So I've had chronic acid reflux for three months now. 24/7, with nights being much more severe than days, but I have it also in the mornings. This started completely out of the blue, from feeling fine to suddenly having this. I speculate it have to do with being on Omeprazole for two weeks (for digestive, non-reflux problems) and then stopping, because that is right when it happened (about three days after stopping the drug). I feel it was wrong of the doctor to prescribe that to a patient who wasn't suffering from reflux and I blame him for these problems. I know, I was on the drug for a very brief time, but I can't see what else it could possible be that have given me these problems. Anyway:
I've had colonoscopy and two EGDs (in two different clinics), they find nothing wrong with my physically, no ulcers, hernias, tumors, etc. They've done several biopsies, including checking for Crohn's disease, SIBO, celiac, and more. Found nothing. The doctors claim they have found nothing physically wrong with the valve between my stomach and esophagus.
I AM waiting for pH test to determine if my stomach acid is low, high or normal (but not staying in the stomach for some reason), but in the meantime I am testing various diets and remedies to see if there is anything I can do to control the symptoms.
FYI, I've never smoked, drank coffee / alcohol. I'm not overweight, actually I'm underweight and having an extremely hard time gaining weight!
I have eliminated basically everything such as acidic food like orange juice, tomatoes, etc. and made my meals very small but frequent. Also I am not consuming greasy fried food.
Not until I tried a low carb diet the reflux mysteriously improved after 3-4 days. After one week, it was very low and totally manageable without even OTC drugs like Pepcid. Problem is, this kind of diet is not realistic for me in the long run, because there is A LOT I would be required to eat that I have a phobia against. Basically I've lived on chicken, beef, eggs, water and shirataki noodles (which contains virtually no carbs but also no nutrients or vitamins). I have eaten approx. 20 grams of carbs a day, sometimes less, for a little over a week. I am used to eating hundreds of carbs a day and have been doing that for 40 years up until this reflux started 3 months ago out of the blue.
While the reflux is gone, me not eating hardly any carbs causes me to have NO ENERGY. I have had to give up my gym workout sessions because of it and I can't even go on walks without having to stop all the time. Also, I dropped several pounds in less than a week. I am male and now I weigh only 136 lbs at 5.9 ft.
My initial plan was to start slowly reintroducing carbs into my diet, once the reflux was better, and see how much I can tolerate before it returns.
Now, my questions are now:
1. Was anyone here in similar situation (undiagnosed reflux while not being obese / overweight, and then you cut down or stopped carbs, and reflux improved)?
2. If you did what I did, did you stay on the low carb diet forever (or a long time) or did you try to go back on carbs eventually? If so, how long did you go low carb and how did starting carbs again turn out for you? Were you able to increase it some, or did the reflux come right back as soon as you tried? Were you able to go back to old eating habits completely? Please share your story because all the guides on the internet are inconclusive and won't mention if I have to stay low carb forever or just temporarily.
3. If you are on low carb for the long run, how on Earth do you keep from losing weight to nothing? The body seems to have a hard time converting fat and protein to energy without the carbs, resulting in weight loss.
Last night I had some carrots, to test the waters. That landed me on somewhere between 25-30 carbs instead of the usual 20 or less I've been doing for a week. I had a little reflux but not really strong. Today is similar, a little bit but not unbearable, however not as good as it was during the week when I ate super restrictive low carb.
It's extremely frustrating to make any sense of what is written on the internet about reflux problems. The guides are telling me to eliminate basically everything it seems. Don't eat carbs, spicy, fatty, dairy, gluten, sugar (including artificial), coffee, alcohol, acidic, chocolate, mint, salt, etc etc. Not that I was eating all of this before my problems starting, but point being the guides restrict nearly everything. Left are certain leafy vegetables, meats / fish, eggs, nuts in very small amounts, and a few other things. How does one eat the little that is allowed and stay healthy?
Furthermore, the guides are FULL of inconsistencies. One moment it says "avoid fatty food, especially deep fried food in oil", then the next moment the same guide says "oh but eat healthy fats like fish and oil". Another example is where it will say "try to cut down to carbs, between 20-50 grams per day". Then further down it will say "it's recommended to eat rice and oatmeal"! It will also constantly say to eat certain healthy fat seeds like flax seeds, sunflower seeds etc - well how can I when they are full of carbs and I'm supposed to stay between 20-50 a day? So frustrating.
