Saturday, March 18, 2006

Can my stomach be causing my throat to hurt

As it turns out yes.

Today a doctor realised that my cause of extremely painful throat was in fact caused by my stomach, well my relux.

The last couple of days I have been having obvious stomach problems and have had the sore throat for two weeks, I had no idea they were related.

Last night it got so painful that Mr T was threatening to take me to ER, i couldn't talk without feeling like i would pass out from the pain.

It called Reflux Laryngitis, which according to voiceproblem.org is a:

voice disorder that results from irritation and swelling of parts of the voice box due to the backflow of stomach fluids into the voice box area. This backflow is called laryngopharyngeal reflux.


According to medicinenet:

stomach acid can cause an irritation of the lining of the esophagus, larynx and throat. This can lead to erosion of the lining of the esophagus (erosive esophagitis), narrowing of the esophagus (stricture), chronic hoarseness, chronic throat clearing, difficulty swallowing, foreign body sensation, asthma or cough, spasms of the vocal cords, sinusitis, and growths on the vocal cords (granulomas)


I'm a little concerned though at whats actually causing the reflux. Before I went vegan I had chronic gastrointestinal problems and was refered to specialist after specialist and hospitalised more than a few times. I eventually saw someone who said I had intolerances, i went on an elimination problem and found that dairy was the main culprit. That of course started me thinking about diet and that of course eventually lead to veganism. That was over a four years ago and I haven't had stomach problems since til now that is.

Now I have no idea what the culprit is.

I have put back on heavy antacid type medicine. This is not something I want to continue long term dependence with.

Anywaym at least I have an answer to my never ending throat problem. I knew that the first doctor was wrong about it being a virus.

2 comments:

Anonymous said...

hope you are feeling better soon xo.

K said...

thanks claire!

Its my birthday very soon, so I plan on making a recovery for it ;-)