Posted 8/18/2013 3:12 PM (GMT 0)
Long time lurker here. I decided to set up a username today to journal my diet change. I am on day 2 of my diet change, so we will see if it succeeds or fails.
BACKGROUND: I'm 29 years old, 175 lbs, and 6'1". I have had minor stomach issues since being a teenager. In high school I would take the occasional gaviscon (maybe once a week or every other week). In college, it was the same thing, but a bit more frequent. I noticed my symptoms were usually linked to drinking alcohol. I cut out alcohol for that reason, and because I found out that I lack a gene to fully break down the toxins in alcohol (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Alcohol_flush_reaction). Also, that intolerance makes me 6 - 10 times more likely to get esophageal cancer ... not good.
Over the past few years, my heartburn has been more frequent. I curbed it with gaviscon, pepcid, baking soda + water, etc. It was usually most intense at night. I would wake up feeling like I was gonna puke all over myself, then I would take an antacid, and it would make me feel better after about 30 minutes or so.
Well, the frequency kept going up and up until it was daily starting December of 2012. For the past 8 months, I have been suffering on a daily basis trying just about everything to combat it. I started with Zantac 75 mg. It worked great if I took it 3 times a day, but I didn't like how it made me feel. I went to see my primary care physician, and he gave me a Rx for Omeprazole 40 mg every morning.
Omeprazole worked like a charm, but I read about all the side effects, and I stopped taking it after 2 weeks. I experienced slight rebound, so I essentially went from Omeprazole to Zantac 75 3x's a day (before breakfast, lunch, and dinner). Again, Zantac makes me feel funny, and it doesn't always combat the late night reflux, so I tried cutting back on Zantac by cutting my pills into smaller pieces and taking reduced dosages. It didn't work out well at all.
Mind you, all the while I have been trying alternatives like DGL, Aloe Vera, and Slippery Elm. Of those three, the DGL and Slippery Elm resulted in a noticeable improvement (Slipper Elm for sore throat and DGL to calm my flare ups). Hence, I still take DGL on occasion and drink Slippery Elm nightly.
So after battling with LPR/GERD (it's a mix of both, but most of the burning is in my throat) on a daily basis for the past 9 months, I want to try a new approach. I have heard good things about the Fast Tract diet, so I bought the ebook last Thursday, finished reading it, and I will be trying to apply it to my daily diet. The general idea of the diet is that some foods take much longer to metabolize and they also produce much more gas in your gut. If you eat foods that produce large volumes of gas and take a long time to process, the pressure from the gas will push the LES open and the acid will shoot into your esophagus (like putting a mentos in a coke bottle). This makes good sense to me. Also, it jibes with my eating patterns. Prior to the daily reflux, I was eating tons of sweets (10+ oreos per day + cake + anything that was available).
DAY 1:
Breakfast: 3 strips of Trader Joes applewood smoked bacon. 3 eggs scrambled with a good amount (I will start measuring accurately in future journals) of cheddar cheese folded in. 3 chicken breakfast sausage links.
This breakfast was very low in fermentation potential according to the fast tract diet. The only food with any type of potential for fermentation was the cheese, but it was very, very low.
Lunch: A salad made with lettuce, cucumbers, salami, mozzarella cheese, balsamic vinegar, and olive oil. Again, very low fermentation potential.
Dinner: Smoked chicken on top of sticky white rice from The Flame Broiler, a chain out in California that serves flame broiled / smoked meat in a rice bowl. Jasmine rice and sticky white rice are both low in fermentation potential. Brown rice is very high in fermentation potential. Hence, the diet suggests that you choose Jasmine rice or sticky white rice.
My symptoms: I had a very slight burning in my chest (not the normal region for my burning ... most of the time it's in my throat) during the morning hours. I took a DGL chewable to help soothe that. I had no symptoms from about 10am to 3pm. After the salad, I fell asleep on the couch for about a half hour (never good for a GERD sufferer to sleep after eating ... even if in the upright position). After waking up, I had slight burning in my throat. Tried to tough it out, but ended up taking a sip of liquid Gaviscon around 3:30 pm. Took two 1000 mg Tums at 9:00pm. Went to bed at 11:30pm with very mild symptoms.
Overall, I'm very happy that I made it through a day without Zantac. I'm also very happy that I only had to take two Tums and a sip of Gaviscon. My symptoms were definitely improved.
As I type this, this morning, I feel acid in my throat, but it isn't at the same intensity as before. After eating breakfast, I'm hoping the burning will go away.
Please excuse any run-on sentences, grammar errors, or misspellings. I'm just trying to create a public log that may interest other GERD/LPR sufferers.