90% reduction in LPR/ Silent Reflux Like Symptoms

HEPA air filter running 24/7 in the bedroom. After 3 years of steadily worsening symptoms (post nasal drip, constant clearing of throat, gagging on thick mucus, sensation of a lump in the back of throat, coughing up mucus in the morning, having a hard time keeping food down at times) having an air filter running in my bedroom has put a stop to it all.

My symptoms started in college a few years ago and began to cross the line between annoying to really impacting my quality of life in the last year. My doctor said it was allergies but the over the counter allergy medicine he recommended did not help.

I started researching online and found this forum with a long list of posts by people that sounded like they were experiencing the same symptoms that I had. It was discouraging to hear that, in spite of having very similar symptoms, a large number of people were unable to find relief even after going to specialists, trying to avoid acids and other possible triggers in their diets, and trying many other things to control their symptoms like PPIs and allergy medicines. I originally intended to go see another doctor about my symptoms but was discouraged after reading about how many people here were able to find relief after many doctor appointments and procedures.

My symptoms started when I was going to college in the mountains of North Carolina and continued after graduating and moving to the Piedmont of NC. During my time in college I did an internship in Illinois and during those 3 months my symptoms completely went away and recently spent 2 months in Baltimore where my symptoms also went away. I have lived in 5 different places across NC in newer apartments and houses since the onset of the symptoms and they have always been the same. This leads me to believe their is something in the air in NC that irritates my throat which causes the symptoms.

I tried several types of allergy medicines, PPIs, avoiding acidic foods, avoiding dairy, and drinking alkali water but none of those things worked. I know that the common theory is that chemicals from the stomach are irritating the throat but its possible others are also becoming irritated by something in their environment. The extra/altered mucus could then be causing stomach problems. Its possible that the mucus is causing the stomach problems instead of the stomach problems causing the mucus. Removing as much as the irritant as possible could lead to a reduction of symptoms like it has for me.

My experience is anecdotal but there seems to be a lot of people on this site that could test this out for themselves and report their results. There's no way that having an air filter could make things worse. I hope this helps because I know how badly this condition affected me.

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