Hello Austin and Jordan,
Over the last few months I’ve been having more and more severe GERD symptoms, to a point where last night I woke up coughing and I’m incredibly uncomfortable during the day.
I have a sensation of shortness of breath, even though I know I’m breathing fine. I went to the doctor today and he just prescribed Pantoprazole. He said I might have a hiatal hernia.
Do you think I should see a gastrointestinal specialist or just take this medicine and ignore it? The medicine isn’t helping much so far.
Is it possible that a few bad sets of heavy squats with thoracic flexion made this hernia worse?
Thank you very much
How old are you?
Thoracic flexion has nothing to do with this, though increased intraabdominal pressure can certainly contribute.
Thanks for the response!
I’m 21. And that makes sense that increased intraabdominal pressure can contribute – I had my belt way to tight for a few heavy sets of deadlifts and felt the pain in my upper abdomen. Do you think that I’m fine to keep training until it gets worse, or is this something to get checked out?
I know that a hernia can turn into an emergency and I just don’t want that to happen.
Hiatal hernias don’t turn into emergencies - that’s a different kind of hernia.
And I’m not going to recommend people NOT get evaluated on this forum, for obvious reasons. That decision is up to you and the doctor who initially saw you.