LPR Symptoms and Doctor Symptom Chase Syndrome

[rjh18]

I have had a history of TMS Symptoms, many that I have resolved just by reading Mind Body Prescription. Recently I had kidney stones and as soon as this was resolved I began getting LPR symptoms including burning in the throat, heavy mucous in my throat, globus, and a terrible smell in my breath and nose which I find most troubling. Started taking PPI's but they did nothing. I went to a GI who told me I need to have an Endoscope. I highly suspected TMS since it started right after kidney stones. Also been experiencing a lot of stress for some time. I then went to an ENT who scoped my throat and told me my throat was ok but my vocal chords were atrophied and I need voice lessons to strengthen them. He also indicated that I should get an endoscope with a GI doctor. I am about 80% convinced that this is TMS and don't want any more tests since as soon as one issue is resolved I seem to get other symptoms which require more tests and is usually another manifestation of TMS. I know Dr. Sarno says to have every symptom checked out before purusing TMS therapy but for me when ever I have a test and it is normal, symptoms disappear and new symptoms of a different nature appear. I feel like I am in the "Doctor Symptom Chase" which seems like a never ending cycle. Any helpful thoughts would be much appreciated.

 

[JaneSandyJane]

What are LPR symptoms?

 

[JanAtheCPA]

I know Dr. Sarno says to have every symptom checked out before purusing TMS therapy but for me when ever I have a test and it is normal, symptoms disappear and new symptoms of a different nature appear. I feel like I am in the "Doctor Symptom Chase"

Yep, and here's the deal: at some point you have to make a conscious and committed decision to trust your own judgment when determining whether or not to get something medically checked out. Because you're right, there's no point in doing this over and over when you know that anxiety and stress are really the cause of most, if not all, of your symptoms.

Obviously I don't know your age, but this ability to trust your instincts is something that generally improves with age - assuming you suffer from fairly typical anxiety, that is. It also improves with TMS education and self-training.

With the exception of obvious warning signs that any reasonably-informed adult should know about, there are very few symptoms that can't be given some time to see if they resolve with TMS awareness and renewed attention to your emotional mindfulness and to the use of your favorite brain-calming techniques.

But you have to "do the work" in order to accomplish this.

 

[rjh18]

Tks @JanAtheCPA. I am concerned that I am causing damage to my esophagus and throat which i think is proliferating the symptoms. Also interesting i dont have symptoms when i am sleeping. Would you recommend Alan Gordon's program or SEP?

 

[JanAtheCPA]

Alan donated his program to us several years after I found success with the SEP, so I'm technically not able to make a recommendation - others may have an opinion!

If you like structure and short lessons, definitely go with the SEP. You can always do Alan's program later. What I like about the SEP is that it introduces you to different types of techniques, especially writing techniques, which means you can adopt the ones that really resonate with you for your long-term TMS maintenance.

The SEP does come with a caveat, which is that it hasn't been maintained (since it was a volunteer effort). Some lessons contain links to outside sources, and some of those have disappeared into the ether over the years (more than twelve years by now). This leaves some people very dissatisifed, but I call it a lesson in accepting imperfection Similar information, often by the same author or practitioner, is pretty easy to find these days.

Cheers and success to you!

~Jan

 

[Jak]

What is SEP please?

 

[JanAtheCPA]

Structured Educational Program on the main tmswiki.org website. No registration or signup needed, you just start doing it.

 

[Syl]

Alan donated his program to us several years after I found success with the SEP, so I'm technically not able to make a recommendation - others may have an opinion!

If you like structure and short lessons, definitely go with the SEP. You can always do Alan's program later. What I like about the SEP is that it introduces you to different types of techniques, especially writing techniques, which means you can adopt the ones that really resonate with you for your long-term TMS maintenance.

The SEP does come with a caveat, which is that it hasn't been maintained (since it was a volunteer effort). Some lessons contain links to outside sources, and some of those have disappeared into the ether over the years (more than twelve years by now). This leaves some people very dissatisifed, but I call it a lesson in accepting imperfection Similar information, often by the same author or practitioner, is pretty easy to find these days.

Cheers and success to you!

