Mumbles, it sounds like you didn't have LPR, but rather traditional heartburn. I believe that, aside from dietary changes which are constant for both, the effective LPR treatment is different.
“Traditional heartburn”, if caused by gastric reflux, means that the irritation from the gastric juices are limited to the bottom of the esophagus. LPR is when the reflux has been so bad and untreated long enough that gastric juices reach and pass out of the top of the esophagus, with some splashing back past the epiglotus, the valve in the upper GI tract that closes of the pathway to the larynx and upper branchial tube. The treatment for LPR is simply more complex than lower esophagal irritation, but the underlying cause is the same: gastric reflux.
And as mentioned before, I did experience throat burning from alarmingly violent gastric reflux, both times waking me from a dead sleep on almost back-to-back nights. Unlike in your case, I didn’t develop the severe LPR condition you are suffering from because I took immediate action the second night to address both the short term and medium term causes of the gastric reflux and my upper GI and epiglotus’ exposure to the gastric juices from it, as I already had experience addressing when that happened but in milder cases, something you weren’t aware of when the gastric reflux was repeatedly attacking your upper GI and larynx at night before you started takimgnsteps to get it under control.
Gaviscon doesn't prevent your stomach from producing acid, but rather blocks the acids from moving up and irritating your throat, which is what has been happening to me. Some with LPR have said it's the "only thing that works".
But despite the slick graphics that marketing departments may cook up to ahow how their oroduct supposedly protects the esophogus, a single dose of Gaviscon doesn’t coat your esophogus for long, as the mucous membrane of the esophogus eventually flush it into your stomach. Then, unless the gastric reflux is not lessened, more Gaviscon is needed to repeatedly recoat the esophogus. And because Gaviscon is alkaline (basic), as it drains into the stomach, it raises the pH of the stomach stew, fooling it into producing more of the nasty stuff in gastric juices, which pertuates the condition for gastric reflux unless other steps are taken to lower the stomach’s production of gastric juices
But, never fear. There is a cheaper and more natural solution to repeatedly dosing with Gaviscon and/or alkaline water:
I believe my problem is due to pepsin in my throat. What is pepsin?
LPR is caused by a combination of acid and the stomach enzyme pepsin.
The job of pepsin is to digest proteins in the stomach.
If you have LPR, pepsin gets up into your throat and airways.
This is poorly written and implies that LPR *causes* the pepsin to get there, where it causes damage. That implication is false as it implies causation in the wrong direction. Instead, LPR is *caused* by gastric reflux that has been so severe and untreated/undertreated that the exposed tissues of the larynx, which aren’t protected by mucous membrane like the esophogus, are repeatedly exposed to gastric juices, which includes pepsin
There it goes on with its job: digesting. It’s just that pepsin now digests the cells of your airways. That does not sound good, does it?
Pepsin is highly influenced by the presence of acid.
The acidity is expressed by the pH. A pH of 1-2 is about the level of the empty stomach and is very acidic. A pH of 7 is neutral. Everything above is alkaline.
Usually, the pH in the throat is about neutral. Pepsin becomes inactive in such an environment. However, each time pepsin comes in contact with acidity, it becomes reactivated.
The lower the acidity is, the higher the damage potential of pepsin:
So Gaviscon suppoedly creates a foamy coating and prevents the pepsin from moving into the throat.
Alkaline water, which I'm now drinking (bought it last night) will permanently deactivate the pepsin it comes into contact with in my throat, which could otherwise sit there causing damage for as long as weeks.
[So will saliva from chewing sugarless gum, which also addresses the dry-mouth symptoms that you mentioned apparently due to taking the Nexium[/b]
However, it will NOT prevent the reflux from continuing and shooting new pepsins into my throat, so that's where the Gaviscon comes in.
There is cheaper and more natural way to address this: regularly chew sugarless gum. Doing so stimulates your mouth to produce saliva, which is mildly alkaline/basic and will help to protect your esophogus from the acidity of gastric reflux, as well as lower the acidity of your mouth and upper throat from eating acidic foods.
Why do I say this? Because I forget to mention that I chew sugarless gun quite frequently during the day, during which I frequently sip/drink energy drinks and sugarfree sodas, both pretty acidic. And also after every time I snack or eat a meal. Or immediately upon being surprised at night by a gastric reflux spasm, which has only happened a few times of late, thank goodness
I'm hoping that between the two of them, this problem will end, once my throat heals.
There are some who believe that alkaline water itself will not be effective enough to deactivate the pepsin, and that you need sodium bicarbonate to do it (baking soda). Those people suggest drinking baking soda water instead of commercial alkaline water. However, that solution can bring on high blood pressure, which I already have (mostly genetic), because you're ingesting tons of sodium. So I'd prefer to avoid that.
Definitely avoid the commerical alkaline water and baking soda water. Chewing sugarless gum will usually give you the acid-reducing effect you are looking for without the extra cost of both nor bump to your blood’s sodium level of the latter.
Also, chewing gum helps reduce stress, which seems to be rather heightened for you at the moment.
I am not drinking soda or orange juice anymore. They are both very acidic. This will be hard to stop but I have to because this is miserable.