<p>Welcome Skald! </p>
<p>Read Coach C's post above - she answers your questions about how long Nexium takes to work - and about apple cider vinegar.</p>
<p>Thanks onstage</p>
<p>Hey MTMamma, thanks for pointing out that post, somehow i missed it, and it was very helpful!</p>
<p>Coach C:</p>
<p>My reflux in the past was always something I couldn't feel at all and it only happened at night. This recent case of it however, I feel my stomach going nuts during the day and get very burpy, especially during singing. 2 times during the past 2 months I had to stop a voice lesson because I actually had stomach fluid coming into my mouth. During the night its still happening only on a much larger level. 3 times I've actually been woken up by it coughing and gaging with stuff coming up into my mouth. It then takes about an hour before I'm able to go back to sleep and stop refluxing. Thats three times over the past 2 months probably so not a lot but still this kind of extreme refluxing never happened to me before. </p>
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<li><p>Currently I've had 2 really good days in terms of meds and eating and such, but it hasn't seemed to help much. I'm having a ton of post nasal drip and my throat is very very sore on the right side. I was in a 3 hour rehearsal today and while I guess it was a LITTLE TINY bit better than yesterday it was still really hard to navigate my voice and my range was still about half of what it should be (mostly on the top but also the bottom). </p></li>
<li><p>As for the Nexium thing... wow 2 months! Thats amazing, thanks for filling me in on that. I really havn't felt any relief and felt like giving up on them in a week or so if that continued. I'll stick with it though and see. Protonix didn't give me instant relief but it did work pretty quickly, within a couple days and I was comparing it to that. </p></li>
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<p>PS these are things i wish my doctor has pointed out!!! lol </p>
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<li> I'll add the Zantac to my nighttime schedule. When I was first told i had reflux back in 2000 Zantac is what I was perscribed... then a few years later I was put on protonix. I thought that it was because it was new and it was better and a replacement. I'll let you know how it goes! Thanks so much for the information. This has been driving me absolutly nuts. I have very imporant life changing auditions coming up this next year and desperately need to get this under control so I can start really getting ready.... I had no idea you could use these together. </li>
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<p>PS again, these are things i wish my doctor has pointed out!!! lol </p>
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<li><p>Over the past year I have put on some weight so I'm also trying really hard to get rid of that in hopes that it will help. Lucky for me trying to eat in a way that is kind to my reflux ends up being a good diet anyway lol. This leads me to another thing i've been reading on the web... they say not to mix meats and carbs in meals. The idea is that carbs make your body create saliva to break them down... meats make it create acid and when the two are in there together they cancel eachother out. What do you think about this?</p></li>
<li><p>Do let me know if you find anything out about apples and applecider vinegar... I just read it everywhere. I do no for sure though that apple juice is a trigger for me though, so I wouldn't be surprised if it is bad and what I'm reading on other sites is rubbish. </p></li>
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<p>edit: though going back through sites.. most of the ones that have lists of foods that are good for you to eat list apples and bananas as good fruits</p>
<p>I'd also really like to know about Yogurt...is it bad because its acidic or good because its Probiotic?</p>
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<li>So the empty stomach thing wouldn't be a problem at night... it in theory becomes a problem the next time you eat. I guess I'm a little less worried about that, obviously i don't want to reflux period though if it happens when i'm awake and able to stand I'm less worried about it hurting my voice... </li>
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<p>... actually though that raises a question, I know that I can rarly feel the reflux unless its really bad or coming into my mouth... during the day is it safe to assume that while I may reflux into my throat that it probably won't reach my vocal cords due to gravity? And that thats just something i need to worry about in terms of the night? Or is the effect of the reflux bad no matter what even if its not reaching the cords... i know from personal experience that it creates huge ammounts of muscular tension in terms of singing... is that just if it splashes over or is that if its in the esophagus at all...</p>
<p>While I'm on an asking questions role: </p>
<ol>
<li><p>Someone told me that going to the chiropractor could help... I've never been to one and know nothing about this. Is this really something I should look into?</p></li>
