Anxiety symptoms after eating

Hi.  I was wondering if anyone else has anxiety symptoms after eating.  

I have been diagnosed as having an anxiety disorder but I think more than that I have some sort of digestive disorder.  Often after eating my heart races, my stomach bloats and I sometimes feel a bit breathless.  This is enough to make anyone feel anxious smile  The doctors have always said there is no connection.  I have been experiencing this for many years and keep getting fobbed off by the medical world telling me that it is just anxiety.  

It has affected my life enormously, leading to becoming housebound for days, sometimes weeks on end.

 

I feel breathless everytime I eat.  I lost some weight and have what they call IBS, but is actually stress and my stomach gets tied. They did every test in the book and the last one was a Stomach CT whiich I will get the results today. Doctors think my lack of air is anxiety -  I'm also light headed 24/7 which just got a little bettter but still working on it. I'm taking Alprazolam XR 0.5 twice daily but is not doing much for me when I eat.

 

Hi there. When you eat, your stomach and various other digestive parts of the body need to work hard. To do this effectively, they need a bigger blood supply, so your heart beats faster to do just that. If you tend to be anxious, you may notice this as your heart beating faster. It then could speed up as you are worrying about your heart. You could have IBS which may cause tum to bloat, and again, if you are worrying about these things happening, you could get breathless due to hyperventilation.

I have experienced the heart beat part and am constantly feeling bloated. They blame this on IBS. Hope this helps you and good luck

Thank you.  I think I do have a bit of IBS and a sluggish digestive system in general.

Hi Sue, BB and P, 

Sounds like IBS on top of our anxiety stuff. For IBS you might like to try dairy free to see if that helps. I went from big time milk, cheese etc to none-at-all following Jane Plant diet suggestion and it has helped me in a few ways. I just stopped, and after a week I had a big fat milkshake and felt sick within an hour. Prof. Plant has written a couple of books explaining why dairy free might be a good idea for folks with cancer too. She did a cook book and I use it a lot now. Cholesterol is down too. I hope you feel better soon, David.

Hi Sue,

So sorry your are going through all this.  I would suggest that you check out Histamine Intolerance.  This can create anxiety after you eat, along with other symptoms.  Sometimes it's enough to avoid high histamine foods.  If that's not enough, you may want to go on a low-histamine diet.  You're right that it can sometimes be caused by the digestive system.  Many with Histamine Intolerance have a lack of DAO in their intestinal system.  DAO is necessary for digesting histamine properly.  If the histamine isn't digested properly, it will be released into your body with all kinds of symptoms.  I hope this helps you.  Good luck!

Yes, I live milk and cheese but I do control myself with less than 2 cups of almond milk daily and 1 slice of cheese. Pizza once monthly. ;-) MY IBS is pretty much under control but I'm ready to make it even better.   I also take almond milk with my morning cereal. So you take a calcium vitamen?

Good question !  I'm a bit of a weird person in the way I think, and my thought process was - cows feed calves milk for a year (?) and they end up with really big thick healthy bones as an adult eating only grass. So I reckon if I just eat an otherwise normal diet with plenty of veg and do load bearing exercise I should be fine. Let's see smile

Hi Sue, the stomach is a massive part of anxiety.  I now have gaviscon after every meal and before bed, really does help.

 

Also, I have given up wheat, gluten, milk, chocolate, onions, cheese (cheese is terrible for palps). These are my triggers which since anxiety cause my so feel sick and lightheaded.  I'm also seeing a chiropractor, tension in the neck causes the fuzzy head feeling.  One time I could not get out of bed as my head felt so heavy and had a constant off balance feeling...I had an adjustment at the chiro and it went instantly.  I believe when the nerves in the neck are constricted through tension it also causes stomach problems.

What is DAO?  Thanks.

Hi Stephanie,

DAO stands for diamine oxidase.  Notice if you have anxiety or panic attacks when you eat high histamine foods.  Since I wrote that entry, I've also been diagnosed with SIBO (probably IBS, too).  Good luck to us all!

I totally support the other comments on this site that you should remove yourself off dairy and see how you feel. I use almond milk or soya milk and have never looked back since then. I breather better now, suffer no symtoms in my stomach and feel back to normal. A dietician may be able to test to see if you are lactose intolerant.

Hi! I want to know if you still take meat or any effect of any GM foods?

I have been medicated for Panic Disorder for almost ten years now and am only now realizing the relation between my anxiety and eating patterns. In the past year I have come to the conclusion that I have Reactive Hypoglycemia. This causes me to feel tremendous anxiety shortly after eating... typically a half hour to an hour later and can last for a couple of hours.

My doctor has not been helpful at all with this so I have taken it into my own hands and have since learned that Intermittent Fasting cures Hypoglycemia. Basically, my body has stopped using fat for fuel and relies consistantly on carbohydrates... this is not the way our bodies are meant to operate. Intermittent Fasting retrains your body to work the way is should.

I have just started my intermittent fasting yesterday. I recall many years ago, after experiencing the worst bouts of anxiety in my life to the point where I too was housebound, I was unknowingly fasting intermittently and at that point in my life my anxiety vanished. I could never figure out what I did that changed my anxiety until now and cannot wait for my body to readjust to this new lifestyle =D

upon some research the common suggestions that does seem to help people was to eat less and more often as then our system doesnt have as much to process. It has worked for me, maybe worth a try.

This approach helps for some, but in the end your body becomes so adjusted to consistently relying on carbs for energy that when you perhaps by mistake miss a meal your body freaks out; at least this is what I have been experiencing for a year now in the attempt to manage my hypoglycemia... Short term fix, yes. Long term; does more harm than good. (Just my experience) wink

It sounds like you have a sulfite allergy. It's extremely difficult to pinpoint since sulfites are prevalent on most foods. I can tell you what I've done to treat my allergy, if you would like. It's not easy, but I feel wonderful now and wouldn't trade it for anything.

Same problem I have .i been suffering from anxiety since I was child, after that I became better but the other problem happened to me IBS and also I feel anxiety after eating and this problem remaining until now even if iam very calm before eat palpitation an anxiety severe after eating especially at morning.i did all blood and urine and gland test and all are normal

Hi Crystal.

Thanks so much for your post. I have lives the worst few months of my life as I have been extremely anxious and increasingly paranoid and depressed and I strongly believe that my gut is the main culprit. Please tell me more about your intermitted fasting and what foods to avoid!! I am also looking into probiotics...