How to tell the difference between heartburn and gallbladder

Up to 40 percent of adults experience upper abdominal pain at one time or another, and many of them seek medical attention -- and in many cases, an underlying cause of their discomfort is not readily identified. Upper abdominal pain can be caused by a variety of disorders, including acid reflux and gallbladder disease, and even physicians may have difficulty distinguishing among these conditions. However, the location and nature of your pain and the timing of your symptoms may help clarify your diagnosis.

Table of Contents Show

Anatomical Locations
Nature of Pain
Timing of Symptoms
Considerations
Symptoms of gallstone disease
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Can gallbladder feel like heartburn?
What is the difference between gallbladder attack and heartburn?
How do you rule out your gallbladder?
What does burning gallbladder feel like?

Anatomical Locations

Acid reflux occurs when the contents of your stomach rise into your esophagus, which is the muscular tube between your throat and stomach. Pain from acid reflux is typically felt in the pit of your stomach or lower chest, although it can rise into your throat. Your gallbladder is a hollow organ located beneath your liver in the upper right side of your abdomen. Pain arising from gallbladder disease is usually felt just beneath your right lower ribs, although it may also be felt in the pit of your stomach. Gallbladder pain may radiate into the regions of your right upper back, chest or shoulder.

Nature of Pain

Heartburn, the most common symptom of acid reflux, is a steady burning or boring pain that usually begins suddenly and quickly increases in intensity. Rarely, acid reflux can cause a squeezing pain in the middle of your chest, which may raise concerns about heart disease. In most cases, heartburn resolves in less than an hour. Acid reflux pain may decrease with sitting upright, belching or standing, and it is usually relieved with antacids.

The pain due to gallbladder disease is typically a steady, gripping pain that may grow sharper with deep inspiration. Changing positions, belching, passing gas or taking antacids rarely alleviates gallbladder pain. Nausea and vomiting may occur during a gallbladder attack. Gallbladder pain usually begins suddenly, lasts at least an hour and can persist for several hours.

Timing of Symptoms

Acid reflux is most likely to occur immediately after a meal, although it may be aggravated by lying down several hours after a meal. Thus, heartburn, upper abdominal pain, regurgitation or chest pain that develops right after eating or drinking is more likely to be due to acid reflux than gallbladder disease.

Unlike the heartburn caused by acid reflux, the pain caused by gallbladder disease usually occurs several hours after eating, often at the same time every day. Gallbladder pain frequently awakens people at night. Although fatty or greasy foods may trigger gallbladder attacks in some individuals, this is not true of all people with gallbladder disease.

Considerations

In most cases, acid reflux and gallbladder disease are relatively easy to distinguish. However, both of these conditions may cause vague, nonspecific symptoms, such as dull pain in the pit of your stomach. Furthermore, it is quite possible to have both acid reflux and gallbladder disease at the same time, so the timing and nature of your symptoms may overlap. If your diagnosis is not straightforward, your doctor may order a gallbladder ultrasound, upper endoscopy or other tests to identify the cause of your symptoms.

Review

Symptoms of gallstone disease

A K Diehl. Baillieres Clin Gastroenterol. 1992 Nov.

Abstract

The most certain symptomatic manifestation of gallstones is episodic upper abdominal pain. Characteristically, this pain is severe and located in the epigastrium and/or the right upper quadrant. The onset is relatively abrupt and often awakens the patient from sleep. The pain is steady in intensity, may radiate to the upper back, be associated with nausea and lasts for hours to up to a day. Dyspeptic symptoms of indigestion, belching, bloating, abdominal discomfort, heartburn and specific food intolerance are common in persons with gallstones, but are probably unrelated to the stones themselves and frequently persist after surgery. Many, if not most, persons with gallstones have no history of pain attacks. Persons discovered to have gallstones in the absence of typical symptoms appear to have an annual incidence of biliary pain of 2-5% during the initial years of follow-up, with perhaps a declining rate thereafter. Gallstone-related complications occur at a rate of less than 1% annually. Those whose stones are symptomatic at discovery have a more severe course, with approximately 6-10% suffering recurrent symptoms each year and 2% biliary complications. The far higher rates of symptom development reported in a few studies raise the possibility that these incidence estimates may be too low. The best predictors of future biliary pain are a history of pain at the time of diagnosis, female gender and possibly obesity. The risk of acute cholecystitis appears to be greater in those with large solitary stones, that of biliary pancreatitis in those with multiple small stones, and that of gallbladder cancer in those with large stones of any number. Drugs that inhibit the synthesis of prostaglandins may now be the treatment of choice in patients with gallstones who are suffering acute pain attacks. Persistent dyspeptic symptoms occur frequently following cholecystectomy. A prolonged history of such symptoms prior to surgery and evidence of significant psychological distress appear to be the best predictors of unsatisfactory outcome.

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Can gallbladder feel like heartburn?

The leading symptoms of both heartburn and gallbladder disease are upper abdominal pain and heartburn, which understandably sends people's minds racing.

What is the difference between gallbladder attack and heartburn?

Aside from a few shared symptoms, these conditions also feel different. The most common symptoms of GERD are heartburn and acid reflux, while in gallbladder disease, the pain is typically on the right side and may radiate to the shoulder.

How do you rule out your gallbladder?

Diagnosis.

Abdominal ultrasound. This test is the one most commonly used to look for signs of gallstones. ... .

Endoscopic ultrasound (EUS). This procedure can help identify smaller stones that may be missed on an abdominal ultrasound. ... .

Other imaging tests. ... .

Blood tests..

What does burning gallbladder feel like?

Gallbladder pain feels different than any other kind of pain you've ever felt in your abdomen. You may feel a sudden, sharp pain in your upper right abdomen. It may feel like someone is cutting you with a knife. The pain is constant and severe.