I wanted to give an update and provide a little insight - Gerd, gas, bloating, palpitations, anxiety

I have been doing really well these last 18 months. I'm actually at the point where I can preempt the symptoms I experience. As a recap, my symptoms/issues are:

Gas and bloating after eating something or when starving, with pressure on esophagus, resulting in GERD;
which causes acid reflux and vagus nerve irritation;
which then results in palpitations.

I have been in a real good place for more than a year with this. I carry tums chewables and Gas-X with me everywhere, but only really use maybe 2-3 times a month. I used to have heavy bloating and palpitations 2-3 times a month after eating certain foods, but in the last year or so with my diet changes I haven't had any.

So I'm on vacation right now, and the last really major episode was 2 years ago almost to the day. And wouldn't you know it, I had a flare up. Oddly enough, it was right after eating the same exact (and I mean EXACT) meal I had 2 years ago. The exactness comes from the fact a relative maintains a tradition on these vacations for breakfast. Each day of vacation is same horn-of-plenty breakfast from the local bakery here.

So 2 days ago, the first morning of the vacation, I eat this breakfast and wham, the flare up happens. I have my gas-x and tums, and I knock it down within an hour. The palps were heavy, though, and I felt my blood pressure drop. It was the same feeling (gas, gerd, palps) from 2 years ago, and one I experienced back in my 20's after going for a run after eating italian food.

Anyway, I've been experimenting all week, and I can now preempt it with a timely Gas-x chewable. This all seems to confirm for me my suspicion: that at least for me, this is squarely a diet issue, maybe even a sugar intake issue (which seems to be the next biggest trigger after fatty and oily foods).

Anyway, that's my update. I feel great, I have this under control, and will be looking into probiotics and other things when I get back home.

I am still on a PPI and I also take "chewable original papaya enzyme". 1 with breakfast, 2 with lunch and dinner. I also carry simethicone with me when the pressure gets unbearable. As we get older, our body cannot digest certain food as well as it used to. Bloating can cause acid to rise. Get to bottom of your indigestion and things should improve. You might want to stay away from dairy, chocolate, sugar (desserts), too much carbs and slowly bring them back. Everybody is different so this will be trial and error. Good luck

Another update. I finally started going to the doctor on an annual basis. My blood work came out good. He told me to start exercising, and I've lost 10 pounds so far. One day last week I went hard on the work out on an empty stomach, and it triggered palps afterward, and I had heartburn all day. I called to talk to one of the nurses, and they talked me into coming in for a quick ECG to try and catch it on paper. Doc said I should see a cardiologist, and I scheduled a visit. Of course I woke up the next day fine. Went to cardiologist he said my ECG looked healthy, but I had skipped beats (PVCs). He didn't prescribe anything, didn't limit me on activity, and told me I didn't need to see him again. He did talk me into getting a 'baseline' echocardiogram, which I'll do next month.