A missing link to chronic illness, allergies and longevity? Vagus Nerve Imbalance/Hiatal Hernia Syndrome

Townsend Letter for Doctors and Patients,  August-Sept, 2003  by Steve Rochlitz

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There may be an intimate, even causal, relationship between hiatal hernia and asthma and possibly other respiratory disorders. For example, some researchers have noted a frequent occurrence of both GERD (reflux) and asthma in children and adults. Some researchers believe that GERD may cause or influence asthma and others believe that asthma may cause or exacerbate GERD. Some physicians or researchers have found that treating either GERD or asthma sometimes helps the other condition when both occur in the same individual.

What I propose here is that the earliest link and possible initiator of both may be the hiatal hernia. The reasoning is as follows. Hiatal Hernia experts, like Baroody, would propose that GERD is very frequently caused or exacerbated by Hiatal Hernia. But Hiatal Hernia can cause or exacerbate respiratory disease as the diaphragm (a primary breathing muscle) is torn and no longer functions properly. In addition there is the pinched vagus nerve--a branch of which goes to the bronchi and lungs. In addition, reflux may bring up acid that can be inhaled into the lungs causing or exacerbating respiratory illness. So these mechanisms can cause or exacerbate asthma. But, in some individuals, asthma may occur first--due to these mechanisms. But sooner or later, the Hiatal Hernia will result in GERD. Asthma is deeply connected to allergies and possibly to an overexcited nervous system. But we have already seen how this VNI/HHS syndrome can lead to both a very allergic state and to an imbalanced parasympathetic nervous system.

In an informal study, I have noted that an apparently large percentage of people with various respiratory diseases (including asthma, emphysema, bronchitis, COPD) either are aware that they also have an Hiatal Hernia (via an official diagnosis), or are being treated for GERD or heartburn, which I assert is usually a result, or an indicator, of the presence of Hiatal Hernia. What I also propose is that all sufferers of respiratory disease who possess a known or "hidden" Hiatal Hernia may benefit significantly if they or their practitioners learn to pull the Hiatal Hernia out of the diaphragm (and more importantly and more problematically, try to keep it that way)--regardless of the etiology. Sadly, this connection and method is not known to pulmonologists or respiratory therapists. I am also currently researching a possible connection between the Hiatal Hernia and the Infraspinatus Respiratory Reflex (IRR) treatment of Harry Philibert, MD. Here the asthma treatment is injections of local anesthetic (lidocaine, procaine) into the IRR trigger points in the infraspinatus muscle. But does Hiatal Hernia/Vagus Nerve pinching cause the IRR to go bad? Or possibly the other way around? Philibert also has elucidated a cardiac reflex in the pectoralis major muscle. This reflex may cause or exacerbate angina, myocardial infarction, or other cardiac problems. Can this crucial reflex or trigger (treated again with neural therapy injections) also be related to the Hiatal Hernia? In my next article, I hope to detail my research on the various, latest, complementary asthma methods.