LPR/Silent Reflux - desperately in need of a miracle. Has anyone recovered from this?

Hi Donna,

I've read a great deal on this acid/alkaline issue but I'm not a doctor. Disclaimer.

According to Dr. K, salt is not an issue with LPR. The pH (acidity, less than 7 is acid) of the solution the salt is in is. So, if you want to experiment with Himalayan salt, you'd need to take the pH of the liquid after you dissolve the salt. The closer to 8.8 the better. Don't believe any of the writings that say you need to take acids that become alkaline. In Dr. K's writings, she stresses it is the pH of the food/liquid that passes over the tissues that counts. The contents of the stomach that come up with LPR or any kind of reflux are acidic and contain pepsin. Pepsin is the major problem. Pepsin basically digests tissue and the tissues of the throat especially cannot handle this pepsin. So, anything like vinegar, orange juice, lemonade (all low pH, acid) will activate the pepsin causing further damage to the tissues. This damage is what causes the burning, mucus and all the awful LPR symptoms.

Having a h. hernia can indeed cause reflux as well as being overweight. So make sure you address those things. Also HUGE for me was not eating 3 hrs before bed. I am not overweight but just that and not eating huge meals caused me to drop 5 lbs! There has to be something good about all of this!

If you are in the northeast US you can find Iceland spring water, pH 8.88. If you are in the UK, I'm not sure what you can find. But, hey, at least you have access to healthcare, lucky you!! Our health care system is good only if you can afford it.

Susan

thanks for replying, Susan!

are you saying it's ok then to take the salt- but just disolve it in high ph water?

this is really a frightening thing to have-- so many symptoms and so much that can go wrong. (end road- cancer)

may i ask do you still have bad symptoms and how long have you been trying the remedies ? Its only been

a few days since I started the diet .....i hardly ate anything the past couple of days so that probably helped-

although I still feel pain- i did sleep all through the night last night...might be due to the large amount of ph

water i had at night and hardly eating.

now that i am reading so much on it- i can see how i caused it-- I work from home and wake up around 4:30-5 and work until lunch..then I would be exhausted and go eat lunch and then take a nap- on my stomach-usually wearing a bra that was too tight....so i am sure those factors played a role in it. I didn't have any of these issues before I was working from home.

I just hope this can be cured and this isn't a life sentence to these miserable pains and aches.

here is where i first heard of the salt and the idea that its not too much acid but too little acid....

http://articles.mercola.com/sites/articles/archive/2009/04/25/news-flash-acid-reflux-caused-by-too-little-acid-not-too-much.aspx

yes..thank you...I know that now (about the naps) ....just wish I knew it before i helped to cause this problem.

as for knowing for sure its LPR...I will know more this week..as i said - I went in this week and that was the dr's guess and to me it all makes sense since I checked it out and have the symptoms...and its not asthma we ruled that out.

I wonder if breathing the steam of pH 8.8 water would work to get the high pH water into the airways. Has anyone tried this?

Even when I'm not coughing or clearing my throat, I still have mucus in the back of my throat and PND so I'm wondering if this steam would help. Thoughts?

Get prescription nasal spray it works. However you may need to go through different ones before you get one that works for you. I finally got prescription for one called rinatec works perfectly & sometimes I go for almost a week without feeling the mucus on my throat. I only use it when I need it which is becoming very rare.

That is if it has been proved that you do have LPR the symptoms are the same for different conditions e.g chronic rhinitis which is also aggravated & made worse by diet as well. You could be reacting to food or other allegerns

Susan, I think your idea of inhaling is a good one, but not via the steam of alkaline water. The pH is produced by dissolved compounds such as bicarbonates and when you distill the water these are left behind. Another possibility which I'm trying , and seems OK is to use a fine spray, spraying just as you start to take a deep breath. You can do this via your mouth or both nostrils. I've also tried gargling and snuffling and these seem to work OK but I've now been giving the spray a try for the last couple of days because it may get a small quantity into the larynx which is where my problem is. I'm definitely seeing a marked improvement after two weeks of trying JPT's suggestions.

Just wanted to update.

My low carb diet fell through a bit TBH. I got a bit silly and add far too many gaseous foods. (if thats a word)

cabbage alomonds all in one day. i blew my stomach up and got into loads of pain silly me.

Last week all was going ok but i succumbed to a marble cake and all hell broke loose in my throat. then i decied it would be a good idea to go for a beer.

I suffered terribly and my wife had no forgiveness. anyway i had a serveer sore throat for three days the worst ive had since my reflux began 14-16 months ago. I decided yesterday evening to try the alkaline water. A friend of mine had given me a portable filter a few months ago and i just forgot about it. So i put it in 2 l of water and waited 2 hours.

