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

Dear All,

I am new to the forum and I have read all of the posts above. Thus, I clearly see that you have been here on the forum for some time already and this gives me a hope and anticipation that you must be quite experienced in this subject.

I would like to tell my story briefly and will be happy to listen to your comments then.

I was diagnosed with a gastritis 2 years ago and back then I went under a strict diet and PPI medications. After 6-7 months I was feeling much better and the symptoms disappeared.

It was until this May, I have not had any problems with my stomach until I got a cold 2 times in May. This is when all the nightmare started.

After recovering from cold, I realised that a cheeky feeling stayed in my throat. It was like a soar throat and coughhing after the meals.

I have first checked this with my brother who is a surgeon, he checked my throat and told that I had a thick post nasal drip which seemed like sinisutis. He prescribed me 2 weeks of antibiotics and sinus rinse. Having done that, nothing was changed, so I went to an ENT, she checked my throat and nose and stated that I had sinusitis. She also prescribed me another type of antibiotics and sinus rinse for 2 weeks. After that the symptoms did not vanish either. I still had post nasal drip, caughing after the meals and stick mucus in my throat which stuck on my throat and affected my voice and caused caughing.

Nevertheless, I went to another ENT who I have found through a deep research. He checked my throat, sinus and the vocal cords with endoscopic camera and stated that I have sypmtoms of LPR. In fact I had researched about LPR before going to him because ever since I started to have these sypmtoms I was searching on the internet anyway. Also considering that I had gastritis 2 years ago, I always had in mind that something related to my stomach could be causing these symptoms.

Anyways, he prescribed me Nexium (twice a day), nasal sprey, sinus rinse and Gaviscon syrup after meals and before going to bed, for a month of threatment, then I will see him again.

Today is my sixth day and my soar throat already improved. Almost no soar throat. However same amount of mucus in my throat especially after meals, phlegm caughing but this phlegm is really difficult to spit out as it gets stuck to my throat and affects my voice. This happens especially after eating.

However, I have never felt a heartburn or any other symptoms of GERD people describe here. In fact I feel much better when I am laying down or sleeping. Symptoms start with eating mostly.

I care about my diet, less carb, dairy and meat., more vegs. and water. I also read a book about alkalizing diet. I also read about J. Kaufman's studies. However I so far realise that the type of food does not affect my symptoms as adversely as they say.

I would like to know if you have already recovered or still fighting with this disease, if so what self-made cures and technics you have found?

I look forward to hearing from you

all the best

Greetings from Istanbul-Turkey

Of course you can recover. Many do, but typically things get better, and then care is needed to continue in good health. These questions and so many others - and my own experience with LPR led me to write my new ebook about LPR. It is a comprehensive explanation of all aspects of LPR based on a thorough review of the medical literature. As research advances I blog about new info at allaboutlpr.tumblr.com. Best of luck.

Dear Mcson,

I have had a lot of what you have been saying done to me and have changed my diet which has been helping a lot. I loved dairy and have gone through what it seems like you have been. I stopped eating dairy for about three months now and it has helped an incredible amount with all of the phlegm in my throat and a bunch of coughing I might not be the best to answer your post, but people here have helped me too. Maybe you could try messing with your diet or try some medications stated from the earlier posts.

I hope you have good luck with your problems. Hope I can help.

Dear Brenna,

Thank you for your kind message.

I love dairy as well however nowadays I try to reduce the amount of dairy I am getting. However so far I have the impression that the food I am getting does not influence on my symptoms as much as it is supposed to be. This may of course be wrong however I understand so far that caughing after eating, mucus and throat clearing is very irregular. Although I eat the same things for instance one day, I may get worse...but may be in long term I will see the benefit of my diet...we will see.

The most disturbing thing is throat clearing after eating...it is horrible and affects my life so much.

I hope I can help also

all the best

Dear Yola,

Ever since this happened to me, I have not drank any coffee or strong tea. I go for camomile te, very rarely green tea and ocassionaly fennel tea.

I also care about my diet by redusing dairy products, meat and fatty food. I mostly eat salad, vegs, some amount of wheat and rarely chicken and fish. Moreover, I have very recently started drinking pH 8.2 water and trying to get a higher pH water.

