Hari S. (Karnataka) on 12/19/2018
I started getting reflux and vomiting in 2008, (Age:19, weight 65). Detected with small sliding component of hiatus hernia with secondary incompetence of LES muscle, with stage 2 Reflux oesophagitis, H. Pylori + and acute gastritis in 2011. Followed by antibiotics and PPI I felt better. But the heart burn was there often. Later started PPI once in 2 weeks to suppress it.
Later again in 2017 redid the endoscopy detected with Lax LES, otherwise normal mucosal study. No signs of hernia and oesophagitis
PPI became a habit and as weight increased to 86 at 2018, complications increased like chest pain and dry coughs in the midnight. Then as suggestions came all side to reduce weight with 6 meals per day of small quantity and dinner before 3 hours sleep and some exercise, I reduced to 78 now.
Parallely I was in strict GERD diet as much as possible avoiding coffee, tea, tamarind and spicy foods. And the most important thing is I was taking the PPI drug along with Domperidone for forward kinetics.
As usual after stopping the drug 2nd day burping bleeching and bloating started again.
I have read many success stories in your forum, kindly let me know your suggestions for me to come out of this issue and make the LES strengthen to perform its function back.
Thanks.
Hari
Replied by Rob from Hereford, UK on 01/28/2022
I was diagnosed with a 4cm hiatus hernia 10 years ago. I managed GERD symptoms as follows:1. Low protein diet, most acid is produced when protein enters the stomach.
2. Low 'stodgy' carb diet. Limit bread, pastry, potato, pasta, rice etc as best you can. A high volume of undigested food in the abdomen creates upward pressure on the diaphragm forcing the LES muscle open.
It's that simple.
These tips are also useful if you can't keep strictly to the first two:
3. Don't eat less than 3 hours before you go to bed. When you lie down you don't have gravity helping you keep the reflux under control.
4. If you take PPIs take them 2 hours before you go to bed. This way you get protection when you are lying down. There is nothing wrong with taking PPIs as a short term solution to get your oesophagus healed up or to overcome the effects of too big a meal once in a while.
6 years later I was not having heartburn but still had silent reflux symptoms (lump in the throat, burning tongue, etc) this is caused by the stomach enzyme pepsin being refluxed as a vapour. I got manometry, further endoscopy, and a barium swallow x-ray done because I was going to get surgery. The hiatus hernia had gone though. By asking questions on Facebook pages for the surgical procedure I found that this didn't stop the silent reflux symptoms so I didn't go ahead with it. Instead eventually cut bread etc almost completely and the silent reflux stopped too
