As you may already know hiatal hernia pain is the scariest kind of pain you’ll likely ever experience.

It’s a lot easier to avoid hiatal hernia pain than it is to try and stop it once it starts.

You’ll instantly know you’re having a hiatal hernia if suddenly after eating you can’t bend, sit or lay down, breathe or swallow. The undigested food you just swallowed will come up and sit in the bottom of your throat until you vomit it with a kind of weak, painful death shutter.

Normally your stomach can heave up food, but with a hiatal hernia, you’re trapped and so is your food . . . the pain is frightening. It’s a slow motion choking pain that cuts off your ability to swallow or spit up, that’s why it’s so dangerous and painful.

The undigested food is being wrenched up through the Lower Esophageal Sphincter (LES), a kind of seal or flap that keeps the contents of your stomach separate from your pain sensitive throat.

Your hiatal hernia pain could very well be the last thing you experience in this world unless you know what to do and that’s still no guarantee either.

The pain isn’t only physical, it’s emotional too. I’ve seen the bulging eyeballs and look of terror in my best friend’s face when he almost died from hiatal hernia attack.

What happens is your stomach isn’t digesting food, usually because of lack of stomach acid and enzyme power. This causes a painful bulging as gases form from the undigested rotting food.

The pain a hiatal hernia causes begins with the pressure forced upon all your organs, including your heart.

Then the diaphragm muscle cramps upward and forces your stomach and contents through a small opening. This is the worse pain as your stomach actually migrates up above this LES seal and bulges in your lower neck . . . the pain of a hiatal hernia is only there to spike your adrenalin so you do something fast before your choke or have a heart attack.

To stop the pain jump up and down, stand on your tip-toes and drop to you heels until your hiatal hernia spasm and pain stop. Then stretch your hands over your head, relax and go see a doctor for a stomach acid test as soon as possible.

You were born to heal,

Todd M. Faass

Health Advocate

I once saw my best friend go through a hiatal hernia attack, which put us both into a state of panic. What do you do when your friend suddenly acts like he?s dying but nobody knows what?s wrong.

He was choking up meat he had just eaten within the hour and had trouble breathing in. I could see the pain and pressure was freaking him out, the look in his eyes and the recurring spasms of violent choking had concerned me as well.

I would have called an ambulance, but he insisted it was over, then it would start again and again- it was nerve racking to say the least, for both of us.

I kept asking him questions, but he could hardly talk. I could tell my asking questions was about the most irritating thing I could be doing, because he obviously had trouble talking as well. There?s nothing like being interviewed while you feel like your choking to death, or dying from a heart attack- we didn?t know.

In between his hiatal hernia attacks all I could do is get on the Internet to see what I could learn fast.

I had never understood what a hernia was, but it didn?t take me long to match the symptoms he was having with the definition of hiatal hernia. Of course, when I told him I thought he was suffering from symptoms of a hiatal hernia, he just looked at me like I was out of my mind.

The situation was bad, he couldn?t relax, sit down or lay down at all, he just kept pacing, leaning against the wall holding his chest area or rushing to the bathroom to choke up his lunch bit by bit.

Today I could recognize the symptoms of hiatal hernia a mile away and now I understand why a hernia caused all those symptoms.

Once I ?Googled? the correct information about hiatal hernia symptoms, I had him dropping his heels, jumping on his wife?s exercise trampoline and finally stretching backwards over her giant grape purple yoga ball . . . and it worked like a charm.

The bouncing and stretching allowed gravity to do its trick, restoring his stomach, esophagus and diaphragm back to their original positions, below in his chest cavity.

Here?s some extra advice for those of you with hiatal hernia symptoms . . . make sure you chew your food better. It?s better for you because the digestive process starts in the mouth as enzymes and saliva to help break down the size and bulk of your food to make it easier on your gut to digest.

When the esophagus or stomach slides or rolls past the diaphragm and bulges upward in your chest cavity, there may be undigested food in that area that can?t go back down below the diaphragm muscle junction. So the better you chewed it, the easier it may be for you to swallow or eliminate any obstructive food stuff.

My friend was very fortunate the food trapped in his throat area didn?t go down his wind pipe . . .I?m sure under the circumstances his hiatal hernias symptoms would have been fatal.

Not a choice way to sign off in my book, especially on my shift!

Let?s review the symptoms published by the Mayo clinic:

• Heartburn
• Belching
• Chest pain
• Nausea

If you have hiatal hernia symptoms chew your food, walk and jump more and keep a giant grape purple yoga ball around just in case, of course the grape purple color is optional.

You were born to heal,

Todd M. Faass?

Health Ecologist