<li><p>I've read about that bacteria Pylori... if i've been on antibiotics with a sinus infection would that have killed it if I had it... or woudl it have needed to be a certain medication... I'm guessing that I probably don't have this as I was on 2 antibiotics with in the last 4 months but thought i'd ask</p></li>
<li><p>Hernia...if I have this... and loose weight... could I avoid surgery? It runs in my family I know and like I said I've gained some weight. </p></li>
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<p>Sorry for the long post but this has been so helpful! Thanks again.</p>
<p>did anyone have an answers? :-/</p>
<p>mamalu, I'm interested, too, in how the holistic allergist tests for allergies. you said multiple modalities were used... can you elaborate? thanks.</p>
<p>I'm not sure I can fully explain her clinical and theoretical framework from a lay point of view but this is my understanding at best. </p>
<p>This allergist uses the premise that the immune system continually processes new food, chemical and environmental substances, and when we hit an overload with newly introduced substances to process, we may develop symptoms. The body develops symptoms idiosyncratic to our unique body chemistry and sensitivity.</p>
<p>Symptoms might include anything from GI problems, increased mucous production, muscle and joint pain, migraines and other headaches, to more severe illnesses
The allergist primarily diagnoses with muscle testing to the specific allergen. The treatment involves desensitizing the body to the allergens using a variety of different modalities. (non invasive)
Feel free to PM me.</p>
<p>Well it seems no one here had any answers for my questions, in the meantime I was able to get in with a voice specialist here in NYC, she works a ton with opera singers at the met and students at Julliard and came highly recommended. Anyway, so here is what she had to say about my questions.</p>
<ul>
<li><p>She agreed that taking Zantac at night along with my PPI pill was a good idea and that has been helping a lot i think. </p></li>
<li><p>She put me on a special diet, and I need to loose weight as part of my - treatment. </p></li>
<li><p>Apple anything is a trigger for me, and she said while everyone varies she think its odd that applecider and other such things are being advertised to help this as they are highly acidic. </p></li>
<li><p>Yogurt is good because of the bacteria, just try to eat it in the beginning of the day. </p></li>
<li><p>Stop eating as early in the night as you can before bed. Obviously 3 hours isn't enough for me so I need to do like 5. </p></li>
<li><p>The muscular tension caused by the reflux is actually affecting my voice the most!</p></li>
<li><p>Hmm forgot to ask her about the chiropractor does anyone know?</p></li>
<li><p>I'm going in to be tested for the bacteria H. Pylori. I've been on antibiotics recently but apparently this type of bacteria wouldn't have been helped by those, it takes a special one...so if you have acid reflux, get this test!</p></li>
<li><p>Could be a hernia, but even if it is i'd be asked to loose weight first to see if that fixes it, so we are starting with that. </p></li>
<li><p>I'm also going in for a barium swallow this week.</p></li>
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<p>Apple cider vinegar is the reflux cure that people are talking about, and vinegar is a base, not an acid - but the doctors where I work are skeptical about its effectiveness.</p>
<p>Going to a chiropractor won't help your reflux, but it may help to alleviate some of the muscle tension caused by your laryngeal muscles working too hard because of the vocal fold irritation caused by acid. Acid causes your vocal folds to swell and then the laryngeal muscles work to try to make the vocal folds come together "normally," since the swelling prevents this. Another great help for this muscle tension is putting heat or moist heat on the FRONT of your neck - using a heated rice bag is great.</p>
<p>I agree with Coach. Apple cider vinegar is not acidic in our bodies- it is actually an alkalizer but the taste is hard to swallow :) . Try mixing it in apple juice! Just my 2 cents.</p>
<p>This is an old thread but I found it very interesting.</p>
<p>My D has allergies and asthma, and usually gets a flare when she’s doing a show.</p>
<p>She was born with reflux and almost died as a newborn when (this is gross be warned…)
she aspirated some of her vomit. I had to hold her upright for 30 minutes after feeding her and had to quit nursing after a month because we couldn’t tell how much she was getting in because she was vomiting so much…</p>
<p>She also slept on a special sling on an inclined piece of foam that fit in her crib.</p>
<p>I seems like from all these posts that there is a correlation between reflux, asthma, allergies… Maybe I need to find an ENT or gastroenterologist and get her checked out.</p>
<p>Anyone else was born with reflux and having asthma that impacts your ability to perform in a show???</p>
<p>I am personally not a performer, but I will throw out there that I had bad heartburn/acid reflux on a daily basis until I started drinking about 3 tbls per day of organic apple cider vinegar beginning last summer. I drink it in about 6 oz of sparkling water and it’s not bad at all. I haven’t touched a Tums or Pepcid since. It even works on the spot if I have a slight flare-up. No problems at all. I think it’s a miracle cure personally.</p>