worrying about lpr or gerd!!

hello everyone, I'm glad that I have found this forum. I have read many of your guys symptoms over the weeks, and wanted to give my condolences to each and everyone of you. you guys have both terrified lol, and have given me so much hope, that I am not alone in this. my question is that I'm starting to have very mild symptoms of lpr or gerd. as of right now its only a slight raw throat feeling, and maybe a tiny bit of Globus. very mild almost insignificant. and most of foods I'm eating don't seem to be triggering anything, especially chocolate and coffee. so I wonder what gives, maybe when I get the follow up with the gi doctor, they can tell me more. but I was wondering what are your guys input.

Hi buddy, these boards tend to move slow so check back every other day or so.

You should do your best to relax, since worrying makes symptoms 100x worse than they really are. Your symptoms are currently mild, and there is no reason to assume that things are going to be getting worse any time soon, especially now that you're conscious about what might be going on, and that you're meeting with the right medical professionals.

As for your question about triggers. Some people get triggered by different things, but there is a general consensus among the medical community that coffee, citrus, spicy food, chocolate, etc. relax the LES valve allowing for more reflux to occur; However, this is is not 100% accurate for everyone. For some people coffee will be their trigger, but they will be able to eat chocolate just fine, or vice and versa.

That's why it's important that we all find our own triggers, since they vary among people, but also heed the general consensus until you're 100% sure that those things do not trigger you.

Here's an example for you, Bananas and Melons/canteloupes actually trigger my reflux, and yet the latter is supposed to be alkaline. No idea how that works, but I get symptomatic when I eat either of them.

I think it's important that you pay attention to what produces the globus sensation and then try to take that out of your diet for a while, and see how much of it you can tolerate later. The book "Dropping Acid" by Jamie koufman is also really good. Perhaps you can establish a baseline by following her induction diet for two weeks, and then introducing new food little by little. Keep hanging in there.

hey Jwebb

It's my first post on this forum, but I wanted to include my 2cent. about 10 years ago I had mild symptoms like you and I had no idea what was going on. I have an history of allergies so I blamed it on that. At first my symptoms were just mild in the morning and would go away during the day. But eventually it got worse and worse. about 5 years ago it started to be a lot worse up to the point that I had to ask for medical help.
My symptoms did NOT include heartburn at all so doctors over looked the GERD/LPR thing. My symtoms were lots of throat clearing and very think mucous stuck in my throat that was impossible to move.(almost like clue)

Since allergy medication didn't help a doctor did suggest AntiAcids (I tried neximum/ppi + the OTC stuff like zantac). It help and improved a little bit but only for a day or two. After that, those pills would get me sick to my stomach and actually make things worse. It was a dead end. I continued like that for a little while and a few months ago i decided to be serious about it and try some alternatives. I tried a bunch of supplements without any luck.

But a few months ago I tried gaviscon (the canadian version that includes a bit of sodium alginate). After two weeks I started to get better and better. So I added dgl licorice and I started to see my condition improve slowly. After all these years I was finally on the right track. The other day I ordered Gaviscon Advance from the UK which has a lot of sodium alginate. I saw another great improvement. I can't say I am completely healed, but I would say my condition is somewhere around 60% better. I read that healing LPR can take up to 6 months so I will continue in that direction for a while.

My symptoms: Thick mucous in throat - Throat clearing - little tickling in back of throat - feeling of something stuck in the back of my throat - coughing

What food makes my symptoms worse: sweat food (sugar) - spicy food - dairy products
I also noticed that stress makes my symptoms worse. So I try to relax as much as possible and sleep well.

Here is what I take

Before bed: 1 or 2 tablets of Gaviscon Advance with an Benadryl (to keep the mucous away and sleep well) - I also take 2.5mg of melatonin (it helps for GERD and sleep)

In the morning I normally eat very little or just skip breakfast.

During the day I take DGL licorice once in a while. I would say 3 or 4 pills.

For now this little routine had improved my symptoms significantly. I still want to test out a few things like d-limonene and acupuncture.

If you think your symptoms are getting worse, don't wait and attack it before it gets worse.