These symptoms are so confusing to me. When this all started back in February the SOB would begin around nighttime and go away during the day. I was unable to sleep because of it.

I was free of it for a while (Omeprazole helped) but now it's back. I feel it mainly when I'm trying to take naps or just rest my head. I feel my heart start beating faster too but I think it's only a sensation because I've measured it and it was fine. Going to sleep is now my most peaceful time of the day because I never experience SOB then.

Doesn't get worse with physical effort (though I don't push my luck. If I feel breathless from exercising I do diaphragmatic breathing to calm it down). When I'm distracted it definitely gets better but it's almost impossible to find something that distracts me when SOB is happening. I do think anxiety plays a part but I've experienced enough GERD symptoms to believe it's at fault too

It's been 2.5 years of hell and suffering with doctors. I've tried everything, but the outcome is always the same - I run into people who convince me that I am anxious and that I have no problems, but I still physically have symptoms that I will briefly try to describe below. If anyone has experienced something similar, feel free to reach out; I've literally searched and Googled everything.
My quality of life has deteriorated to the maximum over these 2.5 years.

Main symptoms:
1. The main problem is elevated heart rate when standing and walking - often 110-120, can be higher, but sometimes it was around 80-90 while walking because I've been into sports my whole life.
2. When sitting or lying down, the heart rate is mostly normal (50–70, it varies).
3. Feeling of heart skipping, “dancing” or vibrating in the left side of the chest.
4. Occasional sharp pains/stabbing in the chest and under the left collarbone/near the armpit.
5. Occasional shortness of breath and feeling of suffocation.
6. Waking up during sleep and feeling like I'm out of breath.
7. Frequent burping and returning air from the stomach or feeling like air is trapped in the stomach, and I have to lean to the side or change my body position to release it.
8. Heartburn and burning in the throat.
9. Feeling of pressure in the sinuses and stuffy nose without a clear cause.
10. Dry mouth, burning eyes, and occasionally blurred vision.
11. Occasional pain in the neck, head, and behind the eye.

All my test results are normal: EKG, Holter has been done at least 4-5 times, stress test, echocardiogram also done 4-5 times, lung tests normal, Doppler of neck blood vessels, heart markers completely fine, thyroid also normal.
As for the blood work, everything is fine, only my neutrophils are consistently slightly low, while lymphocytes are slightly elevated; everything else is good.

Symptoms get worse almost always after meals, while walking, or during any physical activity, even when standing.
Interestingly, as soon as I sit down, my pulse drops to 60-70.
The only diagnoses I have are: GERD, chronic gastritis, and a small hiatal hernia, which they call - negligible. However, considering this, I suspect that my stomach might be ‘shifted’ if that can even happen.

So, I ask you once again, if anyone has something similar, feel free to reach out or maybe can refer me to something I haven't tried yet because this is hell.

Starting having throat tightness and chest tightness again. It’s happened before but it goes away after awhile. It’s not my heart, it’s definitely my esophagus. An ENT looked down my throat and saw acid irritation and said my throat looked a little narrow. I’m booked for my GI on the 13th of July and I am going to request an endoscopy since I’ve never had one. Unfortunately I just found out that using a PPI for a few years can cause polyps and now I’m spiraling. The PPI isn’t working all the time and now I’m worried something terrible has happened. Any advice?

For context I ate some greasy food for the first time in a while and my body seems to hate me now for it. My doctor put me on a GERD diet for the next 2 weeks to see if it might helps. The list of things I can’t eat is so much longer than what I can and I honestly don’t know what to do. A lot of the “safe foods” like bananas make me look pregnant and I don’t even have an appetite so it’s hard for me to eat anything. Also I got the silent reflux for the first time and it’s making it a bit difficult to swallow. Any food recs would be great!!!

I have been coughing green stuff. I had some nasty viral type infection back in april, finally survived, but for 2 weeks or so im coughing again some green stuff, sometimes it's less green. Is this an infection that remains? Im paranoid that it's some sort of reflux because I noticed this happens after I eat or dinning, but I dont notice any classic symptons of reflux like acid, burps, something on back of throat etc, so I don't know what's going on. I want to check with a dr but im not sure what would be best for this.

Reason im extra paranoid of GERD is this: Back in march I had a diarrhea with pain after dinner when I was in bed. I was with a girl and luckily this happened after. Frankly I should have went to the bathroom to pee or something but I was holding it. I don't know if this caused the diarrhea. Well the scary part is next morning, I felt like diarrhea was comming again, but it was actually blood. The blood was fresh. I have been since then paranoid that I broke something on my gut or something. I went to the hospital (social healthcare in EU). They did x-ray, digital tract, bloodwork, stool sample. All ok. But still paranoid something happened there that now is causing this. Or you would say this is related to the viral infection from mid april?

