I'm grateful reading this topic that provides another lead in my attempt to make sense of my own long-standing tinnitus, recently emerged gastritis/heartburn and erratic blood pressure . My general health profile is good, but I've always been prone to stress/anxiety and it seems to have finally found a physical outlet. The common element is, apparently, the vagus nerve. My working hypothesis starts with the mild ear infection that apparently set off my tinnitus a year ago and possibly resulted in a minor physical change that sensitised it to activity in the vagus nerve, which among other things has (so I understand) a controlling influence on the production of acid in the stomach. The ear-vagus connection is recently established clinical science. In reflux, stomach acid can travel up to the ear and induce tinnitus, especially when a person sleeps, but my tinnitus declines to near silence after lying down for a while and increases in volume on waking and around mealtimes (in a Pavlovian way, it starts before I've taken a first bite). As for hypertension, there is research evidence that GERD can lead to it. When I described my sudden gastritis and severe reflux to my doctor, he referred me for a gastroscopy then took my blood pressure, upon which he nearly had kittens and on the spot prescribed a calcium channel blocker. He dismissed my suggestion that the hypertention was atypical and possibly connected to the gastritis (which was stressing me into the bargain), and is evidentally innocent of the fact (as I was at the time) that CCB's make reflux worse. I took one tablet and had a disturbing reaction, was advised by an emergency doctor to take no more, then learned this fact for myself. Meanwhile, pending my gastroscopy, I am self-treating the gastritis by following the standard GERD diet and behavior recommendations, dosing with temporary-relief antacids as needed, gastric-acid-neutralising lemon juice before meals, herbal teas or ginger with honey and aloe vera juice to dampen down inflammation and encourage healing of my hurting esophagus. After a lot of reading, I've put on order probiotics, kyolic and cannabidiol (for multiple reasons) and plan to avoid prescribed medicines unless h.pylori is found, in which case I anticipate my self-dosing to assist coping with the antibiotics.

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