Grahamp (Andalucia, Spain) on 06/06/2015

I am 71 year male, fit and active, but virtually all my life I have suffered with throat clearing small cough. In England 12 years ago used to suffer badly with bloated stomach which doctors diagnosed as stress related..... that was really debilitating..... Anyway I read an article in The Daily Mail, UK, around 6 months ago about a woman who always had sore throats and could never get a diagnosis until a locum doctor arrived and took an interest and solved the mystery, it was GERD. So this set me thinking. When leaving UK 2003 and living in France, I found that when eating BBQ meat I sometimes could not swallow it and the food became stuck in my osophagus which would only move after gulping a glass of water. Anyway over the last 12 years this has very slowly got worse to the state where I had to make myself sick to get rid of this blockage, I could feel the food starting to be digested and bubbling in my osophagus and it was starting to happen much more frequently. I used to get heartburn on and off, it was strange.... I could go for 3/4 weeks without any heartburn and then for 2 weeks I would get it and take Rennies which always immediately stopped the heartburn. #

On a very few occasion I would get only what I can describe as acid coming into my mouth when I would be asleep and immediately waking me up. This was really terrible and took probably a good hour to get rid the awful taste in the mouth and throat.

Finally early this year I went to the doctor and then specialist for endiscopy and they found that I had a hiatus hernia, an ulcer but no signs of cancer thank goodness and so the doctor then put me on Omprazole. Well at first they made things feel better and I could swallow food much more easily and the doctor then for whatever reason double the daily dose and told me I would be taking them for the rest of my life!

I didn't like to hear this..... so started looking for alternatives.... at the same time I found that my swallowing problem was returning even while taking these tablets. So I decided to get off them and reduced to one every other day and from 18th May have not taken even one. I have been taking sodium bicarb when I get heartburn and I have also started taking bentonite once a day and iodine drops and now I have started with the ACV natural and hoping that all will get better, plus I have bought some Betaine tablets and started taking today. One thing that contributes to my throat clearing I think and my general congestion is a post nasal drip caused by my allergic rhinitus which I have had for 35 years or so. I had ops. on my nose to help breathing but nothing worked. So I am taking Ebestina for the allergy side and Flixinase for my nose to keep it clear. I guess that this problem has a bearing on my GERD......

So anyone with similar problems and cures, love to hear from you....

Bill, thanks again for a great column.