Bloated stomach and palpitations?

Yes! Definitely a huge stomach-heart connection, via the Vagus nerve. I hope there will be increased research into this phenomenon.

I am experiencing this right now, having some tummy troubles and my heartbeat is very weak and erratic, with a lot of ectopics. I know it's nothing serious but it is bothersome! And yes it does feel like a higher chance of SVT, though it's not necessarily true.

I started to take a strong probiotic every morning, it helps not only the stomach but the heart.

The reason I am having these palpitations now is just that I ran out of my probiotic. otherwise I am completely free of my ectopics since starting the probiotic. Might not work for everyone but hopefully. I also stay away from gluten, processed foods, sugar, and salt. Whole foods small meals seem to do the trick (look into Ayurveda if you're interested in that sort of philosophy of food).

Good luck

I've lived with SVT for over 30 years now, but I think I may have finally found the cure to my condition.

SVT first appeared for me when I was teenager, and it was fairly frequent to the point that I had to start taking beta blockers to prevent it. When I went off to college I started exercising more frequently and found that exercise helped and that I could wean myself of the beta blockers over time. That led to a long stretch of time in my life where the SVT episodes pretty much stopped. I might have maybe one episode a year (if that), and usually I could stop it almost instantly by bearing down, or one of the other valsalva maneuvers. This was pretty much the case throughout my 20's and 30's and even into my early 40's.

But then when I hit my mid 40's something changed. Not only did the SVT episodes increase in frequency, but they lasted longer and become harder for me to convert, with valsalva maneuvers being ineffective. Needless to say this began to negatively impact my life. I had become somewhat sedentary in recent years, so I tried to go back to the old method of using exercise to put the SVT back into "remission". That worked well for about 6 months and then I had an SVT episode for the first time in my life that was brought on during exercise. SVT being triggered during exercise started to happen more and more frequently until I had to just stop exercising at all.

At that point I felt the only options left for me were to go back onto medication or go the ablation route. I'm a bit of a chicken and reading about some of the ablation risks which included wiping out the AV node and requiring a pacemaker for the rest of my life, I decided medication was the safer route, and was prescribed Atenelol (a beta blocker) 50 mg daily. I've never been a big fan of popping pills, preferring more of a functional medicine approach, so I decided if I was going to have to go on medication that I would try to take the minimum dose needed to be effective. I started with cutting the pills in half to see if a smaller dose would work and it did, so I began taking 25 mg Atenelol daily.

This helped tremendously with getting my life back to where I could be functional. But I would find that sometimes if I was late taking my daily medication, I would have an SVT episode kick-in. So during that first year back on medication I maybe had 3 or 4 episodes, usually in the morning if I was late in taking my daily Atenelol. These instances became more frequent over time and even began occurring later in the day even after I had already taken my medication, so I decided it was time to up the dosage to the 50 mg that was prescribed. Unfortunately that didn't work either and I had an SVT episode while on an airplane, which I can tell you is an extremely frightening experience. Luckily it had not taken off yet and I had to deplane and take a later flight after my heart rate converted to normal. At that point I realized I was pretty much out of options. I could no longer count on the Atenelol to keep the SVT at bay, and the SVT was going to drastically interfere with my ability to lead a normal life. So, I might finally be forced to go the ablation route against my better judgment.

I decided that before I bit the bullet on giving in to an ablation, that I would give the functional medicine approach one last shot. Deep in my gut (pun intended as you will see) I knew that there had to be some underlying causing the SVT. That the SVT was just a symptom of some underlying issue and that the medicines or ablations were just bandaids to cover up the symptom (SVT). If I could just figure out the root cause of the SVT and fix it, that would be a much better outcome than taking on the risks inherent with ablation with no guarantee even that the ablation would work or that some other symptom might crop up in place of the SVT.

So, I began pouring over message boards, watching youtube videos, reading research papers, Googling for hours trying to find some answers. I found the information about the Gastrocardiac or "Roemheld Syndrome" and immediately recognized the connection. Often times I would have a strange feeling in my stomach almost like I had to burp but couldn't (trapped gas), and these would almost always immediately precede an SVT onset. I seemed like something was irritating my Vagus nerve and that irritation was getting worse and worse over time making the SVT become more and more intractable. So, I felt confident that I had found the root cause, but what to do to fix it was the harder problem. Also, how did all of this fit the timing of the more frequent SVT period of my teenage years, the remission through my 20's and 30's and then the increasing severity through my mid forties up until now? The answer it turns out was in digestive health...

As I began to study more about digestive disorders, I found that many digestive disorders and inflammatory digestive conditions could be caused by food sensitivities, and leaky gut, as well as gut bacteria overgrowth (SIBO). I got some testing done at a Naturopath and it showed I had all of these things going on. So, I started eliminating certain foods I was sensitive to (gluten, dairy, egg whites) and that helped to a minor extent but the SVT and the "trapped gas" feeling remained. I decided to go even further with the AIP diet (auto-immune paleo) and again this maybe had a minor impact, but the trapped air feeling and SVT remained. With as restrictive as the AIP diet already was, I felt there was nothing left to try and that maybe my digestive system was permanently damaged and there would be no holistic "cure" for me.

Then in one day of Google searching I found the nugget that would change my life forever...

It was an online PDF of a book from 1975 called "the Stone Age Diet" by Walter L. Voegtlin. The theory presented in the book is that the protein and fat are more easily digested and assimilated by the human digestive system than carbohydrates and fiber. Also, the cumulative effects from chronic stress from modern life will have a tendency to make the digestive process less efficient over time. So, stress coupled with a high carb, or even worse, a high fiber diet, will eventually lead to functional distress. This specific passage really resonated with me...

"The esophagus manifests its irritability as isolated spasms which cause the feeling of a lump or a sensation of pressure in the chest. This feeling of pressure is interpreted by the patient as coming from some gas that has "formed" in his digestive tract. He forces "burps" or belches in an effort to get rid of what he believes is gas but which, as already mentioned, is merely a muscular spasm of the esophagus"

My SVTs were almost certainly triggered by the esophageal spasms (irritating the vagus nerve) described above. So, the solution would be to go on what Voegtlin prescribed as the diet that is most optimized for efficient digestion and eliminating digestive disorders. That "Stone Age" diet is basically an all meat diet or what is today gaining popularity as the "Carnivore Diet". More can be learned about this diet if one simply Googles carnivore diet.

I am happy to say that the Stone Age, or Carnivore diet has been the cure for my SVT. I have successfully weaned off my medication entirely and have been SVT free for going on one year and the feelings of trapped gas in my stomach (esophageal spasms) have vanished as well. Knowing what I know now, and looking back at previous periods in my life I am making connections that I never realized at the time. I had mentioned above that my teenage years were a time of increased SVT and then it went into "remission" in my 20's and 30's. The connection I never made until now was that during my teenage years I became a vegetarian, and then gave it up when I went to college. Because I had been brainwashed into thinking vegetarian diet was healthy I never would have suspected this as a cause of the more frequent SVT in my teens, and I just assumed it was increased exercise in my 20's and 30's that put the SVT into remission rather than my return to eating meat (although the exercise probably helped reduce stress which also aids digestive health). And, when SVT returned with a vengeance in my mid-forties was also when I decided, ironically for "health reasons" (so misguided), to start doing a vegan whole food diet which dramatically increased the amount of fiber I was eating. And, my SVT not coincidentally returned with a vengeance as a result.

I am eternally grateful that I was lucky enough to find the work of Dr. Voegtlin. It has saved my life! So, I just had to share this personal story, in hopes that maybe it might help someone else find answers to what often seems like a hopeless struggle.