Can Physical Trauma Cause Hiatal Hernia Syndrome?

Physical Traumas Can Cause Hiatal Hernia Syndrome

Do you have a history of traumas? We see an increasing number of patients coming to our medical clinic with symptoms of hiatal hernia syndrome, who have a history of trauma or injury. Injuries to the diaphragm, such as trauma from a fall or a traffic accident, can lead to developing a hiatal hernia.

Many healthcare providers focus on the internal factors, when in fact, a thorough dissection of a patient’s health history might just be the key needed to reveal the root cause of their hiatal hernia…

Transcript of the video

I wanted to talk to you about a new breakthrough we’ve had here at Root Cause Medical Clinic with Hiatal Hernia Syndrome.

As patients continue to come in from all over the country, we have continued to learn more and more. And what I want to talk to you today is about trauma. Physical trauma to the body.

With hiatal hernia, we always think about the stomach being in spasm, pushing up on the diaphragm. And more often than not, that is stemming from digestive disturbances.

But I definitely recall the time when a very young man had been in a car accident, the airbag deployed, and triggered the beginning of a hiatal hernia. That one was pretty obvious, and hopefully, having an airbag deploy at that kind of strength and impact is not something too common in people’s lives.

However, in the last couple of weeks we’ve met two individuals, both gentlemen, very high performing individuals, entrepreneurial sorts working extreme hours, who both have had the problem ongoing. They didn’t exactly know what it was.

Physical trauma

Those of you who have been in these circumstances definitely understand how it can be where you present these classic symptoms — whether it’s acid reflux, heart palpitations, panic attacks, feeling anxious pressure in your chest, the list goes on — you do go see your doctor and you’re told you’re fine. And of course, doing cardiac tests for your heart and tests on your lungs. If they find nothing, they find nothing and that’s good. But unfortunately, you are then kind of cast aside with anxiety. You got a lot going on in your life and you should just try to relax, and that’s not it.

So in both these individuals circumstances, one had sort of heart-related issues, even as a teenager, and had played a lot of soccer, a lot of rugby, had definitely taken some hits to the abdomen. The other gentleman was an avid surfer, and you might have heard that hitting the water at a certain speed is like hitting concrete. And so he did that a number of times, and had sports surgeries as far as sports hernia surgeries. These are abdominal hernias, not hiatal hernias, but he had had a lot of trauma.

What we’re seeing is that if you’ve had that kind of trauma, that can then lead to this whole cascade of symptoms with hiatal hernia. Definitely something to keep in mind if you’re suffering from these symptoms.

Sequels of physical trauma

And the association can be not only that physical trauma, but also what occurs as a result of that trauma. The vagus nerve can be impacted, in addition to that severe pressure on the abdomen, pushing the stomach up, depending on if you’ve also had a concussion.

One of these gentlemen has had several concussions and the concussion aspect, so I’m switching traumas now from abdominal trauma to head trauma — which of course is common with sports injuries. You hear it a lot with soccer and football. But any kind of concussion that you may have had can really put pressure on and irritate your vagus nerve. And the vagus nerve joins into what’s called the NIC nerve, which is the nerve that goes to your diaphragm.

That was maybe a little too much anatomy. But basically what we have is nerve comes out of your neck that goes to your diaphragm, and it joins in with what’s called your vagus nerve, which is the longest cranial nerve that goes to every organ in your body.

So you could have a lot of sort of trickle-down effect from a concussion or any sort of neck injury.

A frequent condition, often mistreated

We keep learning these new aspects of hiatal hernia. But again, there are so many people who have been suffering for so long with no diagnosis other than being told “it’s all in your head“. or “all you can do is continue to take an antacid“, which over the course of time is dangerous because it’s setting up for maldigestion and malabsorption.

It’s truly impossible to be healthy if you’re not absorbing your nutrients. So we can really get into a mess with this whole situation. And as I said, thanks to our patients, we continue to learn more and more about this problem that is, truly an epidemic because it affects young people, old men, women, people in shape, people out of shape. It’s not fussy about, about who it hits.

Again, we’re learning more and more questions to ask because if you had a concussion as a teenager or as a young adult from a car accident, you know, you survived, you’re over it. You don’t necessarily think that it can have some long lasting effects, but it can. And in that regard, we had a new member of our team and our California clinic and a doctor who is a chiropractic neurologist , and his specialization in the nervous system is proving very valuable with these kind of cases.

So we continue to learn, we continue to expand [our knowledge of the syndrome].

If this is maybe somebody you know, please share this video with them.

Getting treated at Root Cause Medical Clinic

Our medical clinic in Clearwater is run by a team of doctors bringing various specialties together to help our patients heal faster: medicine, nutrition, chiropractic, physical therapy. Our team work in symbiosis to get to the root cause of what prevents your body to heal itself. Once the root cause of your ailments has been identified, we work with you to help you make the lifestyle changes that will help you heal faster. As long as you are willing to make those lifestyle changes based on the root cause our medical team finds at the bottom of your health situation, your health will be restored.

We invite you to contact our clinic and schedule an appointment for a consultation. Our medical clinic is located in downtown Clearwater, FL, at the corner of S. Ft Harrison and Magnolia. We have ample parking space. If coming to our offices is not convenient and you prefer telehealth consultations, schedule a telemedicine consultation with our doctors. We offer the service for certain states. Call us for details.

Additional resources:
Physical pain and hiatal hernia
What is root cause medicine?
Dr. Vikki’s new book on Amazon