Sorry I am having a really bad day today because the doctors are uninterested in helping me and want me to just eat Omeprazole to lower the symptoms. They are wanting me to do this even before waiting on the test to find out if my stomach acid level is high or low. At first they weren't even going to do the test at all, not until I researched options myself and brought it up (and nagged) they agreed to do it.
As closing, I always appreciate any theories what you think I might be suffering from, or what could possibly help me, because I believe I don't exactly fit the usual standard frame for people suffering from GERD and I feel very lost and confused on what to do next. I really don't want to eat Omeprazole or other PPI drugs unless I have to.
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I sympathise with you. I have been suffering similarly for the past 6 months. Initially I was given 2 types of PPIs by the doctor which I was taking regularly but they made no difference at all. I have also been on the diet route restricting gluten, then dairy and all the foods they say contribute to acid reflux. I can’t find a clear link between any food and my symptoms of indigestion, reflux, nausea and excessive gas and burping. You are right that the information about what to eat with reflux is really confusing! I haven’t tried restricting carbs though and I don’t think I can because I struggle to maintain my weight and as I’m eating a low fat diet cutting out carbs would be disastrous. I have already lost 20% of my body weight and don’t want to lose any more if I can help it. At the beginning of my troubles I noticed that I did have a problem with carbs particularly with large meals but found I could digest porridge with almond milk and that helped. It is also alkaline so supposedly would help with reflux.
However although I do have symptoms of mild heartburn, pain between my shoulder blades, cough and a feeling that I am refluxing, particularly at night, I have yet to get a definite diagnosis. I had the Ph test that you are going to have and the reading showed that acid was not a problem. Unfortunately when the test was taken the symptoms weren’t so bad so maybe it didn’t show itself? This also showed me that the PPIs were not working as I had to come off them for the test and my symptoms did not change. Doctors are really keen on prescribing them and I don’t think they really think about it overmuch.
However I have had a gallbladder scan which has shown that my gallbladder is full of stones, crystals and sludge so maybe this is what is causing the problem. I’m seeing a gallbladder doctor tomorrow. I wonder if this could be the case for you too?
Sorry I couldn’t be more useful about reintroducing carbs into your diet but just wanted to share your frustration as I feel it too. You are not alone with this problem and I agree it is utterly miserable and impacts upon your life in a really unpleasant way. Please keep me posted about how you are getting on.
Thank you so much for replying and for your support. I'm so sorry you're going through the same thing. It's impossible for anyone who hasn't personally gone through it to understand how awful it is and how much it limits one's life.
Thank you for the tip about gallbladder stones. I read some about it after you mentioned it, and while it says acid reflux does could occur for chronic gallbladder problems, it also says the primary symptoms are nausea and vomiting. Once I regurgitated so bad while I was asleep that I woke up while throwing up stomach acid, however that is the only time that happened while I had this, and I believe it had to do with my head not being elevated enough while the refluxing was extra bad that night. I haven't had that problem except that one time. Did you experience nausea or vomiting?
I was going to up the carb intake slowly and then go back to normal carb intake just before the pH tes (which is in less than a week and a half from now), because I figured the refluxes would return right away and I wanted to suffer as little as possible during the test, but now that I read in your reply that your symptoms weren't showing themselves as much during the test so it may have given a false positive reading, I am worried maybe the same thing will happen to me. So I'm speeding the carb intake up today. Since it took less than a week to significantly reduce the refluxes by cutting down carbs, I assume it won't take much longer than that to end up back where I was at, if I eat the amount of carbs I was used to.
Foolish me, I should have started the low carb long time ago and not so close before the test, but it takes time to go through all these trial and error diets.
The weight loss is a problem, yes. A permanent low card diet is impossible for me too, and I'm not planning on staying on it because I would starve to death. But I was doing it temporarily to see if first of all it would make a difference (which it did) and secondly because I was hoping IF it helped, I could perhaps somehow restore my stomach acid balance (if that is even the problem) and then slowly start carbs again and see if that is possible and if so how many of them I can tolerate. Maybe you could try something similar? It's always possible to stop that diet at any time. One week of it was all that was required for me to see if it would make a difference, and I read others who did the same thing also noticed clear improvements after only 4-6 days.
