View Full Version : for those with GERD, a question
Well, I suspect my daughter has this. Every time she eats she has a little cough for 15-20 minutes after. We know she is celiac so gluten isn't the problem (any more!) I have tried to eliminate dairy, and that helps a bit, but not altogether. She sees her doctor in a few weeks so I want her to go with at least some info as to what she has tried. My question is this. What would be a totally GERD-free meal I could serve her to see how it affects her? Bland is fine, she can do that. Her favorite food in all the world is white rice, believe it or not. Actually, if I could plan a GERD free day of meals, that would probably be an even better test.
So, those of you with this condition, what have you eaten that never affects you. If I have a list of ingredients I can cobble together something. I'd appreciate your input.
There are a lot of anecdotal reports of people suffering for years from GERD who found relief ditching all starchy and sugary carbohydrates, so my day would include eggs, meat, vegetables, berries and other low-sugar fruits, seafood, butter, cream. Though I don't suffer from it, the few encounters I've had with heartburn have all been carb-related.
Here's an article from Bastyr Naturopathic College to back me up:
http://www.bastyrcenter.org/content/view/1175/
ETA: Note (and ignore) the obligatory caveat at the end about meat and fat. The battleship turns slowly.
There can be other issues with GERD than just food........hormones, anatomy, lower esophageal and duodenal sphinters, hiatal hernia etc. She may even have an anatomical problem in her throat, or an enlarged thyroid that is causing the coughing.
Does she have burning?
To get to your question, I think its different for different people. For me, the worst stuff was carbs, fats, acidic foods and juices, chocolate, salt, caffeine, peppermint.
Plain rice is good, plain veggies are good....but be careful of the butter. I've found that eating smaller amounts at meals is important too.
What meds is she on? (for anything). I'm having trouble thinking its GERD with just the cough. Does she burp alot right after eating, or feel stomach contents coming up in her throat?
For people with GERD its very important not to lift heavy things, lean over, or lay down for a couple hours after eating.
I can't say with certainty what doesn't affect me, but I know what does: anything acidic (tomatoes, vinegar-based salad dressings), garlic (cooked or raw), chocolate, roasted nuts, melted cheese. I do not find that the carbs cause GERD for me, personally, but I avoid sugar and flour for other reasons. Meats do not bother me as long as they are not overly greasy. I cannot eat any type of smoked sausage or meat. I avoid mildly acidic foods late in the day (e.g. yogurt).
Also, here are a few other things I've learned about my GERD:
- drinking too much liquid at once makes GERD worse. I sip only small amounts of water at meals, and when I have a cup of tea, I only fill a mug halfway. The stomach can only hold so much at a time.
- when the GERD is active, it takes several weeks to really go away. To make it go away, eat smaller meals, avoid triggers.
- absolutely no eating or drinking large quantities of fluid after dinner. A cup of chamomile tea at 8pm makes my GERD worse.
- I can eat small amounts of trigger foods, but not large amounts. For instance, I can put a little tomato sauce (say, a couple of teaspoons) on my food, but I cannot eat a plate of something covered with tomato sauce.
There is a researcher named Jamie Koufman who studies laryngopharyngeal reflux (LPR), which is the type that tends to cause the cough. It is not the same as the GERD that gives more abdominal symptoms. The treatment that she suggests in her book is, if I recall correctly, 2 weeks of eating no foods with a pH<5. The reason for this is that pepsin molecules (a digestive enzyme) lodge in the esophagus during the reflux episodes and they can be reactivated by acidic foods going down the esophagus. Anyway, you can google her name to read some of her research.
Paradoxically, some natural practitioners prescribe hydrochloric acid, diagnosing acid reflux as a deficiency of it.
Its really hard to find a doc who believes in low HCL acid. I guess it tends to be mostly in the elderly.
There was a guy on a GERD forum I used to be on. He was a Ph.D. who wrote a book about GERD. He was convinced that it comes from too many carbs in our society. Our guts aren't made to deal with so many carbs and the carbs don't get broken down and they sit there and ferment. He believed that that's what would give us the GERD symptoms. I think there's alot of truth in that.
Peggy.........if your DD is on birth control pills, they could be contributing to her GERD symptoms. But like I said earlier.......I'm not sure what she has is GERD.
Thanks y'all. She has no thyroid. It had to be destroyed as it started growing out of control, so she is on thyroid meds. She started this cough about 3 months ago. It was then they did the biopsy for celiac. The doc said everything looked good as he went in, so no noticeable damage to the esophagus or stomach. But she is celiac so we eliminated all gluten, which wasn't really hard as I was already used to cooking like this because of my sister who is also gluten intolerant. But the cough persists. She doesn't complain of pain or discomfort like you would usually associate with heartburn, but I just can't find the trigger that makes her cough. It seems like every time she eats anything she coughs. She doesn't cough as much at breakfast, which is usually eggs and bacon and apple, no toast. But if she has coffee she does. i guess we should eliminate coffee first and see. And peppermint definitely sets her off. If her doc doesn't give her some solid answers then maybe it's time to go to a specialist.
