LPR & low stomach acid - HELP?
Posted , 5 users are following.
Hi, I hope this is in the correct section, as I'm new to this forum!
So...I was diagnosed with LPR a while back and have had symptoms for about 7 months. I cleared most of them up by changing my diet for three months, in which I finally got rid of the chronic cough and cleared my throat up a little. However, the diet changes made me really ill and I was having constant nausea while eating animal products - mainly fish without additional products as I don't eat beef/chicken/etc for ethical reasons and I had to go back to eating a regular diet, which made my stomach feel better, and I no longer experience nausea eating fish as long as it is drenched in something like sauce - which is acidic, but the LPR symptoms are still there, just not as bad as they used to be, but slowly getting worse.
Before I had LPR, I developed atypical anorexia. I cut down my calories, became obsessed with eating 'clean' and after having a stressful and emotional binge over being almost underweight (I wasn't even hungry at the time) had heartburn once and may have refluxed pepsin into my throat (as LPR isn't really caused by acid, but pepsin) My throat symptoms are definitely LPR related, but my stomach symptoms are more based around having low stomach acid, as my holistic nutritionist has said based on the way I react to animal proteins and feeling better with them drenched in acidic sauces. Overeating or stress has been said to cause low stomach acid, as well as eating disorders or vegetarian diets (I cut out all animal protein except eggs and milk), which I engaged in for a year.
PPIs and blockers like Ranitidine didn't help at all and gave me really bad stomach pains like how you'd get if you were extremely starving, and I wasn't actually hungry when I had those pains, and sometimes they'd get so bad that I'd drink a large amount of water to get rid of them when I'd already drank enough during the day.
I'm not really sure which path to take, as it's very confusing. Dietry changes makes me feel ill, yet clears up the LPR. A regular diet doesn't make me feel ill, yet aggravates my LPR symptoms.
If anyone has any advice, I would be really grateful as this is extremely confusing. I'm sorry this is all so long!
0 likes, 8 replies
nick64380 ellie-t25
Posted
Has your nutritionist recommended HCL tablets before meals? It's a really common and cheap solution to try for low stomach acid. You can find tons of information online about it, but perhaps order a small supply, start small with one or two tablets, and work from there. I've read a lot of success stories although I personally haven't tried it myself.
ellie-t25 nick64380
Posted
She mentioned them yes, but she said it's up to me to take that path because as we live in the UK, there's no actual reliable testing for low stomach acid on the NHS. I have read success stories myself, but I'm terrified that I could end up with worse LPR symptoms through taking them if my nutritionist was wrong. I have only met with this nutritionist once, for my eating disorder mainly, and I cannot afford another session with them so it's a tricky situation really, as I don't know whether I'd need to cut out any specific stuff from my diet either.
nick64380 ellie-t25
Posted
I understand your worry...it's the reason I never tried the pills myself. I've actually resolved 90% of my symptoms through a high fat, very low carb (low fermentation, actually) diet and stress reduction. That said, if you suspect low stomach acid you don't need a test. If you experiment with HCL and feel better, you'll know. If you feel worse or no different, you'll know. And if it's the latter, your symptoms would only worsen very temporarily while you experimented. The HCL pills would only be effective for a short period of time around when you take them. Again, read up if it's something you're interested in. I've never tried myself, but it seemed the obvious suggestion when you mentioend low acid. Good luck!
Vimes nick64380
Posted
If you don't mind could you please share what sort of carb food would you consider to be high and need to avoid.?
It will give me an idea to perhaps help myself.
I would have thought that a high fat diet would be more difficult to digest.?
I am believing more that both lifestyle and diet, as well as gut health, is very important for me to get on top of these LPR symptoms.
Best wishes and thanks.
ellie-t25 nick64380
Posted
I've actually been suggested a HFLC diet by a friend who is a personal trainer, but my body seems to need more carbs than fat as I get even more exhausted than I've been since having LPR when I go low carb. I only react badly to oatmeal or dairy (in the process of trying to push myself to go dairy free, which is hard because EVERYTHING has dairy) Ah, thank you for your advice! I'm going to try the HCL & hope things don't go wrong. Fingers crossed.
nick64380 ellie-t25
Posted
I typed a super long reply above but the moderator deleted the entire thing for some reason. I'm really sorry about that...it took me quite a while 😦 I basically suggested looking into low carb diets like keto and low fermentation diets (which you can Google). I did say the name of the diet that's helped me so much, and I have no clue why that's not allowed. It's a published, researched, scientifically based diet that's helped a ton of people. Oh well. Anyway, everyone thinks they need carbs because we're addicted. Once you get through the first week (aka "carb flu") you honestly don't miss them much -- especially if you're feeling better. But yeah, good luck with the HCL, and if those don't work, do give diet a shot!
Vimes nick64380
Posted
Thanks for the reply, sorry that it ended up deleted. I often copy and paste a reply into a text document or something before trying to post. It is difficult here to understand fully what trips the moderation wait, or even a deletion.
I still have oatmeal cereal in the mornings, but made with water and avoiding milk.
I make one exception to avoiding dairy and that is to drink our home made kefir. I am finding that very helpful for overall gut health. The kefir grains actually consume the lactose and helps for those who may have digestion issues with milk due to that sugar being present.
I do have some HCL tablets but have avoided trying them due to concerns of making the situation worse, I know that should be temporary.
There doesn't seem to be any single one solution to resolve this, but I am thinking that PPI's and other medication of that type could actually be counter productive in helping.
If you wished to you could always send me a PM with the name of that diet you think might have caused the deletion..? That way I could look it up and see what foods etc it is based on. That would be useful.
Best wishes to all.
Vimes nick64380
Posted
Thanks Nick for your PM, great information there. I have replied back to you.
Bought the app and the book is being shipped from America, I live in the UK.
Seems impressive so far, will mean a lot of changes tho....!