~Jan

Hello Jan! I just read this, believe it or not, as I also lost my way around the programs Alan donated. Anyway, I'm glad I found this sub-support forum. Is there any way I can help with this? I read so many stories and I can see myself in many of them, and right now I'm going through a multitude of symptoms/conditions whereby the moment I put one down to sleep, as it were, another one then rears its ugly head! I've been in touch with Dr Schubiner a zillion times by now, and if it weren't for this man I would've gone mad

Please let me know if I can assist in any way. I have the time and I'm more than willing to help where I can. I've completed Alan's program, read his book, and also have studied Dr Sarno's technique as well as Dr Schubiner's and others.

I'll be hanging around this forum for a while, I reckon

 

[Syl]

I have had a history of TMS Symptoms, many that I have resolved just by reading Mind Body Prescription. Recently I had kidney stones and as soon as this was resolved I began getting LPR symptoms including burning in the throat, heavy mucous in my throat, globus, and a terrible smell in my breath and nose which I find most troubling. Started taking PPI's but they did nothing. I went to a GI who told me I need to have an Endoscope. I highly suspected TMS since it started right after kidney stones. Also been experiencing a lot of stress for some time. I then went to an ENT who scoped my throat and told me my throat was ok but my vocal chords were atrophied and I need voice lessons to strengthen them. He also indicated that I should get an endoscope with a GI doctor. I am about 80% convinced that this is TMS and don't want any more tests since as soon as one issue is resolved I seem to get other symptoms which require more tests and is usually another manifestation of TMS. I know Dr. Sarno says to have every symptom checked out before purusing TMS therapy but for me when ever I have a test and it is normal, symptoms disappear and new symptoms of a different nature appear. I feel like I am in the "Doctor Symptom Chase" which seems like a never ending cycle. Any helpful thoughts would be much appreciated.

Hello rjh18! I have gone from pudendal neuralgia (PN) and fibromyalgia to a whole host of other conditions, one of which is LPR or "silent reflux" as some call it. Not that there is anything "silent" about it!

I'm the kind of person who is absolutely terrified of ANY invasive medical tests, therefore, I do huge amounts of research through medical studies, and by contacting all sorts of doctors and professors, plus I usually diagnose myself and when possible I then go to the doctor or specialist to confirm my many diagnoses, and I have a nutrition background, too.

For LPR I diagnosed myself via the symptoms plus I did a Peptest, which is a saliva test that looks for pepsin (the actual cause of LPR) in the saliva. Originating from the UK, the test is now used worldwide by many specialists such as gastroenterologists and ENTs (this avoids having to look down someone's throat with a scope) and it also tells the doctor how much pepsin one has in their saliva. My test came up as moderate, this was back in 2017, and since then I've been following an LPR diet as per Dr Jonathan Aviv's book, entitled "The Acid Watcher Diet." Dr Aviv is a renowned ENT based in New York, and he was nice enough to chat with me via Twitter when I first read his book and I had many questions (I'm based in Australia). Anyway, I followed his diet, adding my own touch to it as I developed all these weird food intolerances along with the LPR and I couldn't even eat some of the low acid food in the diet.

Within a few weeks my symptoms started to ease, but with my high levels of anxiety they would sometimes come back, plus I also suffer from IBS, GAD (general anxiety disorder), childhood trauma, all sorts of chronic pain, patulous eustachian tube (PET) and many other conditions, so having to live with all this is not kind to my digestive system.

Anyway, long story short, I managed to check my LPR symptoms (and they only flare up when I'm anxious), plus in 14 months of being on this diet I lost 12kg. I used to weight 63kg and now I am down to 50 to 51kg (which is what I used to weigh during my 20s, 30s, and 40s. So by the time I went on this diet, I was in my 50s and I went back to how I used to be in my youth sans the occasional grey hair

I hope this information helps. I am a believer in doing my homework and researching information (from legitimate studies, not via hearsay or blogs one finds on Google), plus I read books written by doctors/specialists, etc, and I often contact them via email and most of them are very helpful. But please note this is my choice. It takes time and patience to do all this and it's not for everyone. The good thing about this whole thing, however, is that I'm learning so much about all my different conditions that when I go to see a doctor I can converse with them on the same level. My decision has always been to take charge of my own health issues and only utilise the experience of doctors when strictly necessary.

