My short story is esophagitus, duodonitus and gastritis. I took ppi to fix the issue which it did and made me poo a lot through the day.

I then ended up with LPR which was ruining me!! The acid watchers diet and ppi made me worse!!

The early stages of being cured was using ACV in the mornings, then I moved onto betaine HCL. This allowed me to start drinking coffee and living a normal life with a normal diet. Now I just drink strong black coffee before breakfast and I don't get any gut issues or LPR, I have a couple of coffees through the day and I'm just a normal fit guy now.

I'm going for a swallow test but the Dr really hasn't helped me at all on this journey.

Maybe something for someone who's running out of hope to try?

Every morning I’m up no later than 730 I take my omeprazole with a whole bottle of water I don’t eat right away it’s like 930 10 I take care of a autistic kid threw the week m-f I leave at 915 head home to eat. It’s rough most mornings but I’m fine no brain fog no weird body sensations nothing. But now once I’m done and get home I feel all out of sorts I have weird body feelings heavy eyes I guess you could say brain fog type feeling just don’t feel right it takes a good bit about a hour to get to feeling some what normal and it happens on and off threw out the day some days are more then others what could this be any tips on what I can do to make this better? I don’t have a doc appointment till next week.

I had harsh symptoms about 1.5 years ago and through trial and error I have become symptom free if I desire. I get back to baseline and then have a cheat meal or two, wear through the issues for a week and be strict then back to baseline and repeat.

1. Diet is almost everything

- The most important part of this is diet. You can be on omeprazole, famotadine, sleep inclined, reflux gourmet, eat 4 hours before bed, alkaline water etc all the recommendations but none of it matters if you arent locked into the right diet.

As bland as bland can be is the best. I didn't follow any specific diet. I just ate bland foods ie boiled chicken with veges and low fat mayo sandwiches/wraps for lunch and dinner with oats, oat milk and protein for breakfast. These are good tasting meals. They aren't chocolate or pizza but they taste good.

2. Caffeine/smoking/alcohol/illicit drugs are massive triggers

- I find smoking does a lot of damage to the throat, caffeine is a massive trigger and illicit drugs are self explanatory. You can have the perfect diet alongside all the right habits but so much as 1 cigarette every 2 days is going to cause issues and stack up. So much as 5-6 standard drinks in one night gave me 4-5 days of issues even if I'm perfect otherwise.

3. Stacking triggers when you still have symptoms is going to delay everything severely.

- It's all or nothing to get back to feeling normal. If you still have symptoms and you have a bad meal or have alcohol for a night, have some chocolate, lie down after eating etc then you'll be set back more and make the symptoms worse. If you truly want to feel normal again, you have to commit to it.

4. I am not cured I am just managing symptoms

- I can't eat whatever, I can't do whatever, I still don't drink coffee, but I know what each trigger does and how much they affect me and how they affect me from baseline. I get back to baseline and feel normal then on the weekend I chose what I would like to do and suffer the consequences for a set amount of time depending on what I do.

For example

- 5-6 standard drinks of alcohol in one night and 2 cigarettes = 3-4 days of throat problems and another 1-2 days after of slight issues. I work in sales so I can't push it. Then after being super strict I am back to normal

- 2 cheat meals and some chocolate = 3-4 days of issues

There has been some times when I say stuff it and go all out and pay for it.

But whatever I do, if I have symptoms, being a very strict diet is the number one mandatory requirement to feeling better alongside patience.

For those who are having severe issues, it's going to take a long time to feel better and a very strict regime.

Edit: Sleeping incline is very important. I sleep with a wedge pillow under my mattress with bed raises under the bed. I have had symptoms get worse being perfect when I tried to sleep flat

Hi everyone.

For the last 9 months I’ve had a multitude of problems including air hunger / shortness of breath, chest pressure, slight reflux, and more recently in the last 3 months or so, palpitations (mostly after eating), dizziness, weakness, fatigue, anxiety, congestion, mucus in the throat and more. The main one that has severely affected me is the shortness of breath, and more recently the chest pressure and palpitations.

Around 5 or 6 months ago, closer to when this first started happening, I learned about LPR and tried the diet for just under 2 months. Even though I didn’t have a lot of the traditional symptoms like heavy reflux, mucus in the throat, globus, etc, I was desperate still wanted to try it. I was very strict on the diet in terms of what I ate which included a banana and oatmeal for breakfast, a chicken soup made with low sodium chicken broth, boiled chicken, and celery and carrots for dinner or any other meal. This is all I ate for almost 2 months, and during this time I was also taking famotidine in the morning and before bed, as well as Gaviscon advance after every meal, drinking alkaline water and sleeping elevated. One thing I will say that I did which wasn’t the best was drinking Fuze iced tea as my drink with dinner until about halfway through the diet, but after that I switched to watermelon juice as I like some type of flavoured drink when I eat.

