OT - any gerd cures?

[29F_CPAPUSER]

I have had a good experience with PPIs (I take Protonix). Other things that helped me a lot were: cutting tomatoes and coffee out of my diet (caffeine of any kind is bad); propping up the head of my bed by 6 inches (you can use bricks, but I was worried the legs of my bed would fall off them so I got some bed highteners at BBB. They are designed to go under all 4 legs and add 3 inches for under bed storage, but I stacked two blocks at the head of the bed); not eating or drinking anything within 2 hours of bedtime; and eating lots of bananas and broccoli. Remember it will take time for him to respond to these things, I would try all of them and once he feels better start taking some away until you find the one that works. I've found I have to keep most of the diet and bed tilt or I can't have coffee or alcohol at all.

A great book for evaluating eating changes is Dropping Acid by Jamie Koufman, MD and Jordan Stern, MD.

I agree with the suggestion of a sleep study. After having headaches for 15 years and GERD for 7 years, no one suggested a sleep study to me until I had been treated for depression with no success for 3 years. On Thursday, I was diagnosed with severe sleep apnea, and my doctor said that it was likely the cause of all three of those things. Hopefully after I receive my CPAP and have used it for awhile my GERD will decrease. Sleep apnea isn't all about snoring, age, gender, and weight--I don't have any of those markers. All I have is a family history and some of the lesser known symptoms for sleep apnea (which are the most common in women).

[PiobGuy]

I was on Aciphex for nearly 10 years and decided it was time to get off of it. My solution was careful eating and probiotics. I take New Chapter All Flora and have had great success.

Good luck!

John

[Papit]

It's interesting how most people's GERD symptoms occur during the day, including the OP's son. Apparently relatively few experience nocturnal GERD symptoms. I wondered if there are any studies or articles about what causes the day/night distinction between the two different patient groups. I need to look some more, but here's an interesting distinction between two variations of Reflux disease, GERD (GastroEsophageal Reflux) and LPR (LaryngoPharyngeal Reflux). I hear the latter is aka "Silent GERD". http://www.entandallergy.com/vas/service/reflux This is quite a read.

Extract 1: "The majority of patients with LPR require twice-daily dosing of PPI's."
Extract 2: "Surgery for Reflux disease involves either multiple endoscopic procedures, or a few diferent types of laparoscopic procedures."

[zoocrewphoto]

It's interesting how most people's GERD symptoms occur during the day, including the OP's son. Apparently relatively few experience nocturnal GERD symptoms. I wonder if there are any studies or articles about the distinction between the two types of patients.

Mine is mostly at night, but sometimes during the day. Usually the daytime version is only if I eat bacon, pepperoni, or something similar. Night time version went away when I started cpap treatment, but returned a few months ago. I'm not sure, but it may be due to taking Aleve twice a day which I started doing back in December due to hip pain. So, I started taking zantac again. As long as I take both, I have no hip pain and no gerd.

[Chilimon]

Those of you who mentioned the bed wedge, did that help with the next day's sufferings, or just that night. Did you notice that I said his sleep isn't disturbed?

The bed wedge helped me overall, I truly feel better in the morning when I get up. Granted it is not a cure all and never will be. Sometimes you just need the right combination of things.

[49er]

When I thought I might have Gerd, bought the book, "Heartburn Cured" by Norm Robillard, a PhD scientist. He cured himself after suffering with the condition for 20 years by using a low carb, high fat, high protein diet.

http://www.amazon.com/Heartburn-Cured-T ... burn+cured

49er

[DreamStalker]

When I thought I might have Gerd, bought the book, "Heartburn Cured" by Norm Robillard, a PhD scientist. He cured himself after suffering with the condition for 20 years by using a low carb, high fat, high protein diet.

http://www.amazon.com/Heartburn-Cured-T ... burn+cured

49er

Most people on this forum don't want to hear about nutritional cures when they can use their insurance to buy high priced doctors to convince them to take expensive drugs that will make their problem worse so they can pay the really big bucks doing surgery to remove part of their stomach.


The health system would totally collapse if people just ate the right nutrition. Of course, the financial industry is going to collapse it anyway.