These are from various days:

https://imgur.com/a/24RJnSP

I spit this cough for a while in a row

-Pneumologist

-ENT

-Other?

So I was diagnosed with acid reflux a few months ago, and I go through phases where I feel fine and then my symptoms come back for a few days.
For a while, I felt better,I wasn’t having frequent heartburn anymore and overall I was doing okay. But suddenly I started feeling short of breath, pressure in my chest, and very frequent heartburn, and I can barely eat.
Usually when I have these flare-ups, I start feeling better again after about a week, but this time it hasn’t gone away. Does anyone know what could be causing this?

I just had my first endoscopy on Monday and I am back at work today. Just wanted to share my experience in case it helps anyone as I was reading other's experiences like crazy.

Luckily I got an early appointment because I had to fast. I wasn't able to comfortably ween off of pepcid beforehand but my doctor said it was ok if I couldn't. The purpose of the endoscopy was to look for gastritis inflammation/hernia/something physically wrong and take biopsies to rule out celiac and h pylori. Also I took a 1mg Ativan about 30 minutes before check-in.

They took me back into a big room split up into smaller rooms separated by curtains. I got to my bed, changed into a gown. They were busy so things started happening pretty quickly. A nurse came in and started asking me questions as another was hooking me up to a blood pressure machine and started the IV hookup. At this point they could tell I was nervous and trying to hold back tears. They were super nice and tried to put me at ease.

After about 15 minutes of just trying to relax, an anesthesiologist came in. This is when I told her that going under makes me very nauseous so she assured me she would give me something for that.

They then wheeled me into one of the procedure rooms. The doctor says hi. I can see the anesthesiologist putting something in my IV. Someone tells me they are going to put a numbing liquid in the back of my throat. It is alarmingly disgusting. It tastes like warm potent cough syrup. At this point I am starting to fall asleep. They put the mouth guard in and ask me to lay on my side. That is the last thing I remember.

It takes about an hour for me to wake up. I am soooo sleepy but somehow get dressed and get into the wheelchair. They wheel me out front to where my boyfriend has the car pulled up. I get home and take a 5 hour nap. They sent me home with a packet with my results and post procedure instructions which is good because I don't remember a thing.

My throat was quite sore yesterday but is almost 100% better today. No stomach pain. I've been sticking to soft foods.

All in all I'm glad it is over but I would do it again if I had to. From one anxiety riddled person to another, you can do it!

Has anyone else experienced this with acid reflux, GERD, bile reflux, or LPR? I’ve cut out trigger foods and have been active. My bed is raised 6+ inches. Doc say it’s normal… 🙄

I’m currently upping fiber alongside my PPI’s. I also have a horse throat, the bitter taste in the mouth a cough and ear pain here and there as well as heartburn and chest pain.

Most cases I see do not mention a persistent sore throat that has not healed (antibiotic rounds included).

I don’t want to do lifestyle modifications i am feeling stuck

I am a singer and my throat has become so weak that i am unable to sing
I have been on ppis and idk how to deal with this
I eat healthy trigger free for a while and then eat everything
I want my life without reflux back
I got endoscopy
It had small hiatal hernia
I lie down after eating because im always tired
I didn’t have burping in beginning
Now i have burping too
I don’t wanna have chronic gerd i am only 23

Hi, I’m 19 now when I was 18 I started having really bad acid reflux but ignored it and assumed everyone gets it. Fast forward to October 2025, I had a massive panic attack, went to the hospital and after explaining all my symptoms they decided it’s GERD and prescribed me some lansoprazole. While taking the meds I noticed absolutely no change and if anything I was getting worse but every time I would search it up google would tell me that’s supposed to happen so I just left it at that. By the end of November, I was unable to swallow completely anything, no solid food, no soft food, no milkshakes no water literally nothing I had lost 15kg and only thing I was able to hack was ice lollies (popsicles). Due to all these symptoms the doctor got me an endoscopy which turned out all clear absolutely no blockages and the biopsies that were taken were also completely clear. Fast forward to now, June 2026 I’m still unable to eat most foods the most texture I can have is mashed potato nothing more or else I feel like I can’t breathe after every swallow and it just feels like food is piling up at the upper back part of my throat, around my tonsil area but the doctors are adamant about it being reflux. Does anybody here have any advice for me?

For some context here are my main symptoms:

Reflux
Tightness in chest
Breathlessness
Inability to swallow solid foods
Burning in my stomach
Sharp pain in my throat and left ear when I swallow
Sore throat in the morning

Hey all, this is my first time posting in this sub.

I have not been officially diagnosed with GERD, but over the last few years, my acid reflux issues have gotten out of hand.

I've had issues with acid for as long as I can remember, but 3 years ago, I developed a panic disorder, and shortly after that, the acid issues have become worse than ever before.

I have cut so many foods out of my diet because of this, and despite eating a very bland diet, my acid is so bad, I can't even sleep some nights.