Rosemary, do you mean GERD is something that comes and goes? I really wish we could get a handle on this.
This is a woman (she's 24) who enjoyed perfect health her entire life (i could count on one hand the times she was sick and/or threw up) until about a year ago when her thyroid started to go wacky, and that was started by a weird eye infection that wouldn't clear up. Since then it's been a real trial for her health wise. She hasn't been sick sick, in that she misses work, except for the many test and procedures, but it's just annoying with all these strange, diverse symptoms that point to something, who knows what. And this cough is really annoying, and troubling, because it's after every time she eats. Poor thing. She isn't used to dealing with illness of any kind. I remember the first headache she ever had when she was about 10. She thought she was dying, she didn't know what it was! And with the thyroid she gained about 15 pounds in a month.
Well, I'll take some of these suggestions and try them. I hope something works. Thank you all for listening to me. I know I'm rambling now.:(
CAthy, no birth control pills. The only pills she is on is thyroid and now D as her dr said she needed that.
Helicobacter infection comes to mind, also.
Peggy, how long ago did they destroy her thyroid? Poor girl! I really feel for her.
It just seems that something in her throat/esophagus gets irritated when she eats. Is her pulse regular during this time? I ask this because sometimes eating causes me to have irregular heartbeats, and that can make me cough.
There are alot of nerves in the esophagus.
Does she ever feel like she's choking when she eats? How soon after she eats does she start coughing?
And did they do the upper endoscopy AFTER she started coughing?
An ENT M.D. should be able to look at her throat and see irritation from LPR (laryngopharyngeal reflux).
Yes, for me, it comes and goes - at least, that is, the state of irritation in my throat and the symptoms that I experience. The reflux is probably always there, but I do not experience heartburn. According to my ENT, the pulses of acid up the esophagus are so fast that generally they are not felt. However, by changing how and what I eat, I have reduced my sore throat, cough, and a few symptoms that I always thought were due to allergies, such as sneezing and ear pain. All due to reflux! Here's more info:
http://www.nycornell.org/ent/Laryngopharyngeal.reflux.html
Note that a primary care physician may not be familiar with this reflux, but an ENT will be. I was treated for allergies and sinus infections for about 20 years before I figured this out.
Peggy, how long ago did they destroy her thyroid? Poor girl! I really feel for her.
It just seems that something in her throat/esophagus gets irritated when she eats. Is her pulse regular during this time? I ask this because sometimes eating causes me to have irregular heartbeats, and that can make me cough.
There are alot of nerves in the esophagus.
Does she ever feel like she's choking when she eats? How soon after she eats does she start coughing?
And did they do the upper endoscopy AFTER she started coughing?
Cathy, it was actually a year ago this month they killed the thyroid. Bless her heart, she still managed to get through finals and graduate despite the weird swings in everything. At that time, her pulse was racing due to the thyroid thing. In fact, the first doctor she saw was a cardiologist who got her on meds right away to get that under control before they even killed the thyroid. The coughing begins pretty much right after she eats, and lasts maybe 15 or 20 minutes, so it is probably something irritating her throat. Dairy does aggravate it, but she is kind of in denial about that. But there's something else too. Or maybe everything. I'll suggest the heart thing since she did have that issue before. And come to think about it, sometimes she feels 'antsy' so to speak. Yea, the endoscopy was after she started the coughing bit. That was the first thing I thought about having seen how my sister was.
She has a great job as an HR assistant, but it is a student position (she is working on her MBA) and doesn't have the health care benefits attached. Thank goodness we are able to keep her on our family plan a few more years (thank you President Obama!) She is a 'soldier on' type of person and I keep telling her we will get to the bottom of this yet. I do appreciate your input. It really helps to think aloud.
Peggy,
I was just cleaning out my bookmarks and found this site. Thought you might like to read it, although I don't think it mentions coughing only after eating.
I developed a chronic cough several months ago. DH thought it was probably GERD, but I'm not convinced. I use a CPAP every night, so it probably has something to do with that.
Does your daughter drink enough water?
Here's the link:
http://www.fauquierent.net/cough.htm
Thanks Cathy. That is an interesting site. So, tonight she didn't really cough after dinner. I guess I need to analyze her meal and compare it to other meals to see why. I can't help but believe that the damage from the celiac (which is repairing slowly) has something to do with this. I'm wondering if time, more than anything, will heal her.
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