Silent Reflux (LPR)

GAF

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Right side sleeping may be the major cause in most cases of relatively healthy people.

This Is Why You Should Sleep on Your Left Side (Backed by Science)

Once you know what to search for there are lots of articles and pics to find on this matter.

Also, left side sleeping dramatically reduces gastroparesis - where your organs press against your diaphragm and lungs making it hard to breathe and leads to mouth breathing. This is a reason one needs to lose weight and un-bloat.

Additionally, there is something called "Chronic Cough Hypersensitivity Syndrome" Chronic cough hypersensitivity syndrome

There are lots of medical links on this also. Basically, the vocal chord nerves become super sensitive and things that would not normally cause a tickle or cough actually do. Things like food, or salt, or cold air, or getting in a vehicle, or any drink or change in environment can then cause the cough. And then, one cough leads to another due to CO2 depletion/hyperventilation and before you know it, you are choking and gagging and spitting up crud, or worse, or almost passing out while driving down the road blah blah blah nightmare to the max.

I think a lot of peeps have a leftover cough from the flu or cold or whatever, and it just seems to last forever. This is what is going on. The nerves get hyper-sensitized and never calm down. I seem to remember reading that the medical docs will prescribe gabapentin to calm the nerves. To me, this seems like using a nuclear bomb to kill a gnat. I haven't done anything but read the side effects of that drug and I wouldn't take it. I think they use it for epileptic seizures.

Anyway, that is why the benzocaine throat lozenges are on the list. My theory was to deaden the nerves continuously for as long as it takes and maybe that would stop the hyper-sensitivity. So far, it is working. I guess one could chomp on ice all night and day too. You can also drop some ambesol down your throat too.

Basically, one cough leads to another, so the focus must be to stop the first one, if possible. So, making sure one's mouth stays shut when eating, drinking, driving, walking, exercising, sleeping and talking is crucial to controlling the hypersensitive nerve problem.

My cough started in November 1997 after a cold. It got a thousand times worse in July 2007 when I had heart/colon cancer/lung/got septic/nearly died collapse. Now, it is 99% gone. Only took 20 years.
 

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Mad

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Right side sleeping may be the major cause in most cases of relatively healthy people.

This Is Why You Should Sleep on Your Left Side (Backed by Science)

Once you know what to search for there are lots of articles and pics to find on this matter.

Also, left side sleeping dramatically reduces gastroparesis - where your organs press against your diaphragm and lungs making it hard to breathe and leads to mouth breathing. This is a reason one needs to lose weight and un-bloat.

Additionally, there is something called "Chronic Cough Hypersensitivity Syndrome" Chronic cough hypersensitivity syndrome

There are lots of medical links on this also. Basically, the vocal chord nerves become super sensitive and things that would not normally cause a tickle or cough actually do. Things like food, or salt, or cold air, or getting in a vehicle, or any drink or change in environment can then cause the cough. And then, one cough leads to another due to CO2 depletion/hyperventilation and before you know it, you are choking and gagging and spitting up crud, or worse, or almost passing out while driving down the road blah blah blah nightmare to the max.

I think a lot of peeps have a leftover cough from the flu or cold or whatever, and it just seems to last forever. This is what is going on. The nerves get hyper-sensitized and never calm down. I seem to remember reading that the medical docs will prescribe gabapentin to calm the nerves. To me, this seems like using a nuclear bomb to kill a gnat. I haven't done anything but read the side effects of that drug and I wouldn't take it. I think they use it for epileptic seizures.

Anyway, that is why the benzocaine throat lozenges are on the list. My theory was to deaden the nerves continuously for as long as it takes and maybe that would stop the hyper-sensitivity. So far, it is working. I guess one could chomp on ice all night and day too. You can also drop some ambesol down your throat too.

Basically, one cough leads to another, so the focus must be to stop the first one, if possible. So, making sure one's mouth stays shut when eating, drinking, driving, walking, exercising, sleeping and talking is crucial to controlling the hypersensitive nerve problem.

My cough started in November 1997 after a cold. It got a thousand times worse in July 2007 when I had heart/colon cancer/lung/got septic/nearly died collapse. Now, it is 99% gone. Only took 20 years.

