My husband just had an endoscopy. We are still waiting for the biopsy results and to hear if he has H. pylori down there, but there were definitely "erosions" in two places. The top one was in his esophagus, so that means he probably has Gastroesophageal Reflux Disease. (GERD)

Does anyone here have this or know much about it? In looking at the diets recommended, high fat diets are out. Supposedly fatty foods weaken the Lower Esophogeal Sphincter and make the condition worse. Seems that about half of our current LC diet is off limits. Akk!

I'd love to hear how others with the same, or similar conditions is coping with it as an LCer. References to other forums is welcome too.

Thanks!

I've been treated for reflux for a number of years now. I've been taking prescription ranitidine (Zantac) once a day for months (down from twice a day, and that down from a prescription Prevacid before...). My doctor has issues with my choice of condiments sometimes--I am legendary for my hot sauce cupboard--but with the weight loss I've enjoyed while eating LC I've been able to keep it under control with just one a day.

My initial gastro appointment is tomorrow morning, in fact. I guess they get all twitchy when one has had symptoms for as long as I have and not had the scope. Not looking forward to it; tomorrow is just the consult, but for some reason I get the willies thinking about an endoscopy.

Good luck with your efforts, and keep on enjoying the LC WOE!

Hi mamabeek!

I can't tell you anything in particular, but I did a search for GERD on the forum and these are the results:

http://forum.lowcarber.org/search.p...rder=descending

From reading it, most folks GERD symptoms seem to abate when they low carb. Hope it helps you out a bit.

Karen

S Hysmith I can offer you some solace in that Russ' endoscopy was not nearly as bad as we'd envisioned. They gave him Demerol about an hour before and then a much more powerful sedative when they took him in such that he barely remembers the procedure at all. He was asleep when they brought him back out, and other than being very sleepy all day, there was no pain. I felt sure that after having biopsies he'd have to eat soup and ice cream etc, but they said nope, he can eat normally. And he did! He even had chips and salsa for lunch (he was too out of it to read that list of foods he was supposed to avoid) and didn't blink at it.

I found the following on the www.eatprotein.com site in the FAQs.

"My indigestion seems to have gone away completely. Can you explain why?

In virtually 100 percent of our cases, going on this program clears up gastroesophageal reflux-or indigestion. It’s because this program, by lowering insulin levels, shifts the production of certain
microhormones called prostaglandins. They are what causes bad
inflammation in the esophagus even in the stomach. On this plan they shift into a different type that doesn’t cause the inflammation, and it happens very, very quickly.

People who have had indigestion will get better almost overnight on this diet. It works spectacularly quickly. If you’re on Prilosec or if you’re taking loads of antacids to stop these problems, when you start the Protein Power Plan you can get rid of it all because it’s going to get better. In most cases it will be better within one week!"

Me again: I'm a little dubious about this because both the doctors and all the information I find in my reading says that it is the stomach acid refluxing into the esphagus that causes the inflamation associated with GERD, not prostoglandins. Plus weight loss makes a big difference and LC diets offer very dramatic weight loss in the first few weeks, so that may be part of why they give quick relief. But then I spoke to a good friend this morning who said that despite being almost 100 pounds overweight her acid reflux problems subsided within a few days of starting on an LC diet and she hadn't lost that much weight yet. She also said she'd had problems at that same weight in the past but not on LC at that weight. Like everything, it is probably a complex relationship where several things come together to cause the problem

I wish you the best tomorrow!

And Karen, I am off to visit the URLs you listed. Thanks!

It seems to be common knowledge that when you cut out the high glycemic carbs, the acid reflux goes immediately.
I experienced this and many of my friends that follow this way of eating have found this to be true also.

The BBC bulletin board has several entries from new low carbers saying just this, the other 2 symptoms that they report are lower blood pressure and greater energy as well as of course losing weight.

It is no surprise that conventional medical thinking goes contrary to this real life experience, but isn't that pretty much the whole low carb experience ???

I had problems with acid reflux for years and took tablets daily to cut down my stomach's production of acid.

On this diet the problem has gone away completely - however when I cheated at Xmas it came back!

