Hello Lovlies,
Anytime I come across useful information I like to share. The only way to get through this "transition" in the best possible way is to stay informed as to what is going on with our bodies. Being as though every woman is different, what may work for one may not work for the other. But knowledge is key to being able to live our lives the best and healthiest way possible.
With that being said, I came across some information on the internal shaking and jitters. Now this info may not apply to you, but if if does, by all means take it and do more research on your own to help yourself. Some of the first symtpoms that I expierenced that started to really ramp up anxiety for me is the racing heart and the internal shaking. I felt the the shaking in my chest and stomach mainly, but I could feel it all over. At times I would get the racing heart with it.
The shakiness and jitters first. We already know that the decline in estradiol can affect blood sugars, and digestive issues. For some the shakiness and jitters can be due to the blood sugars and dietary changes can help to stable that during peri/meno if you are not a true diabetic. It can also be due to anxiety and adrenaline surges. The other possibility can be digestive related. Since the digestive system is affected by declining hormones we digest food slower and have more gas than we usually do as well as an excess of stomach acid. I since have been diagnosed with GERD as many women do in peri/meno and I do have excessive gas and stomach acid which causes that burning feeling. For me what has been causing that internal shaky feeling in my chest and stomach is stomach acid putting pressure behind the breast bone which irritates the vagus nerve that can cause the anxiety type symptoms. If I chew a tums or take an acid reflux tablet the internal shakiness and jitters stop. Drinking chamomile tea, ginger capsules or tea, tums, rolaids, omeprazole, zantac, cal/mags or whareverse you choose to use calms the stomach acid, calms the vagus nerve and neutralizes excess gas. Also when the vagus nerve is irritated it can cause heart palps and that is why when your reflux is acting up the excess acid pushing the vagus nerve can start palps. Now again this may not be the case for all, but it may be for some. So I thought that I would share the info just in case it may help you.
Thank you Jamie for this info. I too suffer with heartburn and sometimes it can trigger my anxiety. This all makes sense. We always associate heartburn/reflux with just the chest burn but there are other side effects that GERD can bring about. So i will try to remember this when this happens. Does it also cause that swaying sensation like the room is moving?
Thank you. I too get the jitters tremors shakes and I also have gerd
Makes sense x
thanks jamie. I discovered myself a while back that my heart palps got better when I took a spoonful of antacid medicine or camomile tea and that's after being sent for all sorts of heart tests by my doctor. still annoyed with him for not recognising it and letting me suffer with anxiety for so long. grrrr
Thanks for posting! This is great info to get out there to everyone
Im not sure about the swaying sensations but at this point there could be some link to that as well.
No problem. I started looking into it after several heart tests and being told nothing was wrong. I also noticed that at times after eating or drinking something I would get that shaky feeling in my chest or stomach and then the palps would start or when my stomach or chest would burn, sometimes I get palps. This is what I found after the ER told me several times I had GERD. Now I know why I feel better after taking famotidine or chewing a tums.
Jamie, I wonder if taking digestive enzymes would help with this problem?
Incidentally the times that I've gone to the ER for chest pain they gave me antacids.
Hopefully it can help someone. It's so hard getting answers for anything. I dont like to Google because it's downright scary but you have to start connecting dots somewhere or you will leave docs more frustrated than you were when you went or changing docs several times like I did.
Hi Jamie
Thank you so much for posting this information, it really is invaluable and I'm sure will help lots of women.
Racing heart, jitters and Adrenaline surges, I definitely feel like I get a surge of something which makes me feel really poorly very quickly, which seems to make my heart go all jittery and also has an almost immediate effect on my bowel where I have to go to the loo almost immediately I wonder if this is a surge of adrenaline ? I was given propranolol by my GP to deal with this, which helps a bit but hasn't taken it away.
Stomach acid, i'm not currently affected by stomach acid I don't think, but I certainly will now know what to do if I am, thanks to your very helpful advice.
I'm 48 and going through the mill lately, I am off work sick and very very weak and fatigued and tired. I do sleep a lot so I'm lucky in that way, I feel very dizzy and faint all the time and I have a very foggy muggy headache. I'm wobbly , anxious and panicky. My appetite has disappeared and I'm living on build up drinks. I'm at the GP surgery next tues when I am going to speak to her about peri/menopause/treatment/hrt and see what she says. I've had two separate lots of blood tests done which all came back fine I've also had a stool sample and Urine sample tested which both came back ok. The only very very slight thing in the blood test that came back was glucose was 5.1 but at the time she said this was nothing to worry about .
Thanks again for your invaluable advice 😀X
yes, it's maddening when you think of how a lot of anxiety could have been stopped by having the information that you just posted at the start of all this. It's funny though, all those months ago, a nurse who was training to be a nutritionalist said to me that a lot of problems can be solved by sorting your stomach out, of course, I was crippled with anxiety at the time over constant heart palps and thinking something major was wrong with my heart to believe her, but she was right. Stupid doctor didn't mention stomach at all. I took a spoonful of gavis con and problem was solved. unbelieveable!
That's really interesting Jamie thanks.
theres exercises you can do to stimulate the Vagas too, it's a chant and also gurgling water too. This came from a gastro dr too.
Hi
Good to hear from you
So do you think that gaviscon soothed your stomach which then helped to fix your anxiety?
Thanks 😀
Hi ella
Can I just ask as im a bit new to all this, why would you want to stimulate the Vagas?
Thanks 😀
hi shelagh
yes, definitely. the anxiety would build when the palps would start and get worse and worse, stomach felt nauseous, felt jittery etc., especially at night, awful. Then i would run to doctors and get sent for tests. No mention of stomach problems. This all started with mad hormones, did not have it before, and was and I was like that for months. The palpitations were the worst symptom for me because they sent my anxiety sky-high. So yes, I tried gaviscon and the palps subsided and the anxiety went. Now when I start to feel jittery, a spoonful of gaviscon sorts the stomach out and I am much more relaxed and no thumping heart. Much better than taking anxiety pills which the doctor was insisting I needed. do you have the same problem?
Thanks. I seem to get amped up anxiety after eating, then the belching and bloating starts
I went to the ER thinking I was having a heart attack my anxiety was so bad, and my indigestion.
Hi
Yes I do. Seems to be a chain reaction. You will laugh but I have literally just gone in the kitchen in my FirstAid box and found a bottle of Gaviscon that is about three years old and I've had 2 teaspoons of it already !!! Ha ha
I'll try anything! I'm going to take some every day and see what happens, would you suggest taking it just after food or would you suggest suggest waiting for the jitters to start and then taking it? I've been poorly with all this since end Jan so have HAD ENOUGH of it now as I no longer have a life.
Thank you for this tip, I'm sure lots of peeps will benefit from it.
😀X