Cool, you're going to make a left side sleeper out of me. I will try tonight!
Sounds like you've been through some rough stuff... I'm glad you're doing so much better.
Coughing doesn't actually seem to be a problem for me. It's literally just wads of mucus hanging around in my throat. In the beginning I was wondering when the sensation to cough would come to help me clear it out, but it never came. So I basically am just gagging all day to get things up, and like I said the mucinex helps in that regard.
 

mangoes

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@GAF Whoa that's really interesting. Glad to hear you're doing better. I don't really suffer a cough either, it's weird how this effects people differently. I sleep on both sides (never stomach or back), I'll try restricting it to just left and see how it goes!
 

stsfut

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So just curious, have all of your symptoms disappeared since having the procedure?
I would say 80% fix. After I started taking thyroid medication in the form of NDT it pretty much completely stopped, 100% gone. I will have an episode once in a great while but nothing extreme. Going through gastritis now though, ugh...
 

GAF

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Cool, you're going to make a left side sleeper out of me. I will try tonight!
Sounds like you've been through some rough stuff... I'm glad you're doing so much better.
Coughing doesn't actually seem to be a problem for me. It's literally just wads of mucus hanging around in my throat. In the beginning I was wondering when the sensation to cough would come to help me clear it out, but it never came. So I basically am just gagging all day to get things up, and like I said the mucinex helps in that regard.

mucinex made me choke and gag all day long too. It just causes drip drip drip all day long by doing nothing but thinning the mucus - all day long. Hate that stuff.

Strangely, the frankincense changed the nature of the mucus completely and now it just chokes up easy all at once. Very strange fer sure.
 

Minimus

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I have had LPR for at least a decade. It is a b**** to deal with, especially since the ability of MD’s to diagnose it is far more advanced than their ability to treat it effectively. Sort of like almost every other disease, come to think of it. I have seen the following “expert” doctors in the field: Jamie Koufman, Jonathan Aviv, and Phil Katz. The tests to truly diagnose it are 24-hour pH monitoring, esophageal manometry, and the Bravo 72-hour pH monitoring system.

Koufman and Aviv have written books about LPR, which will make you think you will die any day now from throat or esophageal cancer, the incidence of which has skyrocketed in the last 30 years or so. Aviv and Koufman say it is not stomach acid that is causing the problem, but pepsin hitting the esophagus and throat, resulting in chronic edema and inflammation. There is a fair amount of research backing this up. Koufman thinks pepsin and other stomach contents are actually flowing up from the stomach and hitting the throat and even reaching as far as the sinuses. Katz and Aviv are not convinced stomach contents are actually moving up that far and that it has something to do with poor vagal nerve functioning that results in messed up esophageal motility and in gastroparesis and aerosolized pepsin hitting the throat as a result. In other words, they don’t know what the underlying etiology is.

Chris Kresser makes a convincing case that LPR and GERD are a product of SIBO. He recommends a low carb diet, which is anti-Peat. It works for me, but is very hard to implement. There is also a blog called “All About LPR” by a retired biology professor with LPR himself that is worth reading.

I think the underlying issue is often poor vagal nerve functioning. Koufman said I had a “post-viral vagal neuropathy” based on the tests she did.

Various surgeries like fundoplication and the newer Linx device don’t have that high a success rate in resolving LPR (as opposed to typical GERD) and these procedures often have bad side effects - discomfort, problems with esophageal motility that long-term affects your ability to swallow, pain from the inability to belch, and even overly rapid gastric emptying that causes high blood sugar and pre-diabetes. Katz and Aviv basically think that the side effects of these procedures are often pretty bad and frequently don’t cure LPR, so they don’t often recommend these surgeries. There are also drugs that increase the speed of gastric emptying like domperidone that can have cardiac side effects.

The least invasive intervention to treat it is called the Stretta procedure, which I am thinking about having done.

Basically, here is what sort of works in terms of lifestyle changes in order of difficulty and importance in minimizing symptoms: (1) don’t lie down or go to sleep within 3-4 hours of eating, (2) avoid “trigger” foods like chocolate, coffee, and mint, (3) don’t eat anything late at night (Koufman says don’t eat after 6PM, Aviv says don’t eat after 7:30PM, so good luck if you are a night owl with a normal appetite) (3) avoid a lot of starches and sugars (4) avoid acidic foods like vinegar and citrus (good luck with that if you want to follow a Peat diet) (5) eat small meals, not big ones (6) elevate the head of your bed with risers or even cinder blocks.