By the way, LPR is considered to be TMS. I had this from both Alan Gordon and Dr Schubiner, but this does not mean we can just tell the thing to go away as it's the anxiety that mucks up the whole digestive system so pepsin is flowing all around and cause all the awful LPR symptoms. As a result, we do have to watch what we eat and bring down the anxiety.

Wishing you all the best!
Sylvia

 

[JanAtheCPA]

Please let me know if I can assist in any way. I have the time and I'm more than willing to help where I can. I've completed Alan's program, read his book, and also have studied Dr Sarno's technique as well as Dr Schubiner's and others.

I'll be hanging around this forum for a while, I reckon

I think you already know how to help, Sylvia, and it's nice to see you back on board after a long break! You probably know that this forum exists thanks to founder @Forest, but its continued existence and usefulness is really dependent upon members sticking around and being willing to support others with their TMS stories, successes, setbacks, and resources.

The way I check in is to click on "All Recent Threads" on the menu bar, which captures every new post no matter what subforum it's on. I get alerts for threads that I've posted to, but also check new threads that might need responses. I will read new posts on very old threads, but you have to be careful with those - some are not worth responding to, and others need to be reported for review (forums are easy targets for fake users who are paid to insert hyperlinks into websites - their favorite method is to create a bland/generic response on an old thread - if you see such a post, just click on "Report" at the bottom of it).

It absolutely does take a village, and I hope you do stick around!

~Jan

 

[Syl]

I think you already know how to help, Sylvia, and it's nice to see you back on board after a long break! You probably know that this forum exists thanks to founder @Forest, but its continued existence and usefulness is really dependent upon members sticking around and being willing to support others with their TMS stories, successes, setbacks, and resources.

The way I check in is to click on "All Recent Threads" on the menu bar, which captures every new post no matter what subforum it's on. I get alerts for threads that I've posted to, but also check new threads that might need responses. I will read new posts on very old threads, but you have to be careful with those - some are not worth responding to, and others need to be reported for review (forums are easy targets for fake users who are paid to insert hyperlinks into websites - their favorite method is to create a bland/generic response on an old thread - if you see such a post, just click on "Report" at the bottom of it).

It absolutely does take a village, and I hope you do stick around!

~Jan

Dear Jan, thank you for the feedback and the tips regarding the forum. I haven't been on forums very much in the past and so I wasn't sure how this one works, especially in order to keep it going. I also see new posts on very old threads and now I can take your advice and do as you do. Like you, I will check all recent threads and new threads, and I hope we can keep this incredibly helpful forum going. I certainly intend on sticking around. Thank you so much for your suggestions.

Greetings from the land Down Under!

 

[Syl]

Dear Jan, thank you for the feedback and the tips regarding the forum. I haven't been on forums very much in the past and so I wasn't sure how this one works, especially in order to keep it going. I also see new posts on very old threads and now I can take your advice and do as you do. Like you, I will check all recent threads and new threads, and I hope we can keep this incredibly helpful forum going. I certainly intend on sticking around. Thank you so much for your suggestions.

Greetings from the land Down Under!

I think you already know how to help, Sylvia, and it's nice to see you back on board after a long break! You probably know that this forum exists thanks to founder @Forest, but its continued existence and usefulness is really dependent upon members sticking around and being willing to support others with their TMS stories, successes, setbacks, and resources.

The way I check in is to click on "All Recent Threads" on the menu bar, which captures every new post no matter what subforum it's on. I get alerts for threads that I've posted to, but also check new threads that might need responses. I will read new posts on very old threads, but you have to be careful with those - some are not worth responding to, and others need to be reported for review (forums are easy targets for fake users who are paid to insert hyperlinks into websites - their favorite method is to create a bland/generic response on an old thread - if you see such a post, just click on "Report" at the bottom of it).

It absolutely does take a village, and I hope you do stick around!

~Jan

Oops! I meant to also say thank you to @Forest for starting this wonderful forum. I'm going to check out some of his posts, too. I'm sure they'll be very informative.

Syl