Allergies or Acid Reflux? The struggle is real

Hello all, I've been a lurker on this site for close to a year now and I am finally making a post. I'm looking for help but I will also post my experience to offer assistance to those in similar situations.

Long story short, I had an upper respiratory infection in March of 2014 and after it ended I came down by with a chronic cough that basically persists until this day. Along with this cough are other symptoms such as nasal congestion and throat clearing. The cough used to get worse with exercise.

After over 30 trips to doctors in the past year including GPs, pulmonologists, ENT, and allergist I still don't have a definitive diagnosis.

The first doc said asthma, put me on steroid inhalers and albuterol. I maintained this treatment for over 6 months with very little to no improvement. Pulmonologists put me on stronger inhalers. After no improvement finally came a whole round of tests, and guess what....turns out I don't have asthma. Spirometry was perfect and methacholine challenge was perfect. Tests also revealed high IgE, so off to the allergist.

Allergist: blood test revealed no allergies whatsoever. First skin prick test showed an allergy to grass, although very midl. Next allergy test was intradermal, which revealed allergies to dust mites, mold, and grass So I try sudafed and a nasal antihistamine/steroid combo. Huge success! Symptoms were relieved by over 80% and for the first time in over a year I could go a whole day without coughing. The cough wasn't completely gone but 1000x better. Nasal congestion was still persistent but slightly better with the nasal spray. Since then I've been on Sudafed 24 hour daily for 4 months, but there's still some problems, notable a weird feeling of mucus buildup in my throat which gets much much worse with exercise. This mucus build up sometimes makes it "odd" to breathe, like my airway is slightly blocked. And it affects my performance, I get exhausted playing sports way way way earlier than I should be.

So back to a new GP, who thinks it could be either heart related or acid reflux. All heart tests are normal (ekg, exercise test, echo) and he wants me to try Prilosec for a month. Now I have tried PPIs before in my very early days of treatment(took protonix once daily for 5 months with no improvement whatsoever), so I'm skeptical. Before I can begin treatment something terrible happens, I catch a cold. The first time I've been sick since this whole ordeal started a year ago and all the old symptoms come flooding back. The last 4 months have been great with the only symptom a slight everyday cough and exercise mucus. Now through this cold throat clearing returns, feeling of mucus in throat, a brutal cough, and more nasal congestion. The cold went away after a week but 2 weeks later all my chronic symptoms are back! It's like a never ending yearly cycle!

Anyways, that's my story and it sucks. I do highly recommend sudafed, that drug has been a lifesaver for me. Make sure it's pseudoephedrine and not the other stuff. I still take it every day and it doesn't make me jittery anymore and my blood pressure is completely normal. I'm hopeful this full return of chronic symptoms is just left over from the cold and will go away, but my body and gut are telling me that's not the case.

What is left for me to try? Should I demand some tests from my doctor.
Thanks for listening.

Me: male, 27, Midwest
No history of asthma or allergies. Allergies diagnosed recently.
Non smoker, but I do chew tobacco.
Drink alcohol rarely.
Medication therapies tried: Claritin, Allegra, protonix, albuterol, symbicort, singulair, qnasl, nasonex, dymistA, codeine cough syrup, zpack, sudafed, atrovent nasal spray, afrin, Xanax (doc thought maybe anxiety), tums, mucinex, Benadryl, and probably a few more I can't think.

My best guess is a bad dust mite allergy and maybe gerd or lpr. I would just like a definitive diagnosis. I'm considering immunotherapy (allergy shots) this summer.

you might have exercise-induced asthma, which might mean you have to take meds before exercise.

i had silent reflux which was a bad taste in my mouth and a sore throat. also with allergies, you might have a lower immune system.

it is possible to have both reflux and allergies at the same time.

take care everybody

if it were me, I would either have some food allergy/intolerance testing done, or try the DIY method -

eliminate dairy, wheat, grains, citrus fruit, or ay other known food allergens - try each one for a week or 2 and see what happens - worth a shot anyway -

good luck -

I agree regarding diet. I think I would definitely try going Dairy free first and see what happens, and if nothing improves then its worth going Gluten free, so that you can rule that out too, as if it is your diet it is just not going to go away, and in fact you could end up with other ailments, so its best to know one way or the other.

Have you had your thyroid checked? I experienced something similar to what you are describing: throat clearing, coughing, chest pain, breathing issues, headache, congestion, and I thought it was all allergy related, because I do have many allergies. But I was wrong. And it took me years (and no help from doctors) to finally figure out that I had sub-clinical low thyroid. The thyroid controls everything, from your metabolic rate to your immune system. So if you haven't had it checked, ask them to check it. And ask for the full panel, not just TSH.

Do you drink tea? If you do, wean off the tea slowly. If you don't drink it, don't start. The tea plant camellia sinensis reduces thyroid function and masks the problem so that the TSH score will look normal. This is what happened to me. My TSH was normal. I stopped the tea and in only a couple weeks it skyrocketed - meaning low thyroid. In my case, stopping the tea, adding a multivitamin, and waiting a few months, was all I needed to solve the problem.

Important minerals for the thyroid are iron, zinc, selenium and iodine. Iodine deficiency used to be a big problem and it still is in many parts of the world. Now iodine is becoming a problem again because it's no longer used in bread making anymore. Make sure you are getting iodine and all of the others somewhere in your diet. These are important for many glands, including the thymus gland (different from the thyroid) which controls the a part of the immune system related to allergies (specifically the differentiation of T-cells).

Once I stopped the tea and took a trace mineral supplement, all of my breathing problems, chest pain, reflux, digestive issues, nasal congestion and headaches improved.

Prior to that discovery, I'd tried everything, even rinsing out my nose with baby shampoo, and ordering a probiotic called L.Sakei online to add to my sinus rinse. None of that helped.

One thing that did help with the reflux issue is "Alginic Acid". Don't worry, it's not actually an acid. If you google it you'll find you can buy it on Amazon. You chew a tablet after a meal, and it creates a temporary foam cork that floats at the top of your stomach, blocking acid from rising into the esophagus. The problem with reflux isn't the acid in the stomach, but the opening to the stomach being loose. The Alginic acid blocks the door.

Hope this helps.
:)