When I did this diet I found little to no improvement in my breathing and chest pressure. Since then I’ve went back to eating normally but it feels as though I’ve been getting worse over the past few months, which is making me wonder if the diet really was doing something and I just wasn’t noticing it yet. I’m thinking of going back on the diet to see if anything improves, but before I commit to it I wanted to ask for some advice. Obviously as I mentioned the iced tea wasn’t the best choice, but would it really have negated everything else I was doing? And apart from that, I don’t know any of my food triggers, but if those foods are triggering me what else do I have left to eat? I’m feeling very hopeless and I’m not sure if this is a gastrointestinal issue at all, but I’ve tried many other solutions and had every test with no luck.

I’m going back to gastrointestinal in about a month, and I’m going to ask for some more tests other than just the endoscopy I got almost 6 months ago. But in the meantime I need to try to make some sort of progress. I’m lost. Any help would be appreciated. Thank you

My acid reflux has never been this bad, but I’ve gotten to a point where it feels like my throat is closing up. Eating is torture. I feel like it’s going to get stuck or come back up and choke me or make me throw up. Even just drinking nutrition shakes hasn’t been great. I’m losing weight fast because of it. I have an appointment with a GI doctor on the 20th of this month, but I’m worried about what will happen in the meantime. I can barely eat at work which makes it difficult to focus and have the energy I need. I have constant anxiety around this. I’m afraid of wasting away. This globus sensation and tight throat feeling are killing me. I’m even afraid to take gaviscon or reflux gourmet because that requires swallowing pretty thick substances.

I take omeprazole every day and I’ve also been taking famotidine in the evening when I really need to. I’m cutting down on so many different foods, sleeping elevated, but I’m still worse than ever. I was doing alright for a little while, and then suddenly my dysphagia worsened significantly. I just ordered some alkaline water and I’m hoping it will help, but I don’t have much hope. What do I do?

throat is spicy again. like I got skunk sprayed by acid as soon as I woke up. Bummer

Even strict diet didn’t help me ngl, idk what to do now. PPIs don’t help, gaviscon advance aniseed UK doesn’t help. . Even 9.5 ph alkaline water does nothing. If even gaviscon advance with a 1000mg sodium alginate raft isn’t working, then wth is going on?

I got my LPR from laryngitis then it just turned into reflux just like that. I didn’t have any prior signs of reflux. I was lean(still am), and I was losing at least 5000 calories a week from my job at the time(physically active). The job was vocally intensive too, and it was winter. My clinic doc said a teacher he knows got the same condition as me where nothing works for it, same winter as well, so I wonder if it’s a weird, complicated laryngeal injury.

If I didn’t go to work that week I may have not even been in this sub. It’s the laryngitis that started it ontop of my stressload. Then it just stayed there and my throat became sensitive.

0 digestive or GI issues. My symptoms are ONLY throat irritation, raspiness sometimes, and post nasal drip. ZERO GERD symptoms or anything below my throat. Almost no throat clearing either.

Obviously I don’t drink coffee or any beverage other than water either. For months and months. All strict diet does is make my LPR not feel like muscle tension dysphonia, but makes it feel like just throat pain instead.

It’s so weird too. I’d get triggered from whole wheat crackers, yet Walmart’s fried chicken tenders and even samosas don’t hurt me. Sometimes I eat my classic safe foods and get triggered from that too. Glazed Donuts are my biggest trigger.

I wonder if it could be laryngeal hypersensitivity or post viral vagus nerve neuropathy.

I wonder if I should be talking to an SLP instead of trying to get an ENT(takes at 6-18 months). Last time I went to an ent they said my vocal cords move perfectly. Then diagnosed reflux because he didn’t see any MTD. So I don’t know.

Turns out it was SIBO! PPI's would've made it worse haha.

Currently on a probiotics + herbal antimicrobial protocol to clear it.

Feeling better already. Less acid at night.

Basically, SIBO means Small Intestinal Bacterial Overgrowth.