However so far nothing seems improved in terms of the mucus produced after eating and throat clearing following that.

If anybody can suggest anything that could help I would really appreciate.

All the best

Dear Dr Thomas,

Thank you for your comment. I have actually read your blog which holds very useful information and I will definitel buy your ebook.

However prior to that, I would lik eto ask you something and I would really appreciate if you could kindly answer;

When my ENT checked my throat and my vocal cords, he told me that my larynx was slighly burned and my vocal cords seemed to be irritated a little. However having read tons of information on th einternet, your blog and the introduction of your book, I can assure you that my caugh is really not like how people describe.

What happens to me is that; after eating thee is so much mucus in my throat due to post nasal dirp that I cannot take out and I need to clear my troat all the time, but this mucus is really stick thatI cannot take it out.

In the meantime my ENT also told me that I have sinusitis. Similarly I have read in some researches which stated that LPR could casue chronic sinusitis as well.

I am just trying to find out if I really I have LPR or my symptoms are more realted to Sinusitis or something else.

What is the caugh like in LPR patients usually?

I would appreciate your kind answer.

Dear Mcson,

First, please note I am not a medical doctor, nor is anything I say personal medical advice - my expertise is in reporting what medical specialists and researchers say about LPR. However, I do have a Ph.D.in the biological science, and have extensive experience in education - as well as having a 2.5 year experience living

with LPR!

So, my first response is that "cough" may be one of the most common words doctors hear. And sinusitis has a number of possible causes. A recent research paper in a noted ENT journal says "...the degree to which

[LPR] contributes to the pathophysiology of sinusitis...is still not completely clear, but an increasing body of literature supports a potential role." All that is a complicated way of saying sure, your reflux could be causing sinusitis, and with it , postnasal drip and cough. However, that does not rule out the possibility that your sinusitis could be caused by something other than your reflux, such as a virus.

I feel your pain when it comes to that thick cough and sinusitis. I had both and I spent hours coughing so much that I wondered if it would ever stop. All that was due to my LPR, and it was until I was treated and had time to heal that I had relief. Most of that trouble was before I was finally diagnosed and began treatment. One problem people often have is that when LPR starts, and it gets a chance to really irritate and inflame tissues in the throat and larynx, it takes weeks or months for healing. This of course leads to confusion as to whether or not a treatment is working because symptoms remain.

I prefer not to tell my particular treatment because I would rather have people trust and follow the advice of their own particular (hopefully skilled) health care provider who sees them and knows their particular situation. Suffice it to say that a combination of meds and diet have made my life a whole lot better!

So - I hope you can get treatment to stop that cough - in my case it led to pneumonia several times - but hope is there with treatment. I wish you the best.

Dear Dr Thomas,

Thank you for your detailed response, I really appreciate that.

The thing is that my father and brother are medical doctors, both surgeons. I obviously discussed this problem first with them and their first word was that it is irritation in the throat due to post nasal drip and this continuously irritaes the cover of throat.

My father thinks that this cannot be due to the stomach because I start caughing right after eating, it is like 1-2 minutes after. There is a lot of mucus produced after eating which goes to my throat and casues irritation and caugh. He thinks that any enzymses or reflux or whatever cannot be such quick after eating and to him I have no symptoms of reflux at all.

However having checked my throat, my ENT told me that my throat seems to be irritated / burned and my vocal cords are little irritated. Thus, he said it MAY BE LPR and prescribed me with a month use of PPIs and Gaviscon. This is second week of using as prescribed but so far not much improvement in the amount of mucus produced.

With respect to Sinisutis, you have mentioned about a VIRUS!!! This is very important for me. Because all of my symptoms started after passing 2 colds in May. It was like 2 difficult colds I had during may consecutively. Right after that this post nasal drip stayed! My father also thinks that my sypmtoms seem viral. He says that the viruses which casued these two Cold infections somehow triggered my sinisutis and somehow irrigation in my throat.

What do you think about this? What sort of virus could be causing this and how could I get rid of that?

Many thank in advance

all the best!!!

Dear Yola,

thank you for your kind advice. I really appreciate that.

However I already use that over a month! It is called sinus rinse kit here but I do not know how that is called there.