Sometimes, symptoms like post-nasal drip and excessive mucus in the throat are the result of allergies and stuff dripping down from the nose and throat, not stuff coming up from the stomach. Citrus actually contains a lot of histamine, which may cause post-nasal drip if you are already highly allergic. Allergy is easier to treat than all the major, borderline insanity-provoking lifestyle changes I listed above. So it may make sense to find out which is the problem before you alter your lifestyle in a major way.
 

MoonDay

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Thank for posting this info and that gives me some idea. But there are quite few doctors (MD) on youtube or blogs talking about how GERD/LPR is caused by low stomach acid and pushing for all sorts of things like HCL acid, Mastic Gum and Probiotics and lists goes on. Eric Berg (on youtube) said on of his video's comment section that "LES valve has a sensor that detects low stomach acid therefore it opens up by letting the acid/pepsin go up to esophagus and larynx causing GERD/LPR symptoms."

I am not sure what to think of all these low stomach acid theories promoting against PPI's which is opposite of what the ENT i saw thinks and who prescribed me the strongest PPI on market Dexiliant (extremely expensive and no generic. What a rip off!). I understand these medical doctors all about prescribing more branded drugs and getting paid by big pharma but what about the other part of group of doctors telling us to believe the low stomach acid theory?
Which they seems no angels to me either. It always seems that they're trying to sell some so called natural medicines or low stomach acid medicine i guess, which are not approved by FDA or wikipedia doesn't say much of their claims being truthful or proven either almost sounds like placebo. Such as probiotics, DGL,Mastic Gum and such. I am very confused and i wonder if there is anyone going through what i am going through and would be nice to know your inputs on it. Thanks.
 

EIRE24

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Personally, I had a whole host of digestive issues including an ulcer that disappeared when I increased my calories especially sat fat + sugar along with adding some thyroid (Tyromix) and cutting out starch.

My doc also said I had allergies and tried to get me on Zertex and Flonase, which is what actually led me to Peat's work, because they had no reasonable explanation as to why this happens. Carrot salad/AC to help sterilize the gut while removing starch and increasing fat + sugar worked for me.
You say fat and sugar, what specifically did you eat to repair your digestive system?
 

MoonDay

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I had a Nissen Fundoplication after dealing with this for years. I had this operation in Feb/2017 and before I started following Peat's theories. The operation partially fixed my issue. I believe that getting the surgery probably wasn't the wisest decision since the root cause was probably hormone/thyroid related. I am interested in the comments that your post receives.

I am suffering from LPR for about 4 months now and considering of this procedure. You said the procedure has partially fixed your issue. Is that mean you still suffer from GERD/LPR? How are you managing the symptoms now?
 

charlie

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I am suffering from LPR for about 4 months now and considering of this procedure.
4 months ago, right around fall/winter kicking in if you are in the northern hemisphere and vitamin D levels on the drop.

Dr. Stasha Gominak has found that GERD is from vitamin D deficiency.

"When the stomach sphincter is weak from low D message, the acid moves up into the esophagus, where it doesn’t belong, causing “acid reflux”."

There are quite a few people online that have responded well to bringing the vitamin D levels up. Dr. Gominak also has youtube videos of her speaking about this. IIRC she is a neurologist.

Basically she says vitamin D goes low, we lose the deep sleep capability, where the healing/reset happens. Vitamin D helps to make some kind of chemical that paralyzes the body while sleeping, so that the deep sleep can happen and there is little movement at night. It also helps make another chemical that causes the kidneys to stop making urine at night, so sleep is not interrupted. These are all just simplified explanations obviously on my part, but a lot of what she said did ring true. I will be digging into her videos further as I have time.

:hattip
 
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theLaw

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You say fat and sugar, what specifically did you eat to repair your digestive system?

I was eating a lot of calorie-sense foods like full-fat dairy + additional sugar.

