Help, my heart is going crazy!

Dear reader,

At this point I would like to point out the special connection between heart problems and reflux. A patient wrote to me: "Sometimes my heart raced as fast as a sewing machine. A very frightening feeling. There was a suspicion of a heart attack and so I was thoroughly examined in the clinic: ECG, ergometry, blood tests, ultrasound of the heart, etc. The doctors said that my heart was like that of an athlete and completely fine. Because the palpitations kept coming back, I was finally prescribed B-blockers..."

Patients rightly seek help immediately, call an ambulance or drive to the nearby hospital. There and in all follow-up examinations by the family doctor and cardiologist, it is confirmed that the heart is healthy. There is no need to worry, because "it will all be fine...".

That's easier said than done. Sudden, strong heart palpitations, fluctuations in blood pressure and even heart attack-like symptoms are extremely dangerous for everyone. After all, we only have one heart.

And in fact: It won't be "again...". Just a few days later, the patients return to the emergency room anxiously, complaining of heart problems, feelings of tightness and pressure, shortness of breath, back or chest pain. The internal medicine and cardiology examination is carried out again. Again, all tests and laboratory values are OK. By the third time at the latest, it is not the internist who comes, but the psychiatrist. Diagnoses follow such as "You are stressed, you cannot cope with retirement, you have psychological problems that you are just not aware of...". Many patients are then treated with psychotropic drugs and talk therapy, and even admitted to psychosomatic wards.

Now the patients increasingly doubt themselves: am I just imagining it all? In the course of treatment, however, it soon becomes clear to the therapists and patients that the psychological problem is not the cause of the heart problems.

So after discharge, everything is back to normal. The patients are back at home after an almost endless odyssey of doctors: All organs have been checked several times by specialists: cardiologists check the heart, pulmonologists check the lungs, gastroenterologists check the stomach, radiologists check the MRI, orthopedists check the back, neurologists check the nerves, psychiatrists check the soul. But deep inside, the heart keeps rebelling, almost every day. Daily life, the situation at work, family, spouse, children, friends, holidays, everything is overshadowed by these never-ending complaints and the worry that something has been overlooked. Because the patients sense it very clearly: Something is not right!

You, dear readers, can imagine the stress that patients have to endure. Some are so ill that they actually need psychological help because of an illness that has lasted for years with no prospect of recovery.

This letter was written to me by a patient on behalf of many others. Despite its length, I would like to share it with you:

WP Duisburg. "My ordeal began with a massive heart attack while I was drinking tea. It came out of nowhere and felt like a wild pounding! I jumped up, feeling like I couldn't breathe properly. I kept throwing my arms up instinctively, thinking that I couldn't stand it. My wife called the emergency doctor. He came and I was given nitro because of the suspicion of a heart attack. The family doctor then sent me to a cardiologist with the suspicion of Prinzmetal's angina. He did all the necessary tests but found nothing, the ECG and stress ECG were perfect. Lab tests too. I was given nitro spray again. To be on the safe side. The motto was: observe, call the emergency doctor in an emergency. When the symptom kept coming back, I consulted another cardiologist. Here too: no findings, everything was fine. It was only the third cardiologist who sent me to a gastroenterologist because he suspected that my symptoms might be coming from my stomach.

So I had my first gastroscopy. The findings were: irritable stomach, Roemheld's syndrome, the stomach lining indicated healed gastritis. Otherwise everything was normal. The treatment was: Omeprazole 40mg, no chocolate, no white wine, no carbonated drinks and not too much coffee.

Now other symptoms appeared that I hadn't really noticed before: excessive burping, hoarseness and repeated sudden coughing fits. I ate less and less, left out this and that, then tried the whole range of antifoams, experimented with tea made from motherwort, went to an osteopath on the advice of my family doctor, then had X-rays and antibiotics.

I realized more and more that none of them could help me. My family doctor said that my mental health was the cause. I actually felt wonderful apart from the heart attacks. He said that's the problem with mental health: you think you're healthy, but you're not!

Finally I started psychotherapy. I lost more and more weight, from 75 kilos to 64. The symptom remained. After a year(!) of psychotherapy, the therapist left it up to me whether I wanted to continue the therapy or stop it. He didn't know what to do either. My gut told me that the symptom couldn't be of psychological origin, so I stopped, went on holiday and had another severe heart attack. Then an internist friend of mine advised me to have an X-ray of the pharyngitis. This showed a small axial sliding hernia. The family doctor said that a lot of people over 50 have that, that can't be the cause of your problem.

So 6 years(!) passed in which a normal life was no longer possible for me. I weighed only 62 kg. Eating was inextricably linked with heart attacks. I was depressed and actually considered suicide. I would never have dreamed of that. Going out with friends was no longer possible. What was I supposed to do in a restaurant or a bar? No wine, no carbonated drinks, absolutely nothing to eat so that I wouldn't have another unexpected heart attack. I felt completely excluded from life. I just kept slipping further and further without anyone helping me. Only my wife always stood by me. But what was she supposed to do?

That's how I came to Dr. Löhde by chance. Now, after the operation, the terrible feeling, the inexplicability and the eeriness of the heart attacks, has disappeared. It's unbelievable! I no longer have to keep saying "no" when I'm offered a glass of champagne, wine, beer or anything else, and I feel like going out again. Looking back, it's shocking to me that no doctor really knows the diaphragm and all the connections between the organs in the body and can identify them. One only looks at the heart, another only looks in the stomach and prescribes acid blockers, a third thinks I'm crazy! For 6 long years."

Such symptoms of a diaphragmatic hernia can only be cured with surgery. For this patient, the suffering has finally come to an end. Because when order is restored in the body, the heart calms down and we don't even notice how it is beating non-stop just for us.

Yours

Dr. med. Eckhard Löhde