Calling everybody with sticky phlegm in their throats. I have suffered from this for years and kept on coughing day and night, even had a bad bout of bronchitis although I did not have a cold. I was sent to a throat/nose specialist and had a camera explore my sinus areas and to my amazement was told that this area was crystal clear. My stomach caused the sticky phlegm! I was told that I had too much stomach acid and that this escaped thru a weak "valve"(to use everyday language) and that my throat manufactured the phlegm to protect itself. My doctor put me on omeprazole which only made matters worse. I started researching this and found that too little acid and too much acid in your stomach had more or less the same symptoms, so assumed that I had too little stomach acid and did more research. Found that this could be caused by lack of enzymes, so bought "Bio-enzymes", and lo and behold, after only three days I have already gone thru an entire day and night without coughing! Cannot even remember when last this happened ...
During my research I also found that if you had Gerd, whether due to excess stomach acid, or the opposite you have to follow certain rules: Small meals more often, do not bend, do not eat or drink anything two hours before retiring at night, stay away from chocolate, peppermint and menthol lozenges or cough medicines containing same as these products relax your "valve" allowing more gunk to be pushed into your throat, ie more heartburn (which I never had ..) or more sticky phlegm. Would like to share this with others suffering from Gerd, or those not even knowing that they have it.
I'm still doing research and have since found the symptoms of lack of enzymes:
Flatulence, heartburn, diarrhea, spasms, lactose intolerence, constipation, gastro esophgeal reflux, peptic ulcers and indigestion.
Cecelia
Post Edited (Cecelia) : 12/6/2010 12:17:18 AM (GMT-7)