Hi I Had A Question For A Gastroenterologist. I Have

Posted on Tue, 6 Nov 2018

Question: Hi I had a question for a gastroenterologist. I have been getting skipped heart beats for a couple of weeks now. I should preface that I am a anxiety sufferer. I am 53 years old somewhat over weight and type 2 diabetic that is very controlled. I am very active and my job is active. Other than anxiety I am healthy. I got the skipped beats about 2 months ago and saw my private practitioner. She did blood work, full physical and numerous EKG. I followed up with my cardiologist and he did a full work up. Bloods, EKG's Echo cardiogram, Corodic artery tests and blood work. Everything was fine. They did go away after these visits for a month and now in the last week have returned. All said they were PAC's and were harmless and normal. But annoying. I saw my psychiatrist and he raised my meds. I was on Klonopin 1 mg t night and .5 in the morning. He raised it to .75 in the morning and now has given me Lexapro. 5 mg. I just cant get it through my head that this is anxiety. So being a internet junkie I saw somewhere that indigestion or GERD can cause irregular heart beats and maybe it was this?

Answered by Dr. Ramesh Kumar (4 hours later)

Brief Answer:
Anxiety is the primary cause.

Detailed Answer:
Hello and Welcome to 'Ask A Doctor' service.
I have reviewed your query and here is my advice.

"So being an internet junkie I saw somewhere that indigestion or GERD can cause irregular heartbeats"-Medically the reverse statement is true. Anxiety would stimulate the autonomous nervous system of the body. This would lead to hyperstimulation of vagus nerve which would cause increased secretion of acid from oxyntic cells hence would cause severe gastritis and acid peptic disorder. Hyperstimulated vagus would cause reversion of formed acid into the esophagus. Now this completely messed up an autonomous nervous system with hyperstimulated nerves may cause palpitations and PAC's etc as heart to has the same innervation.

So yes Anxiety may cause stimulation of nerves leading to indigestion acid formation and may cause palpitations.
Hope I was helpful.
Regards!

Above answer was peer-reviewed by : Dr. Kampana

Follow up: Dr. Ramesh Kumar (5 hours later)

So, Just so I understand. This is all anxiety. By taking the prescribed anti anxiety meds this should correct itself? No need to see a Gastro Dr ?

Follow up: Dr. Ramesh Kumar (10 hours later)

Also , do you recommend any ant acid or meds in case this has something to do with GERD or something. Please answer both questions soon. Thank You

Answered by Dr. Ramesh Kumar (4 hours later)

Brief Answer:
Follow up.

Detailed Answer:
Hello again my dear,
Yes as per the history given by you anxiety appears to be the base line cause of your problem.
So yes very likely this would be corrected by anti anxiety medications.
Seeing a gastro in person is always a good idea because its very difficult to give you a perfect and accurate diagnosis just by going through a paragraph(So what i gave you is a most probable diagnosis).
Adding a antacid is not a issue and yes you can for a few days to see if it helps you or not.
Omeprazole 40 mg should be taken twice daily and its over the counter.

Hope i was helpful.
Feel free to follow up!

Above answer was peer-reviewed by : Dr. Remy Koshy

Answered by Dr. Ramesh Kumar (14 hours later)

Brief Answer:
No it won't

Detailed Answer:
Hi again,
You feel free to ask any query you want to my deat patient i would be happy to answer.
Practically no its not going to have any major effect in your problem.
I don't feel so.
Regards!

Above answer was peer-reviewed by : Dr. Prasad

Follow up: Dr. Ramesh Kumar (10 minutes later)

Hi Dr. one last question. I often eat in bed at night lying down mostly on my stomach facing the T.V. . How bad is this and would this contribute to everything we spoke about.