One major hint that helped me figure it out was my big improvement on a Low FODMAP diet:

FODMAP (with examples) means:

• Fermentable 
• Oligosaccharides (Garlic/Onion, Lentils/Chickpeas.)
• Disaccharides (Milk from Lactose)
• Monosaccharides (Fruits/Honey)
• And
• Polyols (Some vegetables/fruits, "Sugar" free gum)

These are very fast fermentable carbohydrates that aren't well absorbed by your body.

So they act as food for the bacteria.

But the issue for SIBO is that the bacteria end up fermenting it too early, producing gas!

So the theory is that, the gas escapes through the stomach, carrying acid with it. Causing LPR.

It makes sense since most of us don't have conventional acid reflux.

I always wondered why I didn't feel GERD yet the acid went all the way to my throat.

I also took a more specific SIBO breath test to find the specific subtype. Turns out I have an overgrowth of archaea producing Methane. So I can target the killing a lot more effectively.

• The goal of the program is to let your esophagus heal with a strict diet. Unless you have other other comorbidities, you will be able to return to your normal diet once everything's fully healed. Do not get on PPIs, as studies have shown that PPIs have no effect on LPR.
• Duration: Three-week to three-month program, then reintroduce everything slowly.
• With LPR, it is imperative to sleep with a quiet and empty stomach. The ways to achieve this:
  • Fasting: 16:8 with frontloading the meals. Avoid making dinner the heaviest meal. Stop by 4pm
  • Do not overeat. Have small, frequent meals
  • Low acid diet. Avoid major GI triggers (alcohol, caffeine, onions, chocolate, citrus, tomatoes, soda, mint, etc.)
    • Nothing under pH 5
    • Purchase pH paper to test
  • Sleeping elevated, at least 7”
• Remedies
  • Famotidine a.k.a. Pepcid
    • 20mg first thing in the morning and before dinner
    • 40mg before bed
  • Sodium alginate in the form of Gaviscon Advance Aniseed or Reflux Gourmet
    • After dinner and before bed
    • Before working out
  • Alkaline water. Only alkaline water with a pH 8.8+ can deactivate pepsin. Pepsin damages the esophagus
    • Essentia uses sodium bicarbonate so may be abrasive to the throat if you're dealing with throat pain or dysphagia. Look for a pH 8.8+ alternative
  • Chewing gum or sucking on candy after meals. Saliva is a natural digestive enzyme
  • For sore or hoarse throat, spritz alkaline water into the throat while inhaling. Swallowing doesn’t give access to those areas
  • Chamomille tea helps with fasting and soothes digestion

 

 

Sending everyone lots of positive energy — you can get through this ✊

There are stories of people being cured of always and always the GERD, but I don't think I've seen anyone claim to have been cured of LPR, or at least not yet. If anyone has been cured, please share. And to think that LPR is rare and was only discovered by Dr. Kufman about damn 10 years ago, it's a new discovery. I think That's why many doctors don't specialize in this area. Most people don't come up with a specific solution and it's all just theories. maybe it its cronic and treatable maybe not heal it completely but change your life to at least be in decent health to survive

i been feeling lately, i started to burp all day it is lil bit annoyng, so maybe it has to be whit LPR or bad Diggestion or something that i eat make that reaction of burps

Pepsin, a stomach enzyme for digesting protein, causes Laryngopharyngeal Reflux (LPR) symptoms by escaping the stomach and adhering to throat, sinus, and airway tissues. When activated by acid (low pH), pepsin damages these delicate cells, causing inflammation and symptoms like chronic cough, hoarseness, throat clearing, and potential long-term tissue damage.

My theory is that every every food snack or drink even if its a little bit activates pepsin who is the MAIN Damager in all of this. you literally have to struggle eating barely nothing for a long period of time. I also think that PPis dont do shit. not dinner. yes do the clasic tricks like uping your bed etc etc. Alkaline water nothing that is trigger to pepsin. even make a Liquid diet if its neccesary. no quick fixes.

edit . yes i know that you need to eat but small portions and not acidic

this is my opinion If you don't agree, I understand, just stay kind. Nothing personal, it's just a thought. Do what you want and eat what you like, or take inhibitors idgaf im just sayng

After having this issue for 8 months and now finding my root cause (SIBO), there are a lot of mistakes I made and wish I would've done differently.

My symptoms (at night / after triggers):

• Acidic taste
• Globus sensation, throat irritation, sore throat

Mistake 1#: Self-diagnosing & researching

I feel stupid as hell for being my own doctor,

If you guys have the money, I highly recommend finding some sort of clinician who actually knows what they're talking about.

TONS of advice online has NO idea what they are talking about especially for LPR.

