Reflux

70 but very fit and healthy, play golf and tennis, swim, go to gym, no health probs til now

I go long periods without eating sometimes, because I can't always afford all the food I want. I don't eat breakfasts, much. Does that make acid reflux worse?

I certainly find that if I go long periods without eating it makes the pain much worse.  The advice I was given eat little but often. So rather than eat one big meal spread it out during the day.

One tip is to learn when your local supermarket puts out all its discounted food so you can buy food at bargains prices.

I dunno, I've drank citrus fruit drinks since a child and never had any acid reflux issues until now.. Cheese I learnt was good to eat after drinking citrus fruit as it balances out the PH in your mouth again and neutralises the acid from the citrus fruits..

Sorry but I have to  disagree with some of your comments. I regularly get reflux from eating acidic fruit products like oranges, so not all fruit is good.

Yes diet is very important, but if your body creates too much acid, which mine does, changing my diet won't help. I need the PPI to reduce the amount of acid my body generates. Recently I had a 48hr ph monitoring test done while on the PPI. Because those drugs are working, my levels were shown as normal.

So please, don't believe everything you read on the internet, just consider what is written and make your own choices. If it was as simple as changing your diet NICE would tell every doctor here in the UK that is what they should prescribe and not a PPI.

Yes. Having suffered acid reflux and upper respiratory problems which nobody put together I had to push for help and finally got a provisional diagnosis of GERD and LPR on Tuesday. I saw an ENT consultant as well as a specialist LPR nurse who was brilliant. I've taken saliva samples for a pepsin test today (pepsin is an enzyme in your stomach, if it makes it up into your throat it causes upper respiratory problems). Google PepTest. The nurse gave me dietary advice including avoiding acidic fruits so NO oranges, lemons, limes, also no apples or pineapples. Lower animal fat and reduce caffeine intake and carbonated drinks.

wknight,

You are of course entitled to disagree. 

On the fruit comment, i did however say, "Small amounts of fruit" and "Everyone is a little different in what they can eat". I wasn't saying this is the gospel of how to cure reflux. Of course everyone is different. My advice is always from personal experience, just a guide line to help people. I just looked at all the research done, and all the personal testimonies of people that have cured themselves and the biggest and most notable thing that made the most difference in those testimonies, and there have been hundreds, not including books i have read, was stop eating refined and processed foods and go back to eating natural, fresh foods like vegetables, nuts n seeds, some fruit and some meat. This is what i followed, this is what helped me.

This isn't some willy nilly advice i have thrown together because i read a website, as you hinted, i personally suffered this for 14 years on and off. I was diagnosed with GERD, i've had the endoscopy, the xrays of my esophagus, drank the barium etc, i've taken every pill/ppi's Dr's threw at me all to no avail. 

Your body doesn't just increase acid production for the fun of it, there is always a reason. There is always action and reaction, cause and effect. I'm not saying drugs can't help, they did for me to a point, i'm saying drugs are not focusing on the action that caused it, they are focusing on the reaction, the effect. The cause was bad diet. Not bad diet for one month, but bad diet over years and years. It also doesn't fix itself over night either, it can take months, but it can be fixed.

I was on PPI's, i never thought i'd come off them. Even when i thought i was eating healthy, when i digged a little deeper into the ingredients, they were not, i also stopped jumping on the buzzword bandwagon of Organic, GMO free, gluten free, dairy free etc, i went back to basics, and that is when i noticed my reflux started to diminish. Some peoples problems are they want to eat cookies and pizza and junk food, so they go and buy some organic cookies, or a rice crust, organic pizza and think they are eating healthy. It is still processed, and in my opinion, not healthy. At least while someone has reflux, i would not be eating these types of foods. This is one of the big reasons people say they eat healthy, but they still suffer. They haven't given up that organic ice cream, pizza or cookies.

The other thing to note is, when you have full blown GERD/reflux you will notice that certain foods will still give you reflux. Heck, when i had it, even a salad gave me reflux at times. But gradually the more healthier foods i ate, the more natural i went back to, over time the reflux subsided, it was at that point that those foods that used to give me reflux, did not anymore. 

When i was diagnosed with GERD, not one single Dr asked me about my diet. The Dr's have become spokesmen for the pharmaceutical companies, so yes they will focus on giving you drugs rather than telling you to change your diet. Everytime you go to the Dr, it is money in their pocket. Everytime you are given drugs, it's money in their pocket. It sounds like a conspiracy, because it is. The whole food industry is in it for the money, plain and simple. Crappier and crappier food to make a few quid and they don't care about your health, not one bit. If they cared about peoples health they wouldn't be throwing hydrogenated oils into food, they wouldn't be stripping fiber from sugar (refined) and throwing into kids cereals. 99% of food in the supermarket is garbage, and until people realize that this forum will always be filled with people suffering and giving money to the phamaceutical companies because they believe the only way to better health is with their drugs. Anyway, i hope you and everyone who comes looking for advice finds this post. Have a great day.

