Posted 6/25/2021 10:55 AM (GMT -5)
Hi all,
I suffered for over a year with LPR every day. It manifested as lump in the throat, sometimes terrible burning, but always in throat (or sometimes clavicle) area rather than the "heartburn" further down that I had felt in the past.
I had a scope and a CT scan. There was no actual damage, but the symptoms were unbearable.
I was on Prevacid for awhile but was determined to get off of it. Most of what helped me is information I have hardly ever seen online. So I wanted to share it with you all. I've been off Prevacid for a year now and am feeling great! I do take Pepcid but, honestly, I'm not even sure I still need it. Here is what I recommend:
1) Do not drink ice-cold water ever, especially after eating. It really aggravates LPR. (If you have to, drink it in small sips only.) I drink only slightly warm or room temperature water. After meals, drink some, but not too much, warm (not hot) water, then wait awhile before drinking more. Don't drink too much liquid with meals either.
2) After meals, and possibly in general, don't sit on soft squishy furniture like certain kinds of couch. I now drag my dining room chair over to watch TV. It really makes a big difference.
3) Really be careful with clothing that is tight around the waist, especially in the first part of the day if (as I do) you sit at a computer. Clothes that don't bother me if I am moving around can cause LPR if I have to sit in them for long periods. What to notice is not whether the clothing "feels tight" (it may not) but whether sitting in it causes symptoms. If it does, don't wear it while sitting to work.
4) Don't exercise on a totally full OR EMPTY stomach. I used to walk briskly for 15 min. first thing in the morning before eating. It turned out this triggered my reflux.
5) Eat smaller meals and eat SLOWLY. When I am going through a bad patch, I find a point comes in every decent sized meal when I burp. For me that is the signal I have to stop eating, or I will get reflux. When my reflux was really bad, because of this, I lost weight. I thought, oh, this must be how skinny people eat--they just stop earlier! (I am not at all overweight, just average weight.)
6) If you have burning stomach or wake with a sore throat, in addition to drinking room-temperature water, try eating a few small pieces of crystallized ginger. It's amazing how well this stuff works!
More familiar things I also have been helped by:
1) I sleep on a wedge on my left side. In a pinch, three or four pillows arranged not as a pile but in a staircase-like setup can mimic a wedge. I find that sleeping in any other position causes LPR. Right side is worst, but stomach can be a problem too.
2) I take 2 teaspoons of Gaviscon Advance at night, though I am not sure I still always need it. If I wake in the middle of the night and am really awake for a bit, I take two more.
3) I did go off caffeine. I am here to tell you this can be done. I still write every morning and feel awake. But I do not avoid alcohol or acidic foods, as I did when the LPR was really bad.
4) I started doing strength training twice a week (in addition to daily walks), and I feel this helps with everything, perhaps because it really helps my sleep above all.
Things that I do NOT think have much to do with LPR:
1) The acid in your food (unless you are in the middle of a bad patch when you already have an aggravated area in your throat).
2) Drinking apple cider vinegar, which always made my symptoms worse.
To my mind, honestly, the main thing that causes LPR is: excessive burping. So the key was not to avoid acid so your burps wouldn't be acidic, but to avoid things that caused all the burping in the first place. And, for me, that was the things above, like too-cold water, too-restrictive clothing, sitting on too-soft furniture, and so on. Give it a try!
I hope these pieces of advice can help others! Feel free to ask me any questions you may have.