Thanks for the extra information. I often feel nauseous but have never vomited. It sounds horrendous. Please make sure you have your symptoms when taking the Ph test, otherwise they will just say you are fine.
I saw the gallbladder surgeon today and he wasn’t sure that my symptoms were due solely to gallbladder issues. He said he could remove it but it may not make me feel better so have decided to wait and see. He thinks I may have something called functional dyspepsia where the stomach lining is irritated and the nerves around it go into some sort of overdrive and produce the symptoms. There is no medicine which will cure this and as you know PPIs don’t work for me. So I’m going to try and follow an anti inflammatory diet and introduce new foods slowly. Unfortunately this does not always work as one day a certain food is fine and another day it upsets me! I think I’m ok with most carbs as I can’t attribute them directly to any bouts of indigestion but I think dairy and acidic and sugary foods may be more of a problem. Am seeing a dietician in a couple of weeks so will see what they say also.
You have to be Sherlock Holmes to unravel some of the mysteries of digestion! Am trying to keep calm as I know excess worry and anxiety can trigger the production of stomach acid but am at a loss of why I get reflux at 3 in the morning when my last very light meal was at 6.30 the previous evening!
Anyway, please report on how you are getting on and the results of your acid test as I will be interested to hear.
My doctor has also suggested that is what I have (functional reflux and dyspepsia). I really don't think that is it in my case but soon I don't know what to think anymore.
He says they treat IBS-related problems sometimes with certain antidepressants, in particular one called Amitriptyline (sold under various names). He says it's mostly used for stomach pains, but can help against acid reflux too if it's caused by dyspepsia. I am not really that keen on eating it though because side effects seem severe from what I've read.
I have been slowly reintroducing carbs. Was on 20 grams a day for one week, today I had about 100. I'm thinking another reason the symptoms are less at the moment could have something to do with a two week antibiotic treatment (Rifaximin a.k.a. Xifaxan) that I just finished eating October 22. I am thinking I am suffering from SIBO (Small Intestinal Bacterial Overgrowth) and the antibiotics may have partly killed the bacteria but not all the way.
It's possible that even with reintroducing full carb intake and acidic foods before my test, the symptoms will not be back in action for the test and it will be pointless, like you said.
I'm going to try getting in touch with my doctor tomorrow and see what he advices, but I don't think I will get a chance to speak with him on such short notice.
I'll keep you updated on what goes on and the lab results.
I too have heard of antidepressants at an extremely low dose being used for functional dyspepsia. I don’t want to go down that route unless desperate but if it all got too much I would probably try them. Sometimes you just feel that you will take anything to make it better. Have been trying drinking alkaline water to neutralise my stomach acid but it’s early days yet. Best of luck with the tests and let me know how you get on. Your theory about it being SIBO seems sound, you could try seeing a nutritionist for their advice.
Thank you for your support. Perhaps you could tell me... My gastro doctor has determined (by the symptoms) that I don't suffer from SIBO (Small Intestinal Bacterial Overgrowth), but I still think I do. There is a hydrogen breath test where you drink something and breathe into a bag over the course of three hours and then the air is measured to determine if there is a bacterial overgrowth present.
I have requested this test, but the doctor says no hospitals in my city (I live in the largest city in my country) does this test anymore because it was deemed unreliable. Apparently many times it showed false positive readings, saying people didn't suffer from SIBO when they actually were. There also seem to be a misconception among doctors in general that the condition is rare and not many suffer from it.
But I am not happy with the doctor's opinion on this, I need to find out for real, so I have Googled other hospitals in my country who does the test, but found nothing. I do find several places who will order the test kit for you and you conduct the test in your own home, then mail the kit back for analysis.
I am thinking about doing this at my own expense, but I need to know:
1. Is this essentially the same kit they would use in a hospital, or it the do-it-at-home kits less reliable?
2. Is it difficult to do it, or could I somehow mess up and get an inaccurate result? I can't risk this happening as it would cause unnecessary stress on me and I already feel bad. At the same time, I must find out if I have SIBO for sure, and the last alternative would travel abroad to do this test but that seems extreme and rather costy.
Let me know if you have any idea, or whom I could ask?
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I dont know where to go from here?
pain under ribs
