I was spending the other night Googling about
my health as I simply couldn't breath well enough to sleep, and I was desperate to find some answers. I came across something about
"Turbinates"in the nose, swelling up under certain circumstances. I don't have allergies or infections, but perhaps they swelled up the last time I had a bad cold or something, and they've stayed that way for 2 years. Apparently it's not uncommon - up to 50% of the population can experience it, although not so many for as long as I have. Having said this, nasal saline sprays, anti-allergy meds and decongestants like Sudafed don't help at all. Only the OTC medicine Oxymetazoline Hydrochloride temporarily helps.
This is important to me for 2 reasons. One is that I haven't had a runny nose for 2 years - that means the post nasal drip in my throat is actually due to normal mucus not slipping out of my nose. That explains why when I had the Restech and Impedance studies, the mucus all but vanished. The tubes were
opening my nose and letting my nose run for the first time in ages. That meant my throat didn't clog up with mucus on the airways, and my nose remained
open all night; enough to breath properly!
The other is that I have symptoms of Sleep Apnae. I often wake up tired or with migraines, and I've caught myself gasping in my sleep. Sleep Apnae isn't necessarily caused by lifelong problems - obstructions in normal breathing can cause it too, including something as simple as swollen turbinates. That's why I'm tired, but not so tired I "fall asleep at the wheel" or something.
What does this have to do with reflux you may ask? One doctor describes a "Vacuum" effect that occurs when the airways function differently. This sucks pepsin - albeit not a huge amount - up the throat causing LPR symptoms. This is why things like Gaviscon Advance, PPIs and Alkaline Water don't work for me. At the end of the day, I still have a blocked nose, which will still affect my breathing, which will still cause some reflux. It would also explain why sometimes I can eat bad foods, and not feel much worse than if I just drank alkaline water and ate a piece of bread, or even had nothing to eat at all.
Something else it explains is why I had normal impedance study results (only 9 reflux episodes and at night only), but whenever I took a Peptest sample, the results from after a night's sleep were always negative. My symptoms occur when I'm awake and more aware of my obstructed breathing. That leads to anxiety, which leads to even more of a vacuum, which led to the positive samples. Make sense? I hope so ^^; It certainly would show why I have positive samples, but none of the symptoms of other LPR patients like hoarseness.
It may well have started when I had my endoscopy 2 years ago,
or maybe it was caused by stress but I can't be certain. In any case, I'm still pursuing LINX surgery any way I can, but I'm also pursuing surgery to fix my nose and see if the symptoms stop after that. At the very least, a possibility exists of a fix. I just hope its the semi-sleep-apnae causing the reflux, and not the other way around. If it is, I have a chance of being cured. If not, LINX is my only hope.
Has anyone else had a similar experience with this kind of thing? I hope I'm on the right track here. In the meantime, here's a link to where I first found out about
this theory.
http://doctorstevenpark.com/how-sleep-apnea-causes-pepsin-reflux
Post Edited (Daxter) : 1/29/2015 4:26:03 AM (GMT-7)