Don't worry about fats - worry about carbs.

robert

My DH was taking Zantac pretty much daily to control his heartburn and reflux symptoms and they pretty much disappeared within a few days of starting low carb and only return when he decides to go off low carb for a special occasion such as a holiday or birthday. He's not as overweight as I am nor does he have diabetes, so he can afford to do that once in a while.
Before low carb, he and his doctor blamed coffee and fried foods for his stomach problems. It's interesting to note that as long as he's low carbing he can drink all the coffee he wants and eat high fat and not have a problem. The second he adds bread, pasta, rice or potatoes into the mix, he's running for the Zantac again.

I have hiatal hernia and GERD. Since starting this program I've had very little problem. If I drink any wine or much coffee I will get the heart burn but other than that, no problems.
I had indigestion, not exactly heart burn, after eating hot wings yesterday but that really was a lot of fat in one sitting and I did overeat a bit.

We had a wild couple of weeks involving my 80 year old mother having brain surgery, and us travelling out to be with her and to get married... Ok, we are commonlaw, have been for 15 years, but never had a proper wedding, so for their 50th anniversary we decided to have a double ceremony and get married while my parents renewed their vows. Mom made it through despite being just 4 days out from brain surgery! But my dh was frustrated because some of the really nice meals we ate were spoiled by his stomach and throat pain. So the day after our wedding he asked if he could join me on the Somersizing plan. Whoopee! That makes cooking SO much easier.

I had to laugh because he started Easter Sunday and then weighed in again this morning. 5 pounds down. "This scale is lousy" he said, not believing that it was possible to have lost 5 pounds in 5 days. Surprise! And welcome to low carbing. He still doesn't believe me, but my scale checks with both my doctor's and my parents', which is also a medical scale from when my dad was still practising. (he's a retired MD) I have utter confidence in it. He'll see as the week goes on... so far this week his reflux has been very minor, so I hope this is a sign of things to come.

The best part of the whole story is that I not only made a mini goal by my wedding day, with only 7 days advance notice and while staying at someone else's house, I didn't gain any on the trip at all, despite ceating terribly on my wedding day and the day after! I also dropped two more pounds after getting home on Easter and am now at the 20 pound mark, which means I have less than 10 pounds to go.

Here's hoping that in a few months I'll be telling the same story as everyone else here... sayng low carbing solved my dh's reflux problem completely. Ok, it's not going to solve the problem in his stomach, probably, but at least it might fix half the problem!

What a terrific story! Congratulations!

I don't know if this is regular acid reflux or not. I suffered with that for about two years and took Prevacid daily for about two years.

Since going low carb I've not had a flair up and never needed so much as a tums. I used to get heart burn from water.

I suffered with it forever.Tried every over the counter medication I could find and was eating tums by the handful...finally my doctor perscribed Pariet(rabeprazole sodium) and now I am just fine!
Once I have been low carbing for a while I am going to stop taking them to see if the change in diet has helped.
I take 1 or 2 every morning befor breakfast.
Hope this helps!

Hi

I have been on Atkins for 4 weeks I was taking pantaloc which is an acid blocker for reflux. In the last 2 weeks I have taken 2 pills I use too take them every otherday. I have not had heartburn of any kind for 5 days now. So this low carb program has worked for me. If I go off of it for say a golf trip out with the guys beer and that I will take one if I need it. I have lost 18lbs since April 8th 2003.


Cheers

I was diagnosed with reflux about two months ago and refused to go on any medicine. Stated lc-ing instead. It is so great! I used to get indigestion/heartburn from drinking water also. My snoring and sleep apnea have disappeared also.

I'm glad your DH is trying low-carb. My ex-husband had the surgery, and ended up losing about 30 pounds. He went from 170 to about 140. (He's 5' 10'' and looked really bad until he gained about 10 back.)

He was constantly vomiting and we couldn't take our daughter out to eat without him running out halfway through the meal to the toilet (severe diarrhea) or home. I think his symptoms were similar to the stomach stapling surgery, since they took out part of his stomach and re-routed something.

I used to have such severe stomach pain that I'd take any pain pill I could get my hands on illegally, but since starting Atkins I have had zero incidents.