Acid Reflux And Pots?

[boymommy3]

Can POTS cause bad cases of acid reflux or have anything to do with it at all?

I just know that a couple of years ago when I started having all these problems one thing was unrelenting acid reflux. At one point I was taking 600 mg. of Zantac and a 20 mg prevacid or prilosec (I can't remember which one) and it still wasn't even helping, EVERYTHING was coming back up. I couldn't even eat sometimes. Finally went to an ENT and he tried me on something else and backed me off the zantac that another doc had me on. He said that was an awful lot of zantac to be taking, especially for it not to be working. But what ever he switched me too didn't work.

At the time I was convinced that I had holes in my esophagus from it because it was so bad. I went to see a gastro and he did an endoscopy and said other than a little redness things didn't look bad at all. I was shocked. He did put me on Nexium 2x a day then and it completely went away. I got off the nexium and was still fine. I couldn't eat too many tomato based things in a row but other than that it completely went away. Along with all my other symptoms.

But now, since I have started dealing with all these issues, the acid reflux is coming back. I have had it not stop for about a week now. Haven't started taking anything yet, but I believe I am going to have to.

[Chaos]

Sounds familiar to me! I have noticed as well that for the past 8 years, for whatever reason, I have a lot more GI symptoms in the spring. Before I was diagnosed with POTS, I was having a lot of GI problems and went in one time for an abdominal US. Had similar symptoms again and was sent in for another one. When I was comparing the results I realized the tests were done almost a year apart- to the day!

Who knows. I have heard that in Ayurveda (Indian Yogic health/treatment system) they say that the liver has a hard time making the change from winter to spring and that's the cause of the increased incidence of GI symptoms in the spring. Makes as much sense as anything else I've heard from any of my docs.

When I was sent to an ENT for long term laryngitis, he put me on omeprozol which GAVE me heartburn/reflux that I wasn't having before. Felt like my esophagus was literally burnt from the back of my throat down. Hurt like ..............., triggered esophageal spasms, etc. Totally miserable. Like you, the GI doc then put me on Nexxium which worked great. Took that for awhile and then stopped and was fine.

I tend to think a lot of the GI stuff we get is ANS dysfunction related. According to my POTS neuro, the GI stuff is the "hot new area" for the ANS neuro folks.

[puppylove]

Me too! It's the worst feeling... I got an ulcer from it too two years ago. For some reason though the nexium and stuff makes no difference for me.

[Chaos]

Puppylove- I've read some things recently that say that having too little stomach acid can mimic the same symptoms as having too much. Wonder if that could be the situation in people when they don't respond to the meds like you didn't. Have you tried enzymes in the past?

Hope you're still having luck with the gastrocrom!

[RichGotsPots]

Acid of all kind stomach, esophagus, colon, etc... Can all be related to POTS, but doesnt have to be. There is a fair amount of ppl here with gastroparesis or colon inertia and they tend to get the most reflux. But reflux is a multibillion dollar business because almost everyone has it... Only time I had it was medicinally induced not from pots