Hi,
I hope this is an appropriate medium for sharing my personal notes on recovering from GERD. I've previously found that organizing my thoughts in a public, written medium can be helpful in a variety of ways (and I don't see the point in starting a blog for something like this).
For last 2 months I have been experiencing acute reflux symptoms. The acute, recent symptoms were likely brought on by high whiskey consumption over a period of a couple days. However, there are longer-term habits that probably also contributed to the likelihood that this could happen.
likely contributors:
- high-volume weightlifting (10-12 hours a week, high intensity)
- recent change from a physical job to a sedentary office job
- increased hard liquor consumption (though by cultural standards still pretty low, one small glass a week)
- increased coffee/stimulant consumption
- increased stress due to extreme weather in the Northeast
- tendency to binge-eat, force-feed to intake enough calories for exercise recovery
less likely, but still possible contributors:
- proclivity for dairy, particularly milk
- higher consumption of "unhealthy" foods, incl. baked goods, red meat, eggs
- lower fiber consumption
not contributing:
- binge drinking
- weight issues/fat gain
- unmanageable stress
Symptoms consist of dysphagia, occasional refluxing in my throat, and the constant feeling of a lump in my throat, though no heartburn. My intuitive understanding of how my body reacts to meals has been somewhat reliable. An upper-GI endoscopy revealed "severe GERD" according to the gastroenterologist's notes, and I have an upcoming follow-up where hopefully I will be able to find out more about
the footage (was there anything omitted from the notes? hiatal hernia, early signs of Barrett's esophagus?).
As mentioned, the symptoms have been acute and recent. I have a history of an "iron stomach", and this has been a shocking development. Following the recommended (albeit vague, from my perspective) anti-reflux diet has been somewhat disappointing so far. After a week and a half of adhering closely to its recommendations, incredibly small quantities of food would still cause a reflux response.
my diet consists of:
- baked chicken breast
- egg whites, one or two yolks
- quinoa
- brown rice
- oatmeal
- raw kale
- roasted broccoli (no oil used)
- 93% lean ground turkey
- bananas
- no more than 3-4 tbps peanut butter a day
improvements I could make:
- increase meal frequency to a minimum of 5 meals a day
(current frequency is 3 meals a day, usually the largest meal of the day is in the morning, and quantities taper into the evening)
- set a quantity limit on meals - no more than 3oz of meat per meal, and find a reasonable amount of fat I could take in per day
- investigate alternatives/varieties of prilosec/omeprazole
- investigate further "phenomonology" of GERD symptoms
- consistent macronutrient intake, longer duration
Currently my intake of prilosec is 40mg/day (taken all in the morning), though for the last 2 weeks, my intake was 40mg/day/week, then 20mg/day/week. Recently my frustrations of still experiencing reflux symptoms while eating under 15g of fat for a period of two days led to a re-upped intake of 40mg.
Supplements have been experimented with, but as of yet there is no written record. Supplements include: betaine HCL, apple cider vinegar, DGL, digestive enzymes, and higher dose probiotics (including both bifido and lactis bacteria). HCL has been taken intermittently with uncertain effectiveness, though early doses seemed effective immediately following a meal.
That's all for now.
Post Edited (cenotaph) : 3/2/2015 5:55:21 AM (GMT-7)