Breathing problems associated with GERD

I was went in to see a doctor a couple months ago complain about a pain in my sternum area which occurred right after I coughed quite harshly due to cold i had at the time. Every time i coughed or just blew air out of my mouth fast it would cause the pain in the sternum. The Doctor seemed to know immediately that i had a hiatal hernia (he called it something else I do not recall, but he claimed hiatal hernia is an ancient term. I don't know about that for sure but whatever moving on..) He put me on Zantac and within a few days, even while still coughing from the cold, the problem was gone. I then quit taking the meds and did not have any more troubles.
About three days ago, after another harsh cough due to a minor cold the pain came back. This time it brought with it many more GERD symptoms such as belching, pain in chest and back, occasional nausea, a couple instances of almost vomiting, and most frighteningly & alarmingly breathing difficulties. Where i feel like i must take a deep breath every 10 seconds or so and sometimes those deep breaths don't even seem adequate, even though they must since I haven't passed out from suffocation. I'm sure you know just as well as I that the breathing difficulties are very uncomfortable. Every time I begin to worry about my breathing it does seem to get worse so anxiety is definitely having play in it.
Just today the doctor put me on Prevacid (one of the Next step up Meds) and he also gave me clonazepam (to help with anxiety). I've taken the first daily pill of Prevacid and haven't noticed anything different yet, but it has only been about 12 hours since I've taken it. The anxiety pills have helped, and the only reason I am taking them is because I am unsure exactly what the problem is so I am tending to get worried here and there. I am most concerned about my breathing, the pain can more easily be ignored. However I obviously hope both get healed. I will post back in a few weeks to explain how the prevacid is doing. By the way does anyone know how long Prevacid is supposed to take to kick in?

I started facing problems with breathing a yaer ago. I went to the doctor and was detected with GERD. He gave me some pills which i continued for a month but were not useful. I still face severe breathing problems. I feel the frequent urge to breath but that is not enough. I try to yorn but am not able to. I feel much comfortable if i yorn. I will be visiting the doctor and this time taking the medication seriously and breathing is the only problem that i am much concerned with. I feel short of breath throughout all the day not only after having food, its more only after having food.

I dont feel the breathing problem while i m asleep....dont know why.

I wake up in the morning and i am fine for a few hours and then everything starts kicking in throughout the day.


I Guess anxiety and GERD are interrelated.

I have been working in night shifts for 9 yrs now and my eating and sleeping habits are not the same as normal person.

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Hey five years passed since you posted this , I hope you all good now , I want to k ow what happened with you , I also have GERD , yesterday I waked up totally out of breath , heart racing and shy hands and legs , I'm having problem in breathing , since almost a month plus I yawn alot , and can't take a full deep breath help me

Yes.. I'm also having this same problem..I went to a doctor for check up so he told me it is due to your stomah problem that you r feeling difficulties in breathing...so he gave me medic so I took it for 2 months..but their is n diference..I'm realy fedup with this problem...

Hi I have the same problems and it has been 10 months I just last week got diagnosed with GERD, could you please let me know how you are now, did your breating get better? did anything hlep you?

hey buddy i am also facing same problem .......do u overcome from it...........plz reply i also want to over come from it

guyzz...........same problem here also form 2 years..........but i am not taking it serious.........i didnt taken doctor opinion.............now what should i do.........plz reply

hi. i have a 15 year old daughter who has had breathing problems that have progressively gotten worse over the last year. Her problems occur mostly during excercise. after taking steroids and abuterol for over a year her symptoms seemed to be getting worse. she can only excercise for about 1 minute before she can't catch her breath. an ent adviced us to try medicine  for gerd and see a speech therapist for vocal cord dysfunction. turns out I'm sure she has gerd. she was having excessive belching and when i asked her if she could feel food coming up she said yes and that it has been happening for a long time and she thought it was normal. her dr. thought she was swallowing to much air. after much research done on my own i came across vocal cord dysfunction. turns out these 2 things are closely related. if you have not heard of this before please look it up. basically all the acid that comes up your esophagus can cause your vocal cords to close when you take in a breath which makes you feel like you are suffocating. she has been on reflux meds for over a month now. the belching is better but still having reflux. she has also had 3 sessions with a speach therapist to try and teach her how to breath differently to make the vocal cords open. it's been a very frustrating process. she has had to quit sports until we can get this under control. anyway for those of you who have throat tightness and trouble breathing check it out.

Has anybody had, or know anything about, uncontrolled abdominal spasms causing short bursts of air that come out like grunts and coughs? My son has this and the Gastroenterologist says that it is being caused by acid reflux. However, I've never heard of this, and while he claims that this is common, none of the other doctors I've asked, have any knowledge of this either. Anyone have any idea if this is true, or what this might be? Or how to treat it? It has been going on for years now, and although the Gastroenterologist claims he will outgrow it, the symptoms persist and are nonresponsive to acid blocker type medications. Any help would be fantastic. Thanks

Did your daughter ever get better? I have the same problems and was also diagnosed with vocal cord dysfunction and i am waiting for an appointment woth the speech therapist