that aggravated my esophagitis and I couldn't figure out what it was. So I pulled out my food journal and I was able to isolate the culprit to a certain type of hummus brand that I had sampled.

It took me many, many months to figure out that sulfites in certain foods and wines were also causing my GERD to flare up. It would have been nearly impossible to have figured it out without a food journal.

Lastly, how do you sleep at night? Do you sleep on you back? On your side? You may want to try sleeping with the head of your bed elevated 7 to 9 inches to see if that helps.

 

Hi SConductor,
I'm not sure if you're still having these issues but I had to share my story with you. I was diagnosed with GERD over 7 years ago, but have also had chronic nerve and muscular issues in my upper back since I was a young child. For years and years I've had nerve and muscular pain in my upper back, shoulders, but primarily in between my shoulder blades. Pain can range all the way from feeling like a hot poker, to feeling like a needle bed down my back, and to random spasms and numbness similar to what you're describing.

I've tried all kinds of medications for the GERD (even down to the natural stuff like orange peel extract) and years of physical therapy for the nerves/muscles but nothing seemed to alleviate all the pain I was having (and some meds just made everything worse!). Changing my diet didn't seem to help at all; at some points it seemed no matter what I ate it was hurting. The only thing that has every helped at all is a daily dose of probiotics (I just take the gummies), which has an added benefit of being a huge immune booster.

Recently however, a chiropractor has found I have cervical kyphosis (my neck is curved backwards severely), I have 5 subluxations (or partially dislocated vertebrae) in my neck, and more issues in my upper thoracic causing all sorts of pinched nerves and degenerative disks. So bottom line, I have a 65 year old neck in a 25 year old body and we had to start treatment ASAP or it would just keep getting worse. Where the GERD comes into play is the nerves in the upper thoracic are responsible for the stomach organ along with the LES function. If the nerve is pinched and the signal can't get to the LES properly, it begins to slow or lose function and can't close tightly enough, thus causing the back up in acid and potentially chronic inflammation if it's happened long enough like in my case.

I have to tell you since neither myself nor my chiropractor expected it, but after only 3 weeks of treatment 3 times a week, not only has my nerve pain decreased overall, but my GERD pain has decreased SUBSTANTIALLY! Most people don't see such significant results this fast, so my doc was really happy. I used to have GERD pain every morning and most nights, but since I've started treatment on my neck and upper back, I've had only 1 morning of minor pain and that's it! That's a huge improvement for me compared to every day for the last 7 years. I ate a whole bowl of tomato soup the other day WITH NO PAIN!! I was ecstatic (and so was my chiropractor); talk about a great bonus! He's been using my case as a success story for chiropractic work showing that it can have significant extra benefits depending on the person.

Although there are a lot of skeptics out there, I'm now a firm believer that not only was my particular case of GERD completely nerve related, but I also know now that chiropractic work DOES HELP if they know where the problem is and how to treat it. I think it could help others too, especially those that medications just don't help.

It might take a while, but hope you find something that will work for you!


P.S., I can NEVER recommend ANYONE take protonix or any proton blocker long-term. Even my old doctor didn't realize that if you take it more than 6 months, it doesn't allow your body to absorb all the necessary nutrients and you start getting more and more fatigued and sick by the day and just makes everything worse. Trust me, I was using protonix prescribed by my old doctor for 18 months, felt like I was walking around with 10% fuel every day, and had to do MY OWN RESEARCH and show it to the doc before they finally believed I was feeling that bad and took me off the medication.

Thanks Tesla328 for sharing. Yes I think GERD could also be nerve related. I had massage when my GERD was bad and this had helped me. I had those knots on my back middle area massaging it slowly helped me feel better. For some reasons, my stomach area feels cold when I got those GERD attack and massage with minty oil warms up my stomach area. This also helped me relax.

Now, Im having theraphy for nick spasm. I am happy tp have eat more food and have healed.
God bless.