Hi everyone, I have asthma off and on and have had all sorts of tests over the last year. It was made worse by Covid and getting a bit older (now 61). Otherwise I'm quite active. The main feature seems to be many years of acid reflux and I have a small hiatus hernia at the root of that. I am on omeprazole plus a couple of the usual inhalers. Recently I cough a lot, usually fairly dry with some sticky phlegm in my throat that I clear in the morning. I am told this is classic GORD.
My question is who else has this mix of issues? What have you found helps? Is there anything you have tried to stop the sore throat and coughing? Any other thoughts and ideas?
Many thanks everyone, I find the site super useful.
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Hikingfan
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Last year I kept a diary for a month of all asthma attacks, and my guess at the cause.
I found about a third of my attacks could be Gerd related. I am lucky as for me these are quite controllable, eat less spicy food, drink less wine etc. The doctor put me on lanzprazole which was good, but I could achieve the same by being careful re diet.
So for me I would suggest trying to monitor closely what influences your level of asthma attacks, so you know what to target
Hi, there does seem to be a connection between GERD and lung disease - I say lung disease because my asthma has progressed to Small Airways Disease as well. I've also had GERD since my 20s. I've managed that reasonably well since with diet ie cutting out fat, acid food, most sugar and alcohol. The last couple of years has been awful so I've had a lot of Gaviscon. Now I'm taking a low dose of omeprazole which helps although I worry that taking it effects my vitamin and supplement regime.
I have GORD and asthma and a small hiatus hernia and GORD does aggravate my asthma when it is not fully under control (which is hard for it to ever be in my experience). I was given a list of foods to avoid or test out avoiding when I was diagnosed with the hiatus hernia and GORD and some of those do affect me and some not so much. They were broadly coffee, caffeine, chocolate, alcohol, garlic, onion, citrus fruits, tomato, mint. I was also told to leave 3 hours between eating dinner and laying down to sleep. If I avoid the foods on the list which affect me (broadly tomato, mint, citrus and mint plus more than one coffee a day or more than 2 lots of caffeine a day and more than 2 glasses of merlot - the least acidic grape variety) and leave 3 hours before lying down after dinner, I am usually fine. Taking Gaviscon Advance just before lying down to sleep and not having any sips of water or anything afterwards helps a lot too. If you haven't tried these things, I would give them a go. Wishing you all the best. It is such a pain - I know. Another thing I found was I was lactose intolerant and when I sorted that out by taking lactose tablets when necessary things got better too. I was also much better when I gave up caffeine completely and drank decaf tea and no coffee but I love coffee and have a stressful job so decided a little bit of coughing was worth it for one coffee a day so I only have myself to blame for that!
I’m in the same situation- 4cm hiatus hernia, GERD and coughing as my main asthma symptoms.
Im taking prescribed omeprazole morning and night and also Famotidine each night.
I also try to avoid eating late, especially acidic foods, onions, garlic and spicy foods, fizzy drinks, wine etc.
Have also used a wedge pillow under my mattress and raised the head end of my bed by 3 inches - this does seem to help if I can stop myself sliding down the bed !
Finally, try sleeping on your left side as this is supposed to help prevent stomach contents from being able to flow back up into your oesophagus.
Interesting about sleeping on the left side. A Dr told me that as well (something about the position of the organs and pressures) and I usually sleep on the right side. Now trying that anyway.
oh yes - very common - I tried both Lanzaprole and Omeprazole with no improvement but after a further visit my consultant suggested Pantaprozole which was very effective
Many thanks everyone, appreciate all inputs. I've tried most of those things but off and on ( which can be the problem) although it is possible I could try a different drug. I wondered if some had used any breathing training or muscle changing gadgets or exercises? Also if some had the operation to tighten the hiatus hernia? I've also found some very simple measures like wearing loose clothing are helpful. Caffeine is quite a trigger for me and most bread and eating too late in the day. There has been research showing large proportions of asthma sufferers actually have GORD as the primary problem. This seems to be the pattern in my case but exacerbated by Covid.
Esomeprazole 20mg x2. I tried all the other …….prazols. I paid for private appointment with a specialist and he suggested I try this one It worked for me. Worth a try.?