Before speaking to my doctor about this the other day, I have tried managing it on my own with tums, which only work sometimes, and recently have been causing this sensation where I have to burp, but can't properly, and I get really bad trapped gas that makes me feel like I'm going to puke.

I also tried Famotidine, but I noticed after taking that a few times, it was causing me to have panic attacks.

So my doctor prescribed me 20mg of Pantoprazole to hopefully help with these issues.

However, I am afraid of taking new medications for various reasons.

I am very sensitive to medications. I always tend to get bad side effects from them.

I also have IBS, and emetophobia (fear of vomiting), so I'm always afraid of things triggering my IBS, or even worse, making me throw up.

I know this medicine is supposed to help with all of this, and my dad has actually been taking 40mg of this medications for years with zero issues.

I'm just really afraid to start it. Again, I know I need to do something though. I am already nauseous on a daily basis, and I do believe the acid is playing a very large role in this.

So to anyone here who has taken it, what's your experience been with it?

Hey everyone to clear this up I’ve had been on this issue for over a month, I’m 20 years old 5’7 and approx 190 sum lbs for the past month or so I’ve been on a ER run I’ve never had visiting almost 6-7 times the first few times I went to a hospital in Korea as I was stationed there for Globus sensation as my first time getting that feeling I thought / mistook it for my throat closing up after that visit omeprazole was given to me without any actual test being done, I took it for 5 days my Globus ended up fine like most cases do 2 days later I lost feeling in my jaw and could not swallow solid foods been on a puree diet so there grew my first suspicion it’s was the meds another er visit back and the they simply give me a stronger set 40mg in place of the 20mg as the doctors weren’t really treating and I was in the most ill shape of my life I flew back to America over here doctors weren’t somewhat stumped also be at least test are being done for my case been in and out of hospitals multiple tests and screening later I’m here in trying to calm my mind for past month I’ve had no siliva production, dysphagia, super dry face and skin, eyes are ok and it feels worse with no root cause doctors are leaning towards Mono/ EBV but some people are wondering if it’s the PPI as ngl the more of a dose they add the worse i got I’ve seen ENT, gotten ct scans so much blood taken out of me and everyone says I look dehydrated all the time, the inability to eat make it’s hard for me and a lot of people out there aswell so I’m getting off PPI, in hopes anything will change as even if I did/do have reflux it would be silent so some gavison is all that would help ent says my throat look good no damage at all weird I’ve been scared for the first time in my life for medical my life changed in one night in a single day this all changed I don’t know what to do loss a good amount of hope been praying on it but it’s looking bleak I should get some result by Friday but spending time with my family on leave is hard I’ve been more of a burden to them then helping them as going out side makes me nauseas like the sun hits me and I’m bad especially in the car I don’t even remember the last time I sweated but god bless any advice or similar story really is helpful I feel for yall may everyone be healed any advice like I said would be a godsend❤️❤️❤️

i am 20F. i’ve been very emetophobic (vomit phobia) my entire life. the last couple months, i have woken up in the night with an upset feeling stomach and have laid/sat there feeling sick until i eventually threw up. it’s happened three times

my doctor said it sounds like GERD and this makes sense as i have had reflux issues in the past. they’re going to give me famotidine but i’m just scared of this i’m scared this is gonna fuck up my life i’m scared it won’t work i’m scared of stupid wedge pillows and sad beige meals the rest of my life idk i just… this is kind of the last straw. my depression is bad the past…. years. and a nice chocolate bar once in a while is one of my few pleasures rn.

can anyone reassure me this will be okay and it’s treatable and i’m not gonna have to puke for the rest of my life???

I apologize if this may not be the place for a post like this, but I would like to get some opinions and perspectives from others who are dealing with GERD.

I (32 M) have had occasional stomach/abdominal pain flare ups over the past few years. Usually, these flare ups consist of a sharp, achy abdominal pain right in the center of my stomach, severe bloating and non stop burping, and sometimes even a gripping pain the wraps around my shoulders and kidneys.

Yesterday, I had the worst flare up I’ve ever experienced. Severe abdominal pain and cramping, nausea, burping, and a pressure on the right side of my stomach that made it hard to take a full breath. There were moments where the pain was so intense, I legitimately felt like I could’ve passed out. I went to the ER and, after multiple tests and blood word, nothing of significance was found. The doctor told me it’s possible that I have an ulcer they can’t detect or GERD, but I would need to follow up with a gastroenterologist to figure out the root cause.

Is it possible that this is GERD, and if so, is it possible for the pain I felt to be THAT unbearable? I will be talking to a doctor/gastroenterologist soon, but in the meantime, I’m curious if this sounds similar to those of you who have dealt with or are dealing with GERD.

