Acid Reflux

Hey everyone!
I'm 29 and I've been living with reflux for a long time. Sometimes I've medicated, other times I've had remissions. It had been years since it really bothered me. Recently, I woke up at 2 a.m. after eating something spicy and felt shortness of breath, combined with acid. I was coughing but it was unproductive and dry. This feeling continued and prompted me to see the doc. I thought for sure I must have a hiatal hernia combined with acid, because of the shortness of breath feeling, but after a barium upper/lower GI, no evidence of hernia was found. Just alot of acid reflux! (He did also say it was "possible" that I could have a small intermittent sliding hernia, but that he didn't see it in my tests). I am currently taking Prilosec OTC and have been ever since seeing the doc. Basically, this shortness of breath feeling (like I can't get a good deep breath) has been with me for about two weeks, since the waking up episode! At times, if I burp or twist just right, I feel I can get a deep breath. Also when I am very relaxed and sleeping it tends to let up as well. It's a very annerving feeling and the meds don't seem to be helping that much. Does this seem typical of a bad reflux/GERD flareup? The shortness of breath is such an anxiety provoking symptom to have!

Thanks for your thoughts!

Hey Channy,

I'm not sure if this will make a difference, but I'm 23 and I've experienced the same shortness of breath that you describe, although it started a few years before my acid reflux symptoms began to occur. Whenever I eat something that upsets my stomach, the shortness of breath rears its ugly head, along with the nasty lump sensation in my throat and upper chest. Some of my doctors have said that the shortness of breath is related to anxiety, which is very likely since I've had problems with that in the past.

So, for what it's worth, I share some of your symptoms. Medicine doesn't seem to help me with it, either, so I tend to just live with it. It sucks sometimes because I'll try to take a deep breath and become paranoid after I fail, haha.

Anyhow, good luck in dealing with your symptoms. I hope my comment helped somewhat.

Cheers!

My daughter who is 10 was born with GERD (acid reflux). She never outgrew it and has taken medication basically since birth. To make a really long story short, I took her off meds at age5 or 6. She started showing signs of asthma-difficulty breathing in deep. Allergy/asthma doc said she had asthma based on the symptoms (cough equivelent asthma she called it based on diff taking deep breath and cough). I gave her inhalers and things till age 9. Took her to a different doc and he said now she was old enough to do asthma test-he did it-she does NOT have asthma. He informed me that acid reflux and asthma mimmick one another, especially in children, and can be difficult to differentiate from one another. So, her breathing problem was the acid reflux she was born with all along. All the asthma meds they had her on were merely a waste of my time and money. Now her new pediatrician told me she needs off the Prevacid cuz it stops the acid production in the stomach and over a long period of time it causes other intestinal issues because of the lack of stomach acid...and stomach acid is necessary for proper digestion of food. Now she is having trouble breathing again because I took her of the Prevacid a couple of months ago and she has nausea and heartburn daily. Enough is enough. What else can I do? I am getting ready to try the aloe vera juice again since she's off the meds and I guess it will be easier to tell if it works. But otherwise, I think I will have them look in her stomach with the scope for anything abnormal or ulcers from the reflux over her entire 10 years of life. Any thoughts? I need all the help I can get!