3 ms·

Somewhat tangential, but I have a story about acid reflux that I think is worth sharing for anyone who is in a similar boat. Basically, I was having reflux sym

Somewhat tangential, but I have a story about acid reflux that I think is worth sharing for anyone who is in a similar boat. Basically, I was having reflux symptoms minus the heartburn. Lots of throat issues, digestive issues, coughing, etc. My doctor looked everything over and concluded that reflux was the most likely cause and we did a treatment of PPIs for a few weeks. The PPI didn't help, but by the time the treatment was over we were in the middle of this pandemic so I couldn't go back into the doc for a next step. Luckily a few weeks later I randomly stumbled into a fix. One day I noticed the symptoms were gone and when I thought about it I realized I had started taking an additional allergy medication a few days prior. So it seems that instead of reflux I had postnasal drip. To be fair to the doctor he did mention postnasal drip as a possibility, but reflux was deemed as more likely because I was already on allergy meds and the symptoms were very reflux-y. Obviously if you have reflux like symptoms, see a doc, but I thought my experience was worth sharing for anyone in a similar boat. It's fairly simple to try new allergy meds and see if that's the root cause. In my case adding a steroidal nasal spray into the mix was what helped. And it resolved the issue in a couple days, whereas trying out PPIs was a two month long experiment of continued suffering. (Side note: not all steroidal nasal sprays are created equal. I had previously tried Flonase which did nothing for me.)

wakeywakeywakey 6y ago
Which spray worked for you?
- fpgaminer 6y ago
  Generic version of Nasacort.
PierceJoy 6y ago
A very timely comment for me. I’ve been experiencing some throat/coughing issues for a couple months now. Doctor doesn’t think it was covid, but who knows. I did, however, stop taking a nasal steroid I had been using for a few years right around the same time the symptoms started. Maybe I’ll start using it again and see what happens. Thanks.
pkaye 6y ago
which allergy medications worked best for you? I also have the same issues.
- fpgaminer 6y ago
  Right now Xyzal plus generic Nasacort. WARNING: "As with any medicine, you should ask your doctor or healthcare provider about using other allergy medications in conjunction with Nasacort." Nasacort or similar is also nice to have around when switching allergy medications, since a lot of the 2nd gen stuff takes a week or more to reach full effect. So you can use it for those first two weeks on a new medication to help cover the gap.
2OEH8eoCRo0 6y ago
Anedcote from me: I took Omeprazole for years and had to stop when I entered USMC bootcamp. All stomach issues disappeared when I started exercising and eating right. That was over 10 years ago and to this day my stomach is fine. I've kept up the habit of eating well and exercising mildly. TL;DR change your eating habits and exercise before trying to solve everything with a drug
- fpgaminer 6y ago
  Yeah obviously lifestyle should be a first course of action. In my case, no lifestyles changes helped. Which makes sense, since the underlying cause appears to have been allergies.
drclau 6y ago
Thanks for sharing your experience. Note that I am not a doctor, but I have my own theories that I want to share: post-nasal drip results in more swallowing, which triggers more acid production, which in turn results in more of the stomach content (ie. acid) getting back into the esophagus, hence GERD. Acid that reaches high in the throat, for instance while lying down, will likely cause burning that will also result in post-nasal drip or similar symptoms. See the problem here? One issue amplifies the other. That's why once you get into a bad state it's difficult to return to some normality. Also, other digestive system issues, such as IBS (irritable bowel syndrome), depending on the type and rootcause, will result in GERD. For instance, if you are often bloated, your digestive system may be slowed down significantly, which means there's no place for the stomach content to move into. Hence, more of the content may return into your esophagus. The good news is that if there's no other underlying condition, these issues can be kept in check with lifestyle changes: diet and exercise (walking seems to be helping a lot; no surprise there, since humans have evolved to walk long distances; also no surprise that a sedentary lifestyle has so many negative effects on us). Edit: there also seems to be a link between GERD and asthma, in the sense that acid reaching the airways, including lungs, may cause asthma.

wakeywakeywakey 6y ago

Which spray worked for you?

fpgaminer 6y ago
Generic version of Nasacort.

PierceJoy 6y ago

A very timely comment for me. I’ve been experiencing some throat/coughing issues for a couple months now. Doctor doesn’t think it was covid, but who knows. I did, however, stop taking a nasal steroid I had been using for a few years right around the same time the symptoms started. Maybe I’ll start using it again and see what happens. Thanks.

pkaye 6y ago

which allergy medications worked best for you? I also have the same issues.

fpgaminer 6y ago
Right now Xyzal plus generic Nasacort. WARNING: "As with any medicine, you should ask your doctor or healthcare provider about using other allergy medications in conjunction with Nasacort." Nasacort or similar is also nice to have around when switching allergy medications, since a lot of the 2nd gen stuff takes a week or more to reach full effect. So you can use it for those first two weeks on a new medication to help cover the gap.

2OEH8eoCRo0 6y ago

Anedcote from me: I took Omeprazole for years and had to stop when I entered USMC bootcamp. All stomach issues disappeared when I started exercising and eating right. That was over 10 years ago and to this day my stomach is fine. I've kept up the habit of eating well and exercising mildly. TL;DR change your eating habits and exercise before trying to solve everything with a drug

fpgaminer 6y ago
Yeah obviously lifestyle should be a first course of action. In my case, no lifestyles changes helped. Which makes sense, since the underlying cause appears to have been allergies.

drclau 6y ago

Thanks for sharing your experience. Note that I am not a doctor, but I have my own theories that I want to share: post-nasal drip results in more swallowing, which triggers more acid production, which in turn results in more of the stomach content (ie. acid) getting back into the esophagus, hence GERD. Acid that reaches high in the throat, for instance while lying down, will likely cause burning that will also result in post-nasal drip or similar symptoms. See the problem here? One issue amplifies the other. That's why once you get into a bad state it's difficult to return to some normality. Also, other digestive system issues, such as IBS (irritable bowel syndrome), depending on the type and rootcause, will result in GERD. For instance, if you are often bloated, your digestive system may be slowed down significantly, which means there's no place for the stomach content to move into. Hence, more of the content may return into your esophagus. The good news is that if there's no other underlying condition, these issues can be kept in check with lifestyle changes: diet and exercise (walking seems to be helping a lot; no surprise there, since humans have evolved to walk long distances; also no surprise that a sedentary lifestyle has so many negative effects on us). Edit: there also seems to be a link between GERD and asthma, in the sense that acid reaching the airways, including lungs, may cause asthma.