Stomach issues causing high heart rate

Have you been to your doctor about your stomach/bowel problems and asked for tests to diagnose you? If you have been to a doctor and had tests, has IBS been mentioned? It sounds like you are very anxious about your symptoms and this is causing your high heart rate. If you haven't seen a doctor, make an appointment which will give you answers and this will help your anxiety.

When you have stomach problems, it's normal to get it confused with back-pain and heart-problem. It is because the hot gas affects the back area and rises up that makes heart pound. I have heard that some people even call doctor for heart-attack, and later find out that it was a stomach gas issue.

Two things helped me somewhat was walking and taking anti-gas pills. But unless your stomach heals totally, this problem will frustrate you of course. Yes, I suffered similar conditions.

Hi George

I suffer with similar symptoms as you and anxiety played a major role in elevated heart rate, so it is most probably not helping. There could also be the fact as you seem to be producing a lot of gas, your stomach could be bloating so much that it adds pressure onto your diaphragm, which in turn could take up some of the space needed by your heart to beat normally. If your heart hasn't got room to beat normally, it will compensate more rapidly to compensate. There can also be referred symptoms / pain from having gut issues, meaning that a seemingly unrelated symptom in any part of the body could be caused by your digestive issues. The stomach, and in particular the bowels have a very complex and widespread nervous system that even now doctors don't fully understand, that's what my regular doctor told me.

I've managed to find a diet that keeps my gas levels low, and I haven't experienced an elevated heart rate episode for ages (famous last words!!!!). I've been experiencing my problems for nearly 5 years now, and have managed to calm my anxiety down by just telling myself that if there was something really bad going on, I would have known about it by now or the doctors would have discovered something. Your mindset can play an important part in the degree to which your symptoms will affect you, it will help to try and relax as much as you can.

It does take time George, it took me ages to find the right foods to eat. Thing is everyone is different and what works for me won't necessarily work for you. What I would do is go back to basics, I had to do an elimination diet, which was really hard work at first because it's soooo boring, but it gets better when you start introducing new foods again.

Thing to do would be, and I know it sounds a nightmare, but just plain white boiled rice for each meal and only drink water (yes including breakfast!), and stay on this for a few days until your gas / bloating subsides. Then when you feel ready introduce another food for a few days, I changed to having porridge for breakfast instead of rice, that felt amazing, and if that settles well then introduce something like chicken with your main meal and stay on this for a few days, after that try adding coffee of tea for something different to drink. The secret is to introduce a new foodstuff for a few days and see how you react. If you find a food or drink that upsets you, go back to your last known good set of foods and stay on these until you feel better again, and continue the elimination diet. Make notes of the foods you struggle with and stay away from them. It'll take time but eventually you will find foods that cause you grief, if it doesn't work at all scrap that and get some further help from your doctor, because it's obviously not food that is causing you the problems. Don't worry too much about getting the right vitamins and nutrition in your diet, your body can cope for quite some time before it starts needing to replenish itself with what you miss out on through the diet, or if you are that worried get some multivitamin supplements. I'm glad I did it because it's helped me have a better quality of life, it's got to be worth a go if there's a chance your symptoms might improve.