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Self Improvement > Time Management > I Thought I was Having a Heart Attack
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Article rating : 0.00, 0 votes. Author : Aaron Jaeger
Acid reflux is a condition that can range from uncomfortable to extremely painful, and can emulate ailments and life threatening problems such as fractured bones and heart attack. It's a relief to find out that you're not having a heart attack, but any time you experience what is technically called gastroesophageal reflux disease (pronounced: gas-tro-ih-sah-fuh-jee-ul), or GERD for short, it can be a bit unsettling.
And simply put, at it's peak it can be a scary experience, and as it turns out can also be very expensive misdiagnosis.
Let me tell you a short (and very true) story...
Over a period of a year or so I began having chest pains. They only occured in short bursts and were sometimes experienced as heartburn and other times as painful and sensitive as having a broken rib. I had difficulty sleeping and at times was so sore I felt like I was walking like an old man. I passed these symptoms off for sleeping in the wrong position or lifting something too heavy while I was at work. But suddenly I felt it gaining on me and one day as I was going about my regular routine I felt the same chest pain coming on and treated it as I always had. "It'll go away."
But as the day went on it became worse and on my way from work I was torn between going home to my family or driving myself to the hospital. By the time arrived home I was having so much difficulty breathing and my chest hurt so badly that I asked my wife to take me to the hospital. I was admitted to a hospital room because they told me I was having symptoms of a heart attack, and the EKG was showing an abnormal heartbeat. An EKG is short for electrocardiogram, which is simply your heartbeat graphed to a piece of paper over
time. It can show irregularites in your heartbeat when read by a trained professional. Anyway, I was fitted with numerous probes and an electronic box that kept track of my heartbeat, blood pressure, and musical tastes :) for 24 hours.
I ran on a treadmill for about 15-20 minutes that increasingly became more difficult to test my cardiovascular stamina. I was given an injection of a radioactive die, then layed in a large rotating machine (similar to an MRI) which produced a view of the bloodflow throughout my body. Healthy bloodflow. No Cardiac anomalies. They told me it was hard to tell I wasn't a 20 year old (gasp, when I'm 37).
Diagnosis? Can you guess? Acid Reflux. The Bill? $11,000, and some-odd hundreds. Spare yourself from this experience if at all possible, but don't ignore symptoms that could be potentially disastrous. If you experience symptoms that you feel may be a heart attack don't wait until you send yourself to the hospital! Always get a doctor's opinion first, and do it the first moment you experience any great uncomfort that isn't normal to you. It's a lot better to address the issue now than to have to suffer so badly from it later, even if it's a false alarm.
In it's mildest state it's what's known as heartburn. But there is a small, fairly weak valve at the top of your stomach, and for some of us this valve for some reason (and there are known reasons and cures/preventions) doesn't quite do it's job. When this valve consistently allows acid to pass from the stomach and into the esophogus, this is called acid reflux. It slowly deteriorates the lining of the passage to the stomach into the throat, and commonly becomes worse over time. There are very simple, proven ways to avoid this!
Aaron Jaeger
http://www.acidrefluxaid.com
High Blood pressure online encyclopedia.
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