Heart and Stomach Correlation

[Pizazzian]

As I type this at 2:30 am fighting a panic attack for what feels like heart attack symptoms, it gives me comfort to read previous posts about other people who have GERD and experience PVC's.  I've had chest pains for as long as I could remember.  I developed severe reflux back in college.  I never made a correlation.  A few years ago, I was awakened by my heart.  Long story short, I was in atrial fibrillation.  I went to the ER and thought I was going to die that night.  Then a funny thing happened, I sat up in my hospital bed and BURPED and then my symptoms went away.  Earlier that day, I had eaten all the wrong foods and that night I had given my son a bath.  I forgot to mention, I also have a hiatal hernia, so bending down is no good.  Anyway, after lots of testing, I was told I have benign PVC's and PAC's.  Unfortunately, I have been taking Prevacid daily for the last few years.  But with life's stress lately, I have had several late night episodes where I just panic and think I'm going to die.  I have palpitations, pains and once the panic starts, I can't stop it.  For some reason lately, I have been feeling pain in my jaw. Tonight, my left hand got tingly and my jaw and shoulder hurt.  I keep trying to be logical and tell myself it's just my stomach and emotional issues, but it's so hard to be logical when you start to panic and are afraid to fall asleep.  What do you guys do? Any advice would be greatly appreciated.  

[izzan]

well I have had two stents. Jul 12 and Nov 13. I am grateful for the GERD I was dx with because it is how my blockage was discovered. After the July stent I felt fine minus some adjustment episodes. I never felt this miraculous recovery people have after a stent. In Nov of 2012 I had a Nuclear Stress Test, which I passed with flying colors and from Nov thru Apr of 2012 I felt great, I was prescribed the usual heart meds and also something for my GERD. I never took it until April of 2013, might be a big coincidence that in April is when I started to feel bad again. There were days I thought I was going to die. Horrible pains in my chest, my arms on fire, pulsing sensations in my biceps, horrible PVCs ( chest flutters and twinges all over my chest) and headaches. He did another stress test and also passed with flying colors. But my issues were still there, almost every day I thought it would be my last.  Finally the doc decided to do another catheterization on Nov 1 2013. He placed a small stent in my circumflex. First he thought it was only 70% but I guess it was more. I think he did it to see if my symptoms would go away. Some of them did..no more headaches, but now I can pop the cartilage in my sternum, that is what it feels like and sounds like. I still get the twinges in my chest and sharp stabbing pains on both sides of my sternum right at the Solar plexus. They are very brief and fleeting, I get pains all over my chest, but mostly on my right side. Some twinges around the left nipple and itches in my back.. I attribute it to GERD mostly, but it scares me. Like TSCO says, I might drop over dead so be it, if I die, I die. Doctors are arrogant, I hope some advancements come quick in this field  

[tsco]

I'm sorry for your trouble it is truly a flipping pain in the *** to live like this. So I started same symptoms as you when I was 35, I'm now 52. I have pac's, tachycardias, and afib. Yes it sets off panic. First go to an Ep heart doc determine what you have. Second get on some medication for anxiety. There is a direct link between my stomach and me palpitations. I'm just coming off a week of every time in flipping burp I have palps! Crazy. I have had all the tingling, pain, your palps will change. You will think its from this food that food, and so on. Third try to control your gut. I took prescription Prevacid until I realized it may interfere with absorption of heart meds. Fourth....I finally drove in my head (after I realized I should not die from these) that hey my heart is going flipping nuts, I don't like it but if I die right now I just die and then I won't have to worry about it! The worse thing is I might just drop over dead, so be it!  A big help for me was I downloaded some hypnosis for anxiety and listened every day at lunch for a year. There are some really great hypnosis audits on YouTube. Check it out.

[MichelleP_3811]

Do you have these exact symptoms often?  The radiating pain to your jaw and shoulder?  How long do the pains last?   I know with my pvcs my chest can hurt for a bit but it doesn't last hours and is generally mild as opposed to the crushing pain of a heart attack.  Do you try to do deep breathing to calm and slow your breath down when you start to feel panic?  Does it help?  I would say to please go and get checked out if these are new or worsening pain.  If you at all suspect you may be having a heart attack it is better to be safe than sorry and go to the ER if you think your life is in danger.  I suspect your panic is causing you to tense up and generate more pain but until you know that for sure it is best you have a doctor decide what is going on.  This said, stress and anxiety are hard on your body and heart so moving forward try to do your best to find ways to cope with the stress in your life.  Maybe do yoga or meditation or simply try to learn deep breathing when things start to intensify to see if you can calm yourself down in the moment because the stress itself is feeding your ectopic beats and very well causing you to have more then you may otherwise have.  Acid reflux is a big trigger but when you stress about them you secrete a hormone that actually triggers more so try to learn to talk yourself out of panic and do deep breathing when you are feeling them as well whenever life starts to stress you out and see if it helps.  Also if you haven't already maybe discuss with your doctor what else you can do to manage stress and anxiety.  It is understandable that you are scared. Anything to do with the heart is scary regardless if doctors tells us it is normal.  It doesn't feel very normal to us but it is up to us to take control of our life and though we may not be able to stop our heart from jumping around how we react to it is something we control. Don't let stress and anxiety rob you of your peace and happiness.  Take care and stay strong,  Please keep us posted how you are doing.