Nate posted this on his blog :

"This recipe for a homemade milk tonic is a great tool for demonstrating the pulse/temperature principle as well as a gentle therapy for restoring the metabolic rate. It includes all of the nutrients needed to stimulate normal oxidative metabolism as well as replenishing levels of beneficial amino acids. Taking this in the morning and before bed can help relieve some symptoms of chronic metabolic decline. Organic milk is best, as is unrefined sugar but normal sugar is fine too. Do not use hydrolyzed collagen—it is too processed and contains potentially harmful substances. This can cause sweating in metabolically challenged persons who have not had an elevated metabolism for some time. It is not a bad thing but is something to be aware of, and can be alleviated by taking a small amount of iodine."

1 cup of whole milk
1/2 cup of sugar
2 tablespoons gelatin

http://www.fuckportioncontrol.com/

In one glass, this would be 582 calories including 20G of protein + 111G of sugar.

Just adding 2 of these to your diet per day is an extra 1000 calories/40G high-quality protein/200G of sugar.:thumbsup:
 

Agl

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  • Sleep on left side
  • Mouth taping
  • Famotidine - 20 mg evening plus 20mg morning, if needed
  • Frankincense essential oil under nose all day and night as needed
  • Glycine for deeper sleep
  • Un-bloat yourself
  • Benzocaine throat lozenges all day and night calm the hypersensitive vocal chord nerves. 50cents for 9 at Big Lots. Buy all they have in stock
  • Sinus Blaster from SPROUTS spray in back of throat as needed
  • Avoid alcohol at night - day drinking okay
I do the above every day, except day drinking.

What did not work-
  • Antihistamines
  • Tums
  • Mucinex
  • Diet changes
  • Salt water in nose and throat
  • Bed head elevation
  • Some Rx I got from India not available in US - can't remember name
  • The other million things I tried
I have done all things and more and my silent reflux almost had me committing suicide because of the lack of sleep for so many years. M symptoms were horrific, choking phlegm, really bad cough, stuffy runny nose, watery eyes. I’m trying to get the word out to everyone who suffers. Melatonin is a CURE, It only took me 2 days of 10mg of melatonin before bed and my symptoms are GONE. It was impossible for me to fall asleep as well, turns out I had a severe melatonin deficiency. Your GI tract realeases 400 times more melatonin than your peanile land and melatonin is essential for keeping your lower esphogeal sphincter tone so it can stay tight and not allow any acids through. Please please get the word out melatonin is a CURE!!!
 

Agl

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4 months ago, right around fall/winter kicking in if you are in the northern hemisphere and vitamin D levels on the drop.

Dr. Stasha Gominak has found that GERD is from vitamin D deficiency.

"When the stomach sphincter is weak from low D message, the acid moves up into the esophagus, where it doesn’t belong, causing “acid reflux”."

There are quite a few people online that have responded well to bringing the vitamin D levels up. Dr. Gominak also has youtube videos of her speaking about this. IIRC she is a neurologist.

Basically she says vitamin D goes low, we lose the deep sleep capability, where the healing/reset happens. Vitamin D helps to make some kind of chemical that paralyzes the body while sleeping, so that the deep sleep can happen and there is little movement at night. It also helps make another chemical that causes the kidneys to stop making urine at night, so sleep is not interrupted. These are all just simplified explanations obviously on my part, but a lot of what she said did ring true. I will be digging into her videos further as I have time.

:hattip
I tried vitamine D and it did not work yet I still take it. Melatonin is the cure, it strengthens the lower esophageal sphincter and my chronic Silent Reflux symptoms are completely gone. Melatonin is an essential part of the GI tract and it releases 400 times more melatonin than your peanile gland. It only took me 2 days of 10mg of melatonin before bed and I have NO SYMPTOMS anymore. Please tell everyone about this break through in for Silent Reflux sufferers. I tried everything under the sun, PPI’s, H2 blockers, this is the cure!
 

Agl

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I had a Nissen Fundoplication after dealing with this for years. I had this operation in Feb/2017 and before I started following Peat's theories. The operation partially fixed my issue. I believe that getting the surgery probably wasn't the wisest decision since the root cause was probably hormone/thyroid related. I am interested in the comments that your post receives.
Please read my post at the bottom, melatonin will cure Silent Reflux, I have been a chronic sufferer for many hrs now and my Silent Reflux is GONE!!
 

GAF

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Ok Agl. I will start tonite, Tues, and report back Thursday.
 

