Posted 10/7/2014 11:43 PM (GMT 0)
I also have a continuous burning throat from LPR. Isn't it awful??? Nobody quite understands how it feels, unless you have it!! I've had it for 8 months now. The first 5 months I cried every day, because of how bad the burning and pain was. Nothing could relieve the pain, including tums/gaviscon/ppi's, etc. The past 3 months, the frequency of the burning has gone down a bit--it occurs now every couple of hours. Atleast I get a bit of relief, for an hour here and there throughout the day (keeps me sane!). So, unfortunately, the thing that helped me the most... is just time..letting your body calm down a bit and 'heal'. That being said, you have to remove all the stressors and triggers that lead you down this path. For me, it was a stressful job, school, taking too much nsaids, and poor diet. I have fixed all of these things...break from work, less perfectionist attitude towards school, no more medicines, eating clean.
I don't know if you're following a dr. koufman's low acid, low fat diet (not sure if it really works, as I still have quite significant burning), but I am generally following this strict diet--and my burning has gone down from 100% burning all the time, to about 40-50% burning, spread intermittently throughout the day.
Something else I do to cope is continuously drink liquids--tons--throughout the day, 2+ liters. I carry liquid with me where ever I go (to work, to drink after a workout, when I'm studying). Seriously. I bring like 3-4, 500 ml customized drinks to work everyday. When I get home I drink a lot as well. I drink mostly slightly warm water/chamomille tea with a bit of honey, sometimes with a bit of almond milk. I find this soothing to the throat, especially during the really bad flare-up times. Never drink really cold drinks. They are really irritating to the throat. Sometimes even room temperature drinks hurt my throat--so I like it slightly warm--not too hot either, or else it might burn your throat!
Never letting myself go hungry is another coping mechanism. If I'm hungry, my burning skyrockets. So I make sure I pack healthy meals and eat every 2-3 hours to let food soak up some of the acid, and push down the acid from the throat.
Sometimes when a flare-up comes, and the burning becomes unbearable..it sounds stupid, but I'll do deep breathing. Breath deeply in through the nose, hold for 4-5 seconds, and breath out through the mouth. Just concentrate on your breathing--and nothing else. You can place your hand on your tummy, and just concentrate on it rising and falling with each breath. It helps you forget about the burning--and helps with the anxiety and depression you can get from this chronic disease.
Another technique I found..is if it's really bad, I'll get comfy on the couch, sit down, with head tilted backwards--looking almost at the ceiling (during flare-ups I can feel the acid spurting up my throat into my mouth and tongue-- but when my head is tilted backwards, it helps to drain some of the reflux material back down the neck)..then I close my eyes--and try to drift to sleep or take a nap. When I wake up, the burning is there, but significantly less.
Gaviscon never really helped me, but I take it anyways at bedtime--just for psychological comfort.
Other people have tried to drink alkaline water (evamor/fuji). To wash away the pepsin, and thus decrease burning. It didn't really help me--but it may work for you. Others chew gum or suck on candies. I found this helped with the burning a little bit..but it caused bloating (swallowing too much air)--which was a problem for me.
I make a healing green smoothie every morning--which is 'anti-inflammatory' and has a lot of soothing things to the gut. It includes a ripe banana, small piece of ginger, melons (watermelon, honeydew, etc), papaya, and kale. Sometimes I add a bit of manuka honey or yogurt. I drink this cocktail--to hopefully help with the inflammation.
For the past month, I started exercising again--cycling and doing weights. When I cycle for 30 minutes--I feel the burning way less. It's a nice 'treat' or 'distraction' you can look forward to. I think it's the endorphins you release during exercise that helps with the burning and pain. Although soon afterwards, the burning comes flooding back..atleast I had 30 minutes in the day where I didn't have to feel the burn! Plus, I'm getting fit!
Sorry for the long post..just wanted to share all my little 'tips', that helps me get through the day--or else I would go insane!! Anyways..just wanted to say--can totally relate. Hang in there. I hope everyday we'll get over this--and live 'normal' lives again. Until then..we won't let this awful disease get the best of us!