MS, RD The Reflux Dietitian

Years of allergy meds and nasal sprays, and the throat clearing never left. Here is what I wish someone had told me. Pepsin is the digestive enzyme that travels with refluxate. In silent reflux (LPR) it lands on throat tissue, sticks, stays stable at neutral pH for 24 hours, and switches back on the next time something acidic comes through. That is why the clearing feels like it never fully goes away. 📚 Johnston 2007, Laryngoscope (PMID 17417109). A low-acid healing phase is temporary. For a few weeks we pull back the most acidic foods and drinks so the pepsin already sitting in the tissue has less to reactivate it. Then we expand again. A healing phase, not a forever list. There is an alternative for almost everything. Citrus becomes melon or banana. Tomato sauce becomes a roasted carrot or butternut base. Vinegar dressings become olive oil, fresh herbs, and salt. Sparkling water becomes still water or chamomile. Same meals, calmer inputs. Slippery elm. A mucilaginous herb that coats and soothes irritated throat and esophageal tissue on the way down. It was my go-to through my own healing phase, which is why it is in @SequoiaSoothe at 1000mg per serving. Your nervous system is part of the barrier. In fight-or-flight, gastric emptying slows and the diaphragm tenses, which asks more of a valve that is already under pressure. Nervous System Snacks: 1 to 5 minute regulation breaks, 1 to 3 times a day, away from meals. Extended exhales, or one hand on your belly and breathing into it. Follow and share this with the friend who keeps blaming it on allergies. 💚 Small hinges swing big doors. 🌿 #SilentReflux #LPR #ThroatClearing #AcidReflux #RegisteredDietitian