Silent acid reflux..do you suffer from this?

Hi
I have been diagnosed with silent acid reflux and now have a constant lump in my annoying sore throat and a croaky voice.
I'm wondering if this is normal and any advice very much appreciated.

 

I get reflux but not as bad as yours. I sometimes get burning indigestion and sometimes pain. When i was 18 i was told not to eat spicy food and don't over eat at each meal. Not to eat before going to bed. I get it more if i worry about anything.
I had to look it up about it and silent reflux is like your symptoms.
Have you been told what to do? Or any medication?

 

What is 'silent' acid reflux ?
I suffer with ordinary acid reflux, which is very bad sometimes, and have prescribed medication for it but rarely take it.
I use Rennies if it is bad, but I find that taking a spoonful of natural yoghurt daily is good at easing it (Yeo Valley organic is what I use)
I tend to get it more if I've been bending or carrying something heavy ... or eating too much chocolate.
But I find the yoghurt very good. I take it most days.

I don't know why you'd get a sore throat. Maybe that's something else.

 

I don't know what 'silent' acid refux is but II have had reflux from past medications. Actually a burning in my aesophagus. I drink about two litres of water every day with bicarb in it When needed, I take a teasp of bicarb in 100ml water sometimes with an Omeprazole . .. as I just did!

In times past I found a couple of Tums helped but I can't get them now. I have to take Calcium/D3 for Osteoporosis (Tums is just Calcium).

I do not eat fried or spicy foods and I do not drink coffee,all of these things being an irritant.

Hope this helps Barbara.

 

Agree with you Logan, I eat little and often and never eat or drink anything after 9pm.

Agree here too Michael. I have Greek yogurt every day (in fact just about to have one) and bending is awful!

 

Things like this should be discussed with the GP. I had a similar problem a few years ago. It took ages to figure out. There was a major fire locally, and the whole town was covered in smoke for days. I developed a cough that lasted months. I was back and forth to the doctor's loads. I had all sorts of tests including a chest X ray. My brutally honest GP told me afterwards they'd looked for lung cancer.

A different GP saw me, and asked if by any chance I'd ever had acid reflux. This question was a turning point. I said I had, and so began a different line of investigation. Turns out the original cough following the fire had started it. The coughing action was pumping stomach acid up my oesophagus. The fumes from which were irritating my airways, making me cough, causing more stomach acid to get forced up my oesophagus.

Ranitidine solved it for me. They don't use that anymore. They use lanzaprozol or something, which leaves me stuffed if it happens again because I have adverse reactions to it.

While in most cases it's nothing more than an annoyance, it can lead to other things, hence the need to discuss it with the doctors. They'll fob you off at first, but if you keep on at them they'll eventually check you out properly, and/or refer you for further investigations.

 

I've been taking Omeprazole for a few years now, started taking it when I started on Naproxen.

I still get acid from time to time, and I think it's often linked to being up tight about things, also bending down a lot as Michael says.
I don't like taking Gaviscon but it does help, especially at night.

I also find it can come in bouts of a few days at a time.

It sounds like you have had a very bad attack, maybe while asleep?
The acid does burn quite badly if you don't wake up fast enough a sit up.
Probably burnt your vocal chords.

A friend did suggest I drank a bottle of Actimel every day, it seemed to work but for other reasons I won't go into I stopped.

 

I have a Hiatus Hernia which causes acid reflux so I have been prescribed one 20 mg Omeprazole capsule each day and I have had no further problems. I just eat what and when I like.

 

The 12 Most Typical Silent Reflux Symptoms

 

I had to look it up and Silent acid reflux is when it affects the vocal cords and the feeling of a lump in the throat.

 

I also use two pillows to prop up rather than lie flat. If I get in in the night, I half sit up, sort of 45 degree angle and it subsides and I can actually fall back asleep.

I think stress is one of the biggest causes, for me at least.

 

I use Ranitidine - another name for super Zantac. The type manufactured up here in Canada does not have the cancer causing agents in the powder so is safe.

However at one point they decided to ban it all and I had to switch to Pantoprazole and that worked great until we discovered that it can have a serious effect on sodium levels. Mine dropped to the low teens and believe you me, it was scary!

 

I'd get down the GP, to rule out other possible causes. The GP will also prescribe the correct medication.

 

I assumed @Purple Streaks had seen a doctor bearing in mind she has been "diagnosed".

 

There's 'diagnosed' in the sense that a GP or nurse practitioner has spent a couple of minutes listening to a brief description of symptoms, and then there's diagnosed, as in they've done a proper full investigation.

The GP I'm afraid is largely just a massively overpaid version of first line call centre staff. I'm sure they're highly trained and educated but they are simply not allotted enough time to use that expertise, so they'll usually just churn out off the shelf advice and a prescription, which is really all they have time to do, hence the need to badger them a bit to get them to make a referral.