I specifically say this in the context of root-causes, why this happens in the first place.

You can throw the words "Alkaline Water, PPI, avoid X trigger" but not get deeper into the root cause.

I suspect it's because this issue is actually so damn complicated that not many people actually have the expertise.

If you want to avoid 9999 hours of self-research, find someone who genuinely knows what they are talking about.

For example:

• I remember doing research on root-causes one day, when suddenly I see the video "How to Fix Heartburn (Reflux) without Acid Blockers" by Dr. Rusico. And this he mentions every single point that I had previously hunted for across every corner of the internet????
• I try their advice: It works! Low FODMAP reduced my symptoms to zero.
• So I'm convinced: I book an appointment with their clinic, and the person I talked to is very confident they can solve my issue.
• I buy the products they recommend, and it seems to be working! I don't feel much acid anymore in my throat despite sleeping positions that would've caused it a week before. Only 4 days in the protocol.

Had I initially strategized at the start, and realized finding someone with expertise would've saved me massive amounts of time.

I probably could've focused more on enjoying my life.

I don't know how I'd do better than someone who's doing this type of research on a full time job.

Mistake 2#: Trying to achieve 100% certainty

For every decision, during LPR in general:

Option 1: Has something uncertain

Option 2: Has something uncertain

Yet I still try to optimize for maximum certainty?

Especially for these niche diseases, there's going to be something you can't know for sure.

Initially, I wasn't 100% sure if I had acid reflux despite every symptom pointing to it.

I wanted the 100% perfect way to diagnose it, a PH impedance test.

A test that was very hard to get... that I tried to book.

At some point, my doctor recommended me to see how I respond to a PPI, so I did.

And it worked...

You can't have 100% certainty with everything. If you try, it'll take a lot of your time.

If everything is pointing to it, it probably is. If it's not, you'll probably find out.

If you don't want to take the risk, then just don't. But sometimes the time spent in-between is also a bigger risk.

This happened a lot for me for many different decisions. At some point you have to just lay out your options and add 1 big pro/con to them. Then accept uncertainty.

Mistake 3#: Addiction & Mental Conflicts

Try not to hyper focus on your LPR. Take care of yourself & take breaks even if it seems counterproductive for solving the issue. It'll make you a lot happier and able to cope.

Not taking breaks probably worsened my past addiction to "easy pleasure" since it made my life feel pretty dull.

"That food looks really tasty"

"But it has trigger foods"

"oh no"

"it's 2AM now and i'm on Youtube"

Wanting to eat trigger foods... to waste time on entertainment.... to waste life.

This isn't going to be easy, you must do the hard thing that's required of you.

Some things I would recommend:

1. Allen Carr's easy way to stop Emotional Eating (he has this for multiple addictions)
2. Visualize what motivates you every morning and night... It'll help you overcome the hard things in life, especially LPR

Things that worked/didn't work for me in general

My specific issue was Methane dominant SIBO causing my LPR:

What worked the most:

• Avoiding acidic foods to not activate the pepsin
• Sleeping on a wedge + Left-side. Combining is best.
• PPI's (at the 5 day mark)
  • Only did it for 2-weeks since it would've worsened my root cause
• LOW Fodmap Diet
  • This was the primary trigger, that's why avoiding common food triggers for GERD didn't work.
• Herbal antimicrobials so far
• Gaviscon (for severe flareups)

What didn't change anything:

• Alkaline water, sugar-free gum
• Eating small meals
• Low Intra-Abdominal Pressure exercise (didn't notice much change for me at least)
• Random supplements I bought that didn't target the root cause
• Fasting didn't help for some reason??

I used to go to the gym a lot and eat healthy. Since 2023, I've had a slight I wouldn't call it depression, but definitely a lack of motivation that made me lose the desire for a healthy lifestyle. I gave in to junk food, it's true, I messed up. I ate McDonald's, I became addicted to Monster and Red Bull, and I ate spicy food and a lot of junk food until the end of 2025 when my acid reflux problems started, and I didn't know what was causing them. I thought I had asthma; my throat felt sore and like something was stuck, and I even had back and chest pain for a while. The doctors prescribed PPIs. My question is that I see my family, friends, and random people smoking, literally intoxicated whit alcohol and eating junk food with sauce, and I wonder if this is genetic or self-inflicted i even saw a YouTuber who said it was all because of stress. That's my big question .Are you provoking it yourself, or is something else playing a role?

Are Dr. Jamie Koufman's youtube videos worth watching after reading a lot of her blog articles? Do they contain any additional advice?