How Chronic Indigestion Leads To Heart Problems

Stress. Indigestion. Cardiac Symptoms. Panic.

Traditional Chinese Medicine identified the relationship between digestive issues and serious and terrifying cardiac symptoms thousands of years ago, but it was not discovered in the west until the 20th century. Named after the German doctor whom discovered it in the early 20th century, “Roemheld Syndrome”, cardiac symptoms identified include:

· Atrial Fibrillation

· Cardiac Arrythmias (Heart Palpitations)

· Bradycardia (Slow Resting Heartbeat < 60 per minute)

· Tachycardia (Rapid Resting Heartbeat > 100)

· Hypotension

· Hypertension

Some of the ther symptoms that appear as a result of frequent symptoms shown above include fear of sleeping, weakness, fatigue, dizziness, and depression.

I personally suffered from this about 10 years ago. I had just changed jobs. I went from a steady 9 to 5 to a job that was a huge step up for me, but I frequently worked past midnight at the office. It was a high-pressure job and my diet suffered. Fast lunches, late dinners, high pressure, high stress. My digestion suffered.

One night, I woke up at 3 AM from a deep sleep. I had no idea what it was that woke me. But I felt my heartrate increasing. Within 2 minutes, my heartrate 160, then 180, then full blown panic, feeling like I was about to die. I did not know what was going on, my chest did not hurt, but I was extremely panicked with how fast my heart was beating. It would take 10 to 15 minutes before my heartrate would slow down below 120. I was extremely terrified. This symptom began to occur every single night. I lost sleep because I was afraid of going to sleep, and so I continued going to work every day with only a few hours of rest with episodes of tachycardia and panic sprinkled throughout the night. My health suffered greatly, unable to rest properly, I developed heart palpitations and cycled between hypotension and hypertension. I genuinely thought I would drop dead at any moment. I sought help through Western Medicine, but the doctor did not know what the cause of my symptoms was.

On a chance visit, I saw an Acupuncture and Herbalist, and after reading my pulse and hearing my story, he correctly diagnosed me within minutes. It was high stress and poor eating habits leading to poor digestion, leading to bloating, causing stomach distension, and pressure on the Vagus Nerve (which controls involuntary functions of the body, such as the beating of the heart and digestive function) causing all these symptoms.

One single session of acupuncture, one week of herbal medicine and I saw marked improvement. A holistic look at the causes also revealed an effective multi-prong approach to dealing with these symptoms that include:

· Improving gut microbiome with high quality pro-biotics and pre-biotics like molasses

· Helping body adapt to stress with herbal medicine and adaptogens (i.e. ginseng)

· Lifestyle changes: Sleeping Earlier, Exercising More, No Late Meals

Stress is a silent killer that targets urban dwellers globally.

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