To ask about your acid reflux symptoms (with TMI alert)

[Flowerpower36]

If anyone else suffered with acid reflux, and if so, how does it affect you? And what has worked in terms of treating it?

my symptoms are:

bitter taste in my mouth especially first thing in the morning

lump in throat feeling / globus sensation

throat spasms after eating, leading to occasional vomiting of saliva (sorry)

excessive saliva production

waking up coughing in the night with water in mouth :(

can anyone else relate at all??

Had an endoscopy not long ago which was normal. Symptoms have been put down to reflux. I’m really struggling!!
been on omeprazole for years but it’s never been this horrendous before, this has recently been changed to lansaprozole.

Mine is significantly worse after a bout of covid. Burping acid soon after eating. Throat shutting when eating with globus and excessive saliva, that bit is the worst, so painful. Had barium swallow and endoscopy, declared normal. Living on Greek yoghurt, avocados and protein shakes, no food after lunch. Hoping it'll calm down

I’ve thrown up again todat. Not sure what to do :( woke up with horrendous bitter taste in mouth, and lump in throat feeling, tried to have some bread but brought it up soon afterwards

I have a hiatus hernia and awful acid… wakes me up, coughing to the point of vomiting throughout the day and night.
I now taken 40mg esomeprozole and famitodine in a morning, the Epsomeprozole again about 5pm and the famitodine about 8/9pm.
It has been like a miracle cure to be honest

Bicarbonate of soda is your cheapest friend, two teaspoons in glass of water, take it to bed with you.

See my post and stop eating bread products. That could be causing the problem.

For those taking PPIs, are you taking them tai hours before eating and not within two hours either side of antacids like Gaviscon?

That should say two hours!

btw thank you you to everybody for the advice, sorry I’ve not replied to individual questions- feeling a bit rough!

Thing is OP. This thing is going to take actual graft on your part. You'll need to put the work on alongside taking pills and things.

Elevate the head of your bed so gravity does its thing. Follow the GERD or some other low residue diet and suck up the boredom of doing it.

This can be sorted.

I am medically trained but anyone can say that on the internet. I explained that what you posted hasn’t worked for me. I’ve been through the mill with acid reflux. I’ve had two endoscopies and two 24 hour nasal tube acid tests. I’ve had repair of hiatus hernia and a Nissens Fundoplication. I’ve tried everything and more besides but what works for me is 40mg of Esomeprazole twice daily and 10mg of Amitriptyline. A colleague at work advised me that some reflux sufferers, require a higher dose of a PPI and that’s the case for me.

Sorry that was a reply to @WilsonMilson

What worked for me was:
Lansoprazole - 3/12 of 30mg then down to 15mg. Felt much better on the 15mg. Have managed now with below measures to cut it down to 15mg every 3 days.
Using a wedge pillow at night.
Not eating after 6.30pm, a good 3+ hours before bed.
Also not drinking anything but water after that.
Cutting out coffee - a big trigger for me.
Using IQORO - took a good 5 months to see a difference, but I think it really worked for me.

Oh, also gaviscon advance at night if needed. Haven't needed it for months now.
The lansoprazole I take first thing, an hour before food. It works less well if I take it later.

Oh, I know - big changes need to be made. Just struggling a lot! :( I really hope that I can get this under control… it’s vile.

I've done zero research and I might be talking nonsense but - could some people be suffering from bile reflux and not acid reflux?

Or a combination of acid and bile .Only I reckon PPIs won't help with the bile .

@DelilahBucket , if you are avoiding Calcium Propionate (E282) you might like to watch out for Propionic Acid (E280) as well.

I discovered years (decades…) ago while on a hospital exclusion diet regime that my gut did not like these. Unfortunately most gluten-free bread, cakes and pastries contain one or both of them, but Genius and M&S don’t. You may not need to restrict yourself to g-f food, though.

I don’t know about E281 and E283.

A low carb diet helps me. I don't usually need gaviscon when on it. I suspect that wheat might make my reflux worse (and it is avoided when on low carb.)

Thanks for the type @Yalz

I don't need to eat a gluten free diet but the preservative is hidden in a lot of different breads. M&S is pretty good for not using it and I'm fine with some sourdough products and freshly made baguettes. I just have to check the ingredients. I don't eat a lot of bread fortunately and if we need some I just make my own.

