Current medical status: Tightness & pain in chest, back. Occasional accompanied with pain in left arm. Went to ER. EKG, CBC, chest x-ray all normal.
Current medical treatment: Nexium 40mg

Acid reflux can’t cause pain but only burning sensations behind the sternum. Burning sensations can last 24 hours. Acid reflux can be confirmed by measuring the pH value in the esophagus.

An ECG, stress test, CBC, and chest X-rays are enough to rule out a heart disorder.

According to your symptoms you might be experiencing a panic disorder.

I beg to differ!
I hate to inform you but after years of having acid reflux associated with GERD (born with this condition) I can safely say that acid reflux attacks hurt! An Acid Reflux Attack (acid) burns and scars the lining of the esophagus depending on the height to which the acid climbs in the esophagus and leaves behind a trail of destruction to the esophageal lining that over time can scar and cause cancer. NO doctor can tell by looking at a patient how extensive the damage or how far it has climbed in the esophagus without upper GI testing. The acid burn is a painful reminder long after the attack subsides. If you have ever had heartburn you know it�s uncomfortable, but true reflux over time hurts far more than your average heartburn, and one attack usually precludes more. After 43 years of living with acid reflux, heartburn, GERD (all the same thing just varying degrees of attacks.) mine now causes intense chest pain as if someone is standing on my chest, numbness in arms, face, lips, dizziness, high blood pressure, and usually reoccur even after medication to stop the attack. It�s amazing how many doctors out there are quick to say there is no pain, prescribe drugs for a short term fix, and are quick to use the words �panic attack� I find it appalling that many of us GERD sufferers out there also suffer from panic attacks during GERD attacks! Since I don�t suffer from panic attacks at any other time I dispute this possibility of panic attacks during GERD attacks and ask the doctor to think about this. When a person is ill or in pain, blood pressure naturally goes up. So a reflux, GERD patient will suffer from high blood pressure and the feelings that go along with it. Please stop calling it a Panic Attack!! Also, this is hereditary as well as brought on by food. My grandson was born with it as well. Trust me the nights we had to sooth him from the pain of acid reflux attacks will always be fresh in my mind, as well as the constant projectile vomiting that were both supposed to grow out of. I am still waiting on that magic age.

I have suffered for years had my hiatal hernia operation..nothing worked nexium ,prilocia on and on ..until i went on a diet...guess what i lost 70 pounds no mor e high blood pressure pills..no more acid reflex..i walk 5 miles a day and eat everything...good luck!! I didn't say it was EASY!!

i am having pain in my chest and throat and bad pain in my left shoulder and arm. I take nexium twice a day but i am overweight by 20 pounds and get stress very easily. Sometimes i notice that the nexium is not helping and i wake up from the left arm pain. is this still to be a acid reflux issue or it might be my heart. i did have 24 hour holter and it was normal and i did an EKG and it was normal. I vomit sometimes. What can i do can anyone help

Gerd is untreated....it reoccurs...i have gerd for 1 1/2 yrs. still taking up medicines, i cant skip medication coz the heartburn attacks wen it attacks its painful i cant breath. im getting fatter coz of the medicines exercising may lead again to reflux so you have to push yourself to get fit even when it really hurts....

Most of the time acid reflux and heartburn that I have seen, which doctors may or may not admint is the weakening of phenoesophageal ligament. It anchors things in place. When that weakens --you have yourself a hernia and an open floodgate of acid into that hiatal hernia and this can last for long periods of time, for me it has lasted days...Once I realized i had a hiatal hernia I cured it by learning a diapragm shifting technique from a pharmacist of all people...

Let me explain...

A hernia itself cannot be infected and inflamed . It's a weakness in the diaphragm where part of the stomach and esophagus slide up into the chest. It doesn't stay in the chest , a sliding hernia slides up and back down. Your stomach and esophagus may be inflamed however.

You EKG and everything where fine cause it had nothing to do with your heart and everything to do with Acid burning a hole in your esophagus...I have went to the ER many times thinking I was having a heart attack until I learned the diaphragm shifting technique...

Many people have hernias but don't have any symptoms. -- in fact they don't even know they have a hernia. A hernia itself doesn't really cause symptoms. In some people , a hernia contributes to GERD---by affecting the Lower Esophageal Sphincter and allowing abnormal acid exposure to the esophagus --- and it's the acid that causes heartburn and other symptoms.

Sometimes GERD can affect your breathing by allowing acid in your breathing tubes. A hernia itself can't cause breathing problems--- well a hiatal hernia can affect breathing only if it's a really really big one. If you have a lot of gas, that can affect breathing too. Or you may have a seperate problem. It's good you're getting additional tests for your breathing.

I had a hiatal hernia and i had GERD --- i took acid reducing medication (Prevacid, Protonics, Zantac, so on) and all it did was mask the true problem (a stomach above my stomach). It will get better..at least it did in me after I learned the "diaphragm shifting technique" and saves me a ton of money!

Biopsies of the esophagus are taken at endoscopy to check for esophagitis ( esophageal inflamation) , Barretts esophagus , and biopsies of the stomach are taken to check for h pylori bacteria etc. It is routine. Most people are biopsied , i was.

No worries I am glad you found out is was not a heart problem, the best you can do is get rid of it for good and If I were you I would not continue to mask it by using prescriptions...

go learn the diaphragm shifting technique and get rid of that for good the natural free way!