It is a col dthing when you get used, however it seems that it does not help in my case alot.

The thing is that my nose is not that blocked, I feel fine in my nose however the problem is so much post nasal drip produced right after eating and that goes to my throat and cases irritation and caugh.

Thank you so much for your suggestion over here!!!

All the best!

Dear All

I have suffered from silent reflux/ LPR now for about 6 months. I have had it confirmed by my vocal cords being red and inflamed. I have been on Omeprazole and Gaviscon and it is no better. Some days it is less severe but it is always there. I have read up about it and tried some of the other dietary advice etc.

My main symptoms are a feeling of a lump and tightness in my throat. I do have hoarseness and mucus but this does not bother me as much as the other symptoms.

I have just come upon this site and find it very helpfull reading about your experiences and it has given me some ideas to try some other things.

I will post some progress notes if I find anything helps and look forward to following this site for more ideas and advice.

Best wishes to all of those who have posted and I hope you find something that helps.

I am going to stop taking the Omeprazole (will continue with the Gaviscon for now).

I am going to go and read the other reference info now.

Hi Mcson

The reason for the coughing so soon after eating is likely to be the reactivation of pepsin in the larangeal tissue. In LPR Pepsin is aspirated into the Esophagus up through the Uppper Esphageal Sphinter and into the larynx mouth nasal cavities and ears via the eustachion tube caising cell damage and inflamation creating PND (Post Nasal Drip).

Pepsin binds with the tissues and becomes dormant and is reactivated by acidic foods and drink of a low pH. Hence the inflammation and damage is continued. The only way to denature Pepsin is to raise the contact pH to pH8.0 or more.

Sinus rinse has small amounts of bicarbonate of soda in it which is around pH 7.0

Alkaline water denatures Pepsin & neutralises Acid permanently. I would be interested to hear from anyone here who knows of anything else that does!

Obviously our goal should be to stop Pepsin and any other gastric content rising into our airways.

This can be achieved with surgery, diaphragmatic breathing diet, and losing weight.

This is a war that needs to be fought on many levels.

Good luck to you all. JPT

Dear mcson

Last time a virus attacked me. I used Salt irrigation, NAC and Tea made from fresh ginger and ate the cooked ginger with honey. The candied ginger also seems to work.

Fastest I ever stopped a cold. Ginger is also helps the reflux.

Galviscon Advanced Liquid seems

Hi All ---

Galviscon Advanced Liquid seems to help my Silent Reflux LPR was out of it for 2 days and my symptons got worse, but my eating was a little worse.

I am currently trying bitters, hopefully to speed up my digestion. Eating a lot of food definitly is a problem. I have bed raised 6 inches and also use pillows.

My main symptoms are coughin up thick white stuff, burping with taste in my mouth and sometime throat feels a little sore. No pain in stomach just sometimes bloated - it seems like I just need the food to move through faster. I use magnesium for regular movements.

Its hard for me to tell which foods are bothering me because my symptom can be vague.

How soon does your trigger foods effect you?

I have a medium hiatal hernia, a Schatzki's ring that was stretched, some esophagitis redness (biopsies were negative) The Dr. did not use the term LPR. Are these conditions common with LPR?

Cheryl

Hi JPT,

Thank you for your detailed message.

Is the reactivation of pepsin in the larangeal tissue that quick? Because in my case, caughing starts right after eating (1-2 minutes) and my father (surgeon) thinks that any reflux and/or aspiration from the stomach to the Esophagus cannot be such quick. This confuses me!

Also, I have found a Peptest from a UK company. Have you had a chance to try this?

http://www.rdbiomed.com/peptest/conformity/

As far as I know, Pepsin is specifically created to break proteins in the stomach, if that is the case, why would I get the same cough even when I eat greens only?

Supposing that I have Pepsin, in order to deactivate and rinse pesin from my throat, I am supposed to drink pH 8 and above water. How long do you think I should continue to drink that? I am already drinking ph 8.2 water but no difference.

I am really willing to find out if I really have LPR and pepsin is blown in to my throat and airways.

My ENT already prescribed my with PPI, Gaviscon, sinus Rinse and Aramys Nasal Spray, however they do not seem helping the PND produced after eating.

Thank you all and keep in contact please!!!

All the best