Replied by Sherri (Seattle) on 10/10/2023
Hello Wendy,
This symptom could be caused by several issues:
1. Esophageal stricture - often caused by scar tissue formation due to chronic reflux. Food gets stuck and burping would relieve this.
2. Reflux.
3. Eosinophilic Esophagitis.
An esophagoscopy could determine the cause.
There are other possible causes though, these are more likely.
For example, both eating and walking increase myocardial oxygen demand which could indicate angina.
This condition could also involve low stomach acid/HCL (a common cause for reflux) and/or a congested intestinal tract.
An easy way to determine if one has low stomach acid is to try taking HCL/Pepsin capsules right before a meal. Start with one capsule just before a meal. If there is no burning, increase the dose to two capsules just before a meal. Keep increasing until the typical "burn" is felt. If you find you are needing to take several capsules before the burn your stomach is low in acid and you may need to take supplemental HCL before meals in order to digest your food adequately and destroy pathogens. There is much more to this particular issue than what has been described here.
Hope you find out what is causing this pain soon!