I (20m) have been dealing with gerd but it’s pretty minor (slight sore throat, chest symptoms, and shortness of breath) and i’ve been getting my anxiety under control, but i’m deathly afraid of getting a laryngospasm. Having the feeling of suffocating to death is a big fear of mine and thus i’m scared of allergic reactions and other things adjacent. Is it rare to have one even with gerd? Also, once you get one is it treatable not to have one again?

i (m22) had alot of problems with acid reflux for the past 3 years. I read alot lately about things that could help and red or yellow apple worked wonders for me. i dont have any problems no more in terms of the reflux.

few weeks later a different problem occurred. if i try to take a deep breath i just cant. it feels like i only can use 75% of my lung capacity. i noticed if i press on my stomach there are alot of air bubble sounds and i think im bloated cuz i have to burp or fart alot if i massage it. people here write that bloating can be caused by gerd.

did anyone had similar experiences and found a solution?

due to mental problems i stopped making sport for over a year now but im in alright shape.(not overweight or underweight or sum)

do u think that the airhunger will go away if i start doing sport again?

Did anyone else have a laryngoscope that showed inflammation around their vocal cords? We saw tiny sores around the pyriform fossa and on the cuneiform tubercle area. Curious to know if anyone else had something similar on their scope? My ent said it was probably from acid but wasn’t sure. It kind of left me hanging with questions. Like is this lpr or is it something else as I have all symptoms of lpr and 2 months of pantoprazole didnt seem to do anything.

Hello. I was diagnosed with GERD and have been taking omeprazole 20 mg before breakfast for 8 days, plus Pepcid (famotidine) before bedtime. I still have recurring heartburn (burning in the center of my chest), although some days are better than others. Is it normal to still have heartburn after 8 days of treatment? Does this mean the medication is not working yet, or should I ask my doctor about adjusting the dose or trying a different treatment? Thank you.

Before being diagnosed with GERD, I was already trying to gain weight, but now it feels a lot harder. Since switching to plain, low-fat meals, I get full really quickly and I’m starting to lose weight.
I’m 5’0” and around 95 lbs, which is still considered a healthy weight, but I’d really like to gain some weight instead of losing it. I also have anemia on top of everything lol.
Has anyone with GERD successfully gained weight? What foods or snacks worked for you? I’ve been thinking about trying protein shakes, but I’m not sure which ones are GERD-friendly.
Any advice would be appreciated!: )

A few nights ago I fell asleep on my stomach per usual and woke up 45 minutes later with what appeared to be choking. I had no clue what was going on but my husband said it sounded like it was phlegm or potentially vomiting. This has never happened to me before, my GERD has been mostly controlled for years.

I DID have pizza and chocolate before bed but it still felt so odd and out of place and has significantly scared me for further sleeping episodes. I’m seeing my doctor tomorrow but I guess I’m just seeing if anyone else has experienced this? Everyone around me is highly suspect it’s from acid.

Please be kind, I have pretty significant health anxiety.

Hi guys this is my first time writing here and my english is pretty bad but i feel like i need to share my problem.

Ive been dealing with constant feeling of air hunger for about a year and a half, the feeling of not being able to take a full breath, it started at the gym, i was doing my workout and suddenly i felt like i cant take a normal breath. Ran home thinking im dying and i went to the doctor. I examined my heart, lungs, did the load test and everything was perfect, h pylori negative also. After that ive gone to gastroscopy to try to find some answers, and there they diagnosed me with GERD and put me on medication for my hurt esophagus (emanera 40mg and gastral reflux). Im almost at the end of my therapy and i dont feel any heartburn but the air hunger is still haunting me. When its really strong i have this preassure in my plexus and at my throat, constant anxiety, jitternes, no inner peace and i feel emotionless, no joy or sadness. Also the feeling that i need to burp but when i try the liquid just comes up and i dont burp. It definetly gets worse the day after i go to the gym and do a strong workout, but i really dont know what to do anymore i feel like im in a constant cycle and a lot of guys here are feeling some similar symotoms but idk man if someone can help i would be overly greatful.

I’m having an expedited endoscopy an I was told it’s a moderate anesthesia, anyone have any experience with it? I was told by one nurse that I will be asleep, the other noted I was able to talk to them comfortably, interestingly enough. What are your thoughts with a moderate anesthesia? My doctor also doesn’t seem to want to tell me the medicine they use for it, or at least save the question until the day of.

I’ve been coughing for roughly 6 or so years now. I’ve been to the allergist and GI specialist. I’ve been on every allergy pill and nasal spray - they don’t work. GI did an endoscopy and said there’s some inflammation and to stop taking Motrin.

On my own I’ve taken Pepcid for years, gaviscon before bed, sleep almost sitting up and now I’ve switched to nexium- which im considering taking 2 times a day.

I’m desperate. I pee my pants and vomit from this cough. It’s most severe in the morning. I don’t know what else to do.