Acid definitely a trigger, I was getting damage to my oesophagus from the acid so I changed my timings. Now I Try not to eat anything in the evening after my main meal to give my body chance to digest the food before bed, I tried omeprazole for a while but found lifestyle changes better.
Regarding my asthma, my nurse has recently prescribed montelukast which has been a game changer for me.
Hi. No surprise I think there’s a well known link between asthma and reflux. Mine is slightly different in that it is silent reflux. The first indications I get is a coughing fit sometimes uncontrolled and lasting hours. My other quirk is that I also have bronchiectasis. Not sure of the chicken/egg situation of all this. Sometimes it’s difficult to tell which of the three is causing the cough or whether I have a chest infection.
My treatment is omeprazole for reflux (plus diet control, timing etc) various inhalers depending on which is flavour of the month at my GP for asthma and routine breathing exercises to clear gunk from my lungs. I tried the raised bed thing but did not notice much effect and I found it hard to stop slipping down.
The key thing for me was getting reflux under control. I found excess carbs combined with fat was the worst. Creamed mash and pasta with creamy sauce were deadly. Otherwise I try to eat normally and Omep generally keeps things under control but I also now recognise the early reflux symptoms (bloating followed by high dry cough at back of the throat) and then it’s immediate gaviscon double action.
I went for and Endecopy about 3 weeks ago, upon my own insistence may I add. Result - a trial of Famotidine 20mg twice a day for a month and see how it goes.
Caffeine, perhaps 1/2 spoon at most twice a day. old fashioned (1level spoon)Cocoa as required for the rest of the day.
Careful of my diet. Space the Famotidine carefully, every 12 hours.
Coughing almost disappeared. I’m not counting my chickens yet, but, so far so good.
Hi there, I have asthma and silent reflux but I didn’t want to take anti acids forever as prescribed by the doctor. I was suffering with crazy coughing fits after every meal. I chose to try an alternative therapy - a little bit of apple cider vinegar in water every day for a week, and after 2 weeks, my reflux was dramatically better! This may not be suitable for everyone, and every case is different but it worked for me.
I've just stumbled across this thread very interesting! I spent yet another day in respiratory hot clinic last week. Chest xray, spiro etc all OK however I scored 59 on the LRP and apparently 14 is high.... so as well as severe eosinophilic asthma and ILO, DB, I now have LRP or was it LPR (I'm dyslexic lol) basically extreme silent reflux but my larynx slams shut instead of staying open to breathe, which causes this coughing/choking/retching. I'll try add the links the consultant gave me just incase anyone's interested. I also had endoscopy actually and have large sliding hiatus hernia.
P.s consultant said only lie on left side right side will make it worse, don't have head propped up by pillows as creates pressure on abdo, don't eat for at least 3hrs b4 bed, small meals, no spice, no caffeine, split doses of PPI, peptic acid 4 times or prn, also SALT exercises drinking at least 1.5l water or squash a day. And spiriva can help larynx. Carbicistamine helps with phlegm but can agitated reflux. X
Thanks, interesting. Years ago there was a paper done in the States that reckoned a large proportion of asthma was related to acid reflux. The two conditions have grown at similar rates with the shape of the graphs v similar. I've had acid reflux most of my life. Have had loads of investigations this year which didn't find anything really conclusive and seem to come back to acid reflux and asthma and seem to confirm the same long term pattern. Trying various things to get on top of it. I did try to come off omeprazole but had too many problems if I did and given lobg term acid reflux cam damage your lungs I needed to go back on it.
I literally did the same came off omeprazole due to new research findings but now look at the mess I'm in! So back on it and will be staying on it unless an alternative is available. Its a right pickle the 2 just aggrevate each other its a mind field. Like consultant said respiratory can be complex, and unless its picked apart, and all aspects treated the symptoms won't improve you can't just treat 1 element of complex respiratory. I'm not surprised of the findings of the American paper as annoying as it is it is interesting.
Yes same here, I took myself off Omeprazole as worried about long term effects but ended up in hospital with chest infection (I did have a virus as well though). We're between a rock and hard place on this as acid reflux can be very damaging to oesophagus and lungs. I do find other things help incl exercise.
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