I cant tell you the relief after 1 mouthfull. It was better than any gaviscon or ppi ive treid (ppis tend to send acid up into my ear and mouth.) It took about 1 hour of drinking for the throat to calm down but 3 days of pain were over in an hour it was amazing. The throat was still tender and i have been drinking it all day today. 3 l so far.

the throat is coming back a bit now but really i cant complain.

The only thing is that i have noticed is that my earache has come back. It has been over a month and i am sad to have it back but the throat is a lot calmer.

Has anyone here heard of endosim and do they know if its alright with LPR. (if thats what i have .

if thats a question for a different forum pls send me that way.

thanks JPT for the advice

I just want to say i tried the koufman diet and it worked for about 2 weeks same as the low carb diet.

change is good but then my body seems to adjust again to cause me more pain

good luck all

keep your chins up you're not alone even if u feel down soometimes

there is a way out of this i can feel it

greg

sorry the filter i used was from japan and was called colancolan water

I don't think the alkaline water is a boring topic at all. All medicines have their drawbacks and side effects so it is good to find something that helps that is benign like water. That being said, just a few people seem to abruptly get over LPR. It just stops. For most of us, it is a problem that needs to be controlled and that requires constant vigilance--especially since this is not simple. Something that triggers reflux in one person is OK for another. So the rules of the game are not the same for all of us.

Gingerhut, thanks for the idea of spraying water. I was thinking that the steam droplets might still contain dissolved minerals, but your idea is a great one to try. I just have to figure out how to spray the water.

Susan its because for the past week it has been all about this so called water at times I am tempted to think its one person who is opening all these accounts or recruiting a battalion. I dont know when you joined but there has been a fight on this forum about this so called pepsin & water over drive & some people ended up leaving. The result of that is we now dont have varied information from people under treatment from different doctors accept one person who keeps telling us about this water over & over again.

The founder of the thread has even tried to ask questions about other medical tests & experiences for the surgery she might need to get & the water brigade just drowned her. The thread was much larger than this. Others have left sadly that had many things we could try. We dont have pepsin & will not buy £20 tests. We also dont need alkaline water. Its on the the thread every day enough.

If you read my earlier postsIhave tried many things to cure myself of this awful thing that has taken hold of me. My LPR is still here at this time of writting my left ear is killing me with pain. I have tried diet tablets everything. I have followed JPT on many forums for a few months now and only tried the water because it happened to be in my cupboard. It stopped my thoraot from hurting in seconds. Not the LPR. If that didnt come across i apologise. I stated earlier in this thread to jpt that I thought a low carb diet is the way to go it really helped me before i got over confident. It seem to go against the low ph diet says.

I dont think it is a miracle water but if you have acid in your throat then it sort of makes sense to put alkaline water there no? I am in no way saying this is a cure or promoting other hoodoo stuff that some claim.

At the momment I am looking to get an endostim operation or link whichever is suitable for me.

There are people who have cured themselves of this but as susan say we are all different we have different triggers etc.

Susan have you got any references to people who just got off it.

I have suffered from this for about 16 months id luv it to just finish. I get so depresssed when i have bad symptons. I can see no way out. I am trying everything to find a way through.

The doctors say it takes many years to reach the dreaded cand I know a lot of you have had it many years longer than i have but I feel like im in a race against time.

Mandi I know its frustrating to find your way through all the rubbish on the net especially when it doesnt work for you but to others its the golden ticket. Im sorry if i was going over old ground ( my wife gets angry when i do that too- this illness is driving her crazy every time i mention it )

good luck keep on going we'll get there

greg

As Alex & I were 1st & second to post looking for medical solutions & to hear from people who recovered I fell annoyed. Someone who claims that this water works at further questioning the admitted they are 90% better but also had surgery. If the water had worked why the surgery. I am looking to get 100% better I am almost about 85 - 90% now with no water and no surgery. I would benefit from what other specialists are doing out there if only people dont continue to feel bullied by the water crusade & they stay.

Anyway I found a better group so I will only continue to communicate with those I send private message to. Happy water drinking

Can i just add to this. My wife went to the chemist when I had my sore throat and he said the symptoms were exactly like an allergic reaction. He gave me some tablets -dasselta (desloratadinum)

These two things are the only things i did differently yesterday. I just took another one as my throat was starting to get sore again. So maybe that would be a way to go for some people. I have 10 tablets so if it all kicks off again after i finish we may have a clue.

greg