Post by @mollypelletier.rd

If you cough after meals and wave it off as "just reflux," this one's for you. I hear it all the time, and I get it. When it happens every day, it's easy to stop noticing. Your throat deserves more care, and there's a lot we can do. That after-meal cough is often a sign of LPR, also called silent reflux. Many people with LPR never feel heartburn. It shows up as throat clearing, hoarseness, or a lump-in-the-throat feeling. For reflux to reach your throat, it has to get past two valves (the LES at the top of your stomach, and another at the top of your esophagus). Along with acid comes pepsin, a digestive enzyme that can irritate your throat even when there's very little acid present. The cough is your body protecting your airway. The LES sits inside your diaphragm, and your diaphragm is a muscle you can train. Here is what I teach my clients: The LES Lock: 5 to 10 minutes of diaphragmatic breathing about an hour after eating, up to 5 times a day. Let your rib cage expand 360 degrees. The 3-Hour Buffer: finish eating about 3 hours before you lie down, so your stomach has time to empty. An alginate like Reflux Raft after meals that tend to bother you, or before bed. It forms a seaweed-based raft on top of your stomach contents. Left side, head up: sleep on your left side with the head of your bed raised 6 to 9 inches. The 5+1 Method before meals: 5 slow breaths and 1 thing you're grateful for, to shift into rest-and-digest. In a Mayo Clinic trial, breathing after a meal nearly doubled LES pressure and cut post-meal reflux events by about 85%. In another, people who kept it up for 9 months used about three quarters less on-demand acid medication. If the cough has been going on for weeks, let your doctor know too, so other causes can be ruled out. The full step-by-step plan is in the FLORA App, link in my bio. 📚 Halland et al., 2021, Am J Gastroenterol, RCT, n=33, LES pressure 23.1 to 42.2 mmHg, post-meal reflux events 2.60 to 0.36, PMID: 33009052. Eherer et al., 2012, Am J Gastroenterol, RCT, n=19, on-demand PPI use 98 to 25 mg/week at 9 months, PMID: 22146488. Follow for more. 💚 #LPR #silentreflux #acidreflux #chroniccough #gerdrelief