Agl

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Please do, I am sure it will have the same affect on you as it did me. I’m just EXTEREMELY SHOCKED that it was only 2 days for me to have my SEVERE symptoms completely disappear. I’m trying to get the word out to everyone who has LPR, most Dr’s have no clue what it is and they treat it like allergies. I am self diagnosed and I’ve done many hrs of research and I am still shocked that I finally found the cure.
 

GAF

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Please do, I am sure it will have the same affect on you as it did me. I’m just EXTEREMELY SHOCKED that it was only 2 days for me to have my SEVERE symptoms completely disappear. I’m trying to get the word out to everyone who has LPR, most Dr’s have no clue what it is and they treat it like allergies. I am self diagnosed and I’ve done many hrs of research and I am still shocked that I finally found the cure.

Here is what I can report after two nights and two mornings.

Reduced morning mucus...probably 75% less
Better, deeper breathing. Very odd, this morning I found myself able to take deeper bigger breaths for no reason without thinking about it, then I noticed it and said WOW that is a nice thing to be able to do.
Still got up to pee once, maybe twice, but konked out quickly.

in the past, I have noticed that deeper sleep results in less morning mucus. I had tried melatonin back years before and it never did much of anything, but I can't really remember how far back that was. Maybe it was even before 2007 and my nearly dying experience.

it strengthens the lower esophageal sphincter

I would be interested in your source for this bit of info.

Bottom line: I am going to keep this up for a while. I think it is working. AND, I am going to read RP's article on Melatonin again and see what I might need to do to offset its negatives. Whatever the negatives, being able to breathe better is a pretty powerful upside.
 
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Mad

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Here is what I can report after two nights and two mornings.

Reduced morning mucus...probably 75% less
Better, deeper breathing. Very odd, this morning I found myself able to take deeper bigger breaths for no reason without thinking about it, then I noticed it and said WOW that is a nice thing to be able to do.
Still got up to pee once, maybe twice, but konked out quickly.

in the past, I have noticed that deeper sleep results in less morning mucus. I had tried melatonin back years before and it never did much of anything, but I can't really remember how far back that was. Maybe it was even before 2007 and my nearly dying experience.



I would be interested in your source for this bit of info.

Bottom line: I am going to keep this up for a while. I think it is working. AND, I am going to read RP's article on Melatonin again and see what I might need to do to offset its negatives. Whatever the negatives, being able to breathe better is a pretty powerful upside.

Thanks for reporting your results @GAF .
I plan to give it a try as well, though I am also leery of the negatives of melatonin. Though what little I've read, the real dangers are in long term use, not short term. Thanks for mentioning Ray's article, I'll look that up.

Were you using the 10mg dosage these past two nights? I was maybe going to try about 5-6mg based off the articles I read.
 

rei

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I have done all things and more and my silent reflux almost had me committing suicide because of the lack of sleep for so many years. M symptoms were horrific, choking phlegm, really bad cough, stuffy runny nose, watery eyes. I’m trying to get the word out to everyone who suffers. Melatonin is a CURE, It only took me 2 days of 10mg of melatonin before bed and my symptoms are GONE. It was impossible for me to fall asleep as well, turns out I had a severe melatonin deficiency. Your GI tract realeases 400 times more melatonin than your peanile land and melatonin is essential for keeping your lower esphogeal sphincter tone so it can stay tight and not allow any acids through. Please please get the word out melatonin is a CURE!!!

My father has this problem for at least a decade. Doctors never found anything wrong or even a diagnosis, only wrote PPI prescription that had nasty side effects and was ineffective. After reading your post i recommended he tries melatonin to which he laughed because he gets to sleep almost too easily, and even has snoring/slight apnea, but agreed in the end, though only 2 pills=3.8mg. It helped a little and he only woke twice from cough during the night and slept better. Yesterday i convinced him to take 4 pills and the symptoms went away, only slight snoring remained. He also did not cough during the day. Absolutely incredible.
 
L

lollipop

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Please do, I am sure it will have the same affect on you as it did me. I’m just EXTEREMELY SHOCKED that it was only 2 days for me to have my SEVERE symptoms completely disappear. I’m trying to get the word out to everyone who has LPR, most Dr’s have no clue what it is and they treat it like allergies. I am self diagnosed and I’ve done many hrs of research and I am still shocked that I finally found the cure.
Hi @Agl - one question. Did you continue taking melatonin after the 2 days where it healed? Did it reverse back when you stopped taking it?
 

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