Ricardo what you say does make sense to me so I will try and alter my diet. You call them cookies but over here in the. UK we call them biscuits and I am guilty of constantly vesting them so I will try not to do that now.

As you know changing your diet can be difficult but I am going to try. Ted

Hello! I'm new to this site but I am a scientist (biology) with a Ph.D and 25 years professional experience working in my chosen specialism. So I know how to select and follow advice, and what's bad advice. I was lucky to see a LPR specialist nurse on Tuesday along with the ENT consultant that I should have seen in February - but sadly got the ENT registrar. She was not at all interested in the acid reflux issue and although I had told her that my allergic rhinitis has been with me all my life (and my referral letter also mentioned this and the fact that my symptoms were not related to my allergies), she still sent me off for allergy tests (I already had that done 35 yrs ago) and prescibed antihistamines and steroid nasal spray to relieve 'allergic rhinitis'. Nevertheless I knew this was ridiculous and following from a horrendeous upper GI endoscopy where I had been left waiting for 4hrs whilst all the mucous gathered in my throat (so I felt like I was drowning), made worse by the throat spray that meant I felt as though I couldn't swallow for 45mins, I sent in a formal complaint. Amazing how doing this gets some action! Albeit I was messed about again with my new appointments. Eventually, having described my symptoms by email to the local hospital's patient advice and liason service I got to see the ENT consultant and the LPR nurse. The consultant knew immediately that most of my symptoms were down to acid and pepsin coming up from my stomach, into my throat, and upper airways...So now I have to adjust my diet, take Gaviscon Advance 4x a day, etc etc pending a follow-up and also a response to my complaint by May 8th. I've sent off samples for pepsin testing ('PepTest' ) pepsin is an enzyme in your stomach - if it gets up into your throat it starts damaging your vocal cords and larynx. Should get results next week. I've bought lots of new foods and am experimenting with them. However, I;ve just searched for books on diets for LPR and there are plenty out there. So I'm going to give that a go.

Another fantastic post and right on the money Ricardo. Thanks for taking the time to type such a long post - it does take dedication. I have filed your previous history and use it as my bible. As others have said you really are ready to write a small book say on Kindle or may I be so bold as to suggest you start a forum solely dedicated to reflux? Again, thanks for so unselfishly sharing with others.

Good luck Ted, it definitely takes will power, but especially if your are constantly feeling that craving for refined sugars. You may even start to get irritable etc, but wean yourself off the junk slowly and you will see the light at the end of the tunnel. Doing it in one huge step can be tough. It took me a very long time to get where i am today.

Thanks for the advice. I have been eating a healthy diet now and have cut out all possible triggers. Also seen a gastro enterologist ten days ago, who put me on a very high dose of ranitidine, which seemed to  stop the heartburn. Today I had an endoscopy and there was evidence of oesophagal disease which the doc. said would clear up. A few hours later, after eating an apple, the heartburn returned and now ranitidine isnt working. I am distraught at the thought of the pain returning again, as it goes on for days with out stopping and I cant sleep, hence I am typing in the middle of the night. Ive recently  discovered that many people are on Omeprazole etc and it works for them so I am not averse to drug therapy - anything to stop the pain that is ruining my life. I cant go back to the Consultant now, and my doctor must be sick of me. Is it OK to try some of the alterative thing that people have suggested eg milk thistle - while still taking the medication?

Don't mix when testing otherwise you won't know what works. Start with the medication give it at least 4 weeks to see if it works. You may need to adjust the dose so be patient. Only when you have the meds working can you try and play with other stuff. BTW some studies have shown that Lanzaprozole works better for some than Omeprazole.  With the correct meds and dose the pain should go. Take the meds 30mins before eating breakfast to set you up for the day 

There is no hard and fast rule about what triggers reflux you have to discover which foods trigger you. E.g. I can eat chocolate, take dairy but I can't take any juices especially orange. 

Hi Ricardo,

I know it's been a long time (2 years ago) but am feeling really down at the moment as am suffering from GERD for the past few years and recently got worst. =( I am keen in knowing how are you managing the diet, could I have more information please? my email is msyytan at. Appreciate your reply!

Sincerely