[RefluMD]

First thing I would recommend is to learn more about you disease - this a long term chronic condition and it will not get better - but certainly can get worse. Second, drugs that relieve symptoms do not stop the disease and they have many potential negative side affects - read the label! Third, there is a new procedure by Torax Medical called Linx that is an outpatient procedure and reversible if you don't like it. Finally, GERG is not just GERD - there are many stages of this disease take an online assessment and figure out your GERD stage at refluxmd. You can also ask questions online from specialists. Good luck - and get off the PPIs!

[WearyOne]

RefluxMD, I agree with a lot of what you said, but I disagree with the statement that it will not get better. It can get better, depending on what's causing it. People have changed their diets, lost weight, etc. and improved or eliminated the problem. Now, if you're had it a long time there may be damage already done that can't be reversed, but the condition itself I truly believe can be improved, and maybe eliminate, for some if not most people with out surgery or long-term medications. (Again, not saying everybody.)

Side note: GERD and silent reflux (often referred to as LPR) are two different things. They're related, but many of the symptoms are different.

[WearyOne]

Those of you who mentioned the bed wedge, did that help with the next day's sufferings, or just that night. Did you notice that I said his sleep isn't disturbed?

My sleep isn't affected either. I'm thinking about buying the bed wedge because from what I've read even though symptoms may not be a problem at night, if it's silent GERD (Laryngopharyngeal Reflux Disease--LPR), damage could still be happening at night without symptoms or without symptoms bad enough to interfere with sleep. Also, some people have stated that it does help them during the day. I already had the smaller wedge that goes on top of the mattress (had it from back before getting CPAP!). Pulled it out when my stomach issues stated two months ago. Using that, which isn't nearly as good as the full bed wedge, I noticed less morning symptoms.

Now, don't know if this could help your son or someone else her, but my friend's husband sometimes has horrible heartburn. SHE has a six-inch full bed wedge for another condition she has. One day about a month ago he couldn't go to sleep because of the heartburn he had gotten before going to bed, and it was worse laying down. He said as soon as he laid on her mattress, it got better and he could rest.

[Janknitz]

Most people on this forum don't want to hear about nutritional cures when they can use their insurance to buy high priced doctors to convince them to take expensive drugs that will make their problem worse so they can pay the really big bucks doing surgery to remove part of their stomach.

Dream stalker, I agree with your premise but . . .
Even when doctors give dietary advice, it's usually very wrong with respect to GERD. They tell people to avoid chocolate, coffee, wine, and spicy foods, while suggesting plenty of fiber and "healthy whole grains"--lousy advice for many medical conditions, particularly GERD. How can people believe in nutritional cures that simply don't work? Too few doctors advise reducing carbs and cutting out grains. It doesn't leave GERD sufferers with many choices.

And then you have doctors like Reflux MD who are selling a procedure and come off as an authority saying that there's no way to get non-surgical improvement. There may be some cases that require surgical intervention, but I'd guess that given the CORRECT diet, MOST people would get complete and immediate relief--drug and surgery free.

I had only occasional daytime heartburn, but my reflux issues were severe during sleep. Sleeping on a wedge pillow (my bed can't be raised) was not helpful at all. If I fell asleep sitting straight up or only slightly reclined, I'd STILL have reflux with in 10 minutes or so of falling asleep without CPAP. (CPAP stopped almost all my reflux). Now, on a grain free, low carb diet, I don't have reflux anymore with or without CPAP unless I make the mistake of eating/drinking some dairy too close to bedtime.

[idamtnboy]

Those of you who mentioned the bed wedge, did that help with the next day's sufferings, or just that night. Did you notice that I said his sleep isn't disturbed?

We raised the bed for my wife. She said today that it helped her in the daytime, but that was probably mostly because she slept so much better at night without waking up due to the reflux.

[herefishy]

Anybody got a theory on why cpap would help with gerd?

[zoocrewphoto]

Anybody got a theory on why cpap would help with gerd?

Maybe because some of the acid problems are caused by the gasping and choking we do in order to breathe. In other words, my acid reflux problems at night were not acid coming up and causing me to choke. It was me choking and that action was like a pump, bringing up the acid. With cpap treatment, that doesn't happen.

[Janknitz]

Dr. Steven Park says exactly that. When the airway is closed, the struggle to breathe creates a negative pressure gradient, and that suction pulls stomach contents up into the airway.

The other big surprise in GERD is that it's not excess acid in the stomach that causes GERD, but it may be that lack of adequate acid is a contributor.