That should have said "tip" not type. Darn predictive text doing what it wants today.

I've just been reading about propionate and there are studies starting to show a potential link to consuming them and obesity and diabetes. Makes for interesting reading.

I have a hiatus hernia and an endoscopy showed stage 2 oesophagitis. I don’t take ppi everyday but only when I have a flare. I worked through this with my consultant. I get terrible rebound reflux if I take ppi for an extended period then stop.
I know if I eat a really clean diet then the heartburn drops to normal levels. When I did the Whole 30 I could go days without needing anything not even antacids despite drinking black coffee.
I avoid fizzy drinks, tomato based sauces, most fruit juice, alcohol and milk.

My DDad also had a hiatus hernia and was on long term ppi and one thing he found as he got older is that he was a greater risk of food poisoning due to the low levels of stomach acid.

I get the horrendous burning in my throat which I can only describe as like a red hot poker would be, have recently had a couple of episodes of the waking up feeling like I'm choking, it's awful. I find gaviscon rubbish, does nothing. I'm now on Omeprazole and it's life changing 😊 Also with me, it's obviously weight related, the symptoms stop whenever I lose weight, start again when I inevitably put it back on.

I found the PPI drugs didn't agree with me. Previously ranitidine transformed my life, but then it was discontinued. Now I've been moved onto famatodine and it's just brilliant. There's still some things (wine, apple juice, champagne) I can't have that make it worse, but it's manageable.

I had severe reflux some time ago. Started one night when I was camping - head not so high as I slept - when I woke, unable to breathe because of inhalation of stomach acid/vomit, gasping, choking. Frightened me (and partner) almost to death.

Happened again and again. Scary. Eventually, yes PPIs and a bed I could tilt upwards (like a hospital bed), managed it. (And I stopped camping.) In hotels, I'd get three or four pillows, likewise staying with friends or family. This reduced the frequency of waking with reflux ... and I'd wake, when it did happen, a moment before inhaling the stomach juices; often I could vomit rather than choke. Still horrible, though.

Then I more-or-less decided I'd had enough. Lost a lot of weight (around twenty kilos or so), stopped drinking alcohol, ate nothing after 3pm ... This was all hard; really difficult to do; but I hated so much that sensation of waking in the night choking, unable to breathe, gasping or vomiting acid and so on.

Now I'm much, much better. I sleep flat with just one pillow, very occasionally get a bit of heartburn, but off the PPI drugs, and occasionally I allow myself - with some trepidation - a meal in the evening and even an occasional glass of wine. (I still have the tilting bed, and use it for such occasions; so far it's worked.) Occasionally, particularly when stressed, I get that knot in my oesophagus and am unable to swallow properly ... so far I can manage to sip water and relax it enough and it goes away.

I reckon, after some experiments (been a long time, all this) that what makes the most difference is my weight. I am still overweight, but not so morbidly obese as I was. If I relax, persistently overeat and put on a few pounds, I can feel the reflux coming back.

So, good motivation for losing weight, which has helped my overall health no end. (Thanks, acid reflux!? ... Well, perhaps not that much.)

I know this is just me, but I offer it as a potential light at the end of the tunnel - this was horrible, but now, after a long long struggle, many years, I do feel much better. It's been over a year now since I was woken in the early hours trying to cough stomach acid from my windpipe. And I eat more healthily and drink less booze; all round a more healthy lifestyle.

Good luck everyone!

sewexe Thank-you.
That’s dream I need to dream.
I dream of being lighter, feeling freer.
I dream of not being scared to go to sleep.
The ways you describe sound super harsh, but may be what I need to do.
Because waking up choking and contemplating dying on my own vomit is unbearable. Thank-you.

Not nonsense at all. I’m on high doses of meds for my reflux issues and an endoscopy in December showed it’s bile refluxing into my stomach so the recommendation is to have major surgery in the form of a gastric bypass (I do have a history of hiatus hernia, weight loss surgery and severe GERD so it’s not just because it’s bile reflux) and, as I said in my previous post on this thread, I’ve started the process to having this surgery in the next 12-18 months.