Can someone please explain to me the link between breathing and reflux because it's driving me crazy

If the asthma inhaler doesn't work it's probably not asthma its possibly vocal cord dysfunction. My asthma inhaler does nothing when i'm having an attack because it's a very different illness which unfortunately feels very much like asthma symptoms beleive me. One major difference though is with asthma the issue is breathing out, with VCD it is breathing in.

If it is VCD the inhaler will not help, you just have to wait the symptoms out.  Exercise for some reason can bring it on.  My ENT officially diagnosed me yesterday, I had the camera put down my throat and I had to speak so he could watch my vocal cords in action, I've had it since February, I had my first attack of it after cycling and then it disappeared until June.  On the plus side he told me it is an illness with that is finite, he has never seen it last more than 2 years.  He also told me there is no known cause for it but there is a lot of speculation that it is linked to exhaustion and stress but he doesn't buy into that as he has seen it in a number of patients who have all had different histories.

I've had it for 5 years now! It has got a lot worse over the last year but i had my first symptoms in March 2012. It was only Nov 2016 that i was diagnosed by my physio though and i don't have my ENT clinic till November and that was only after me pushing them because it wasn't really getting any better so i wanted it confirming.

It can be caused a lot by silent reflux as well as stress so cutting back on the acid is crucial. PPI's don't often help.

Do you  think that taking antacids last thing at night help? Is it a good idea, in your opinion?

If I have this for 5 years I will crack up.  I find it seriously debilitating, I had it continuously from June until August and I have symptoms every couple of days now especially when I get tired.  I'm glad I got the diagnosis, I was worried it was something more sinister.  Both my respiratory consultant and the ENT have told me I will not die from this even if I suffocate out my brain will reset like a computer and I will wake back up.  He did say if someone had anxiety or panic attacks etc there is a procedure whereby a nick can be taken out so there is always a permanent opening but thankfully I don't need that.

I was completely at the end of my tether with it when i was diagnosed last year, nobody seemed to get what it was. I had been to many departments at the hospital for tests and all were fine so therefore i think they were putting a lot of it down to anxiety despite me insisting it was not anxiety! If you are lucky and you have a doctor who knows about VCD then i guess you would find out quicker, mine know nothing ;(

My VCD got a lot better when i tried the low/no acid diet for a month. It did make a lot of difference after a couple of weeks. That and not overbreathing and practicing my breathing, short sharp breath in through nose and gentle staggered breath out.

I have to say that none of the doctors in my 8 trips to emergency mentioned it and like you I had to go through all the anxiety questions, it caused me such aggravation when I kept saying no I don't suffer from anxiety.

I can honestly say that the VCD was harder for me to deal with than asthma and I was a chronic asthmatic. It's the sudden onset I find hard though the ENT told me no matter what I will have time before I suffocate out if it gets to that stage.  That only happened to me once and while VCD is not pleasant it is not fatal. My consultant has said no point in going to an ED anymore with it there is nothing they can do to help me.

The worst thing you can do is panic because your heart rate will escalate, you'll get the pain and everything else that goes with it. It's easier said than done.  Breathing exercises don't work for me with VCD. I'm getting physio too but the physio has told me upfront the exercises won't stop VCD, the vocal cords actually close when it is at it's worst, the breathing exercises are more to stop the hyperventilating leading to the increase in carbon dioxide and to try to make yourself remain calm during the episode and hopefully it turns out to be a mild episode.

Once I got the diagnosis I spoke to my GP, he had never heard of it, I was lucky in a way that I had an attack in the GP surgery and he saw it first hand, I have asthma and he had me breathing in listening to my lungs at the time as I told him something didn't feel right but I didn't know what. I had chest tightness but the wheezing was in my neck, I felt like I had a lump in my throat, I had difficulty in doing even light exercise, climbing the stairs filled me with horror, I had problems swallowing, tingling and loss of feeling. Then it would disappear and everything would be fine for a while, my stats would stabilize, my heart rate return to normal and I would be able to breathe again. I later found out that the loss of feeling was as a result of too much carbon dioxide due to gasping trying to breathe and apparently when you don't get enough oxygen you lose the feeling first in your extremeties.  My respiratory consultant diagnosed me and thought it would improve with rest.  he told me I had worn my body out and it was a message from my brain that I needed to take stock. The brain apparently sends the signal to tighten the vocal cords, it's not a reflex and it can happen without suffering from anything else at all.

Maybe that's why I have lost my ability to sing after many years. It is a great misery for me. It never occurred to me that this could be the cause. And I saw an ENT consultant ten years ago and he didn't diagnose it.

It's a relatively knew diagnosis, I think it's only gained traction in the last 5 or so years and they still have not got a treatment though they recommend physio on the muscle in your neck and keeping levels of stress down plus ensuring that you have adequate rest. An ENT will definitely had heard of it now maybe worth while making another appointment?  Maybe with a consultant who is keeping up on the new techniques,  A bit of advice I was told long ago, and it works, is to make a call to the department in the hospital where you would like to attend and ask them to recommend someone, the hospital staff are best placed and then chat to your GP about a referral to that consultant.

I have a brilliant respiratory consultant and he diagnosed me in July just by listening to my neck and the wheezing. One thing that came out of all my trips to ER was all my bloods were done, my CT scan was done, my ECHO was done and my chest, neck and abdomen xrays, he had all the results on his table when I saw him and he was able to diagnose me there and then because everything else was ruled out. He thought if I had two weeks of rest, it would greatly improve but it took 5 weeks in the end for me to live a relatively normal life. 

As I still had it every couple of days he referred me to an ENT just last week who saw me this week and he looked at my vocal cords and it coincided with the VCD being active in my neck at the time, again he was a fabulous consultant, gave me practical advice, actually said the same thing as the respiratory consultant. I skipped out of his surgery.  He said one of the pluses of an asthmatic getting this is that suffocation is not new, I knew it was different and now I can differentiate between the two, I'll know which I need emergency treatment for and which I just have to lie down and wait it out for.