LPR Reflux Diet
As side effects are quite common in many LPR patients with standard medication in the form of proton pump inhibitors (PPIs), doctors generally prefer to use a modified diet program for them. In other patients, who are not sensitive to PPIs, doctors provide medical therapy through PPIs and support it by also prescribing dietary behavioral changes. These behavioral changes include not eating for the 2 to 3 hours just prior to retiring for the night and elevation of the head of the bed by about 4 to 6 inches through use of a wedge device. Not eating in the prescribed period offers an advantage to LPR patients in that there is almost no acid left in the stomach by the time they go to sleep. So, they can avoid LPR from rearing its head during the time they are asleep. This ensures that patients have a good night's sleep without any pain due to LPR. The elevation of the bed head also offers the advantage that whatever little acid is left in the stomach is prevented by gravity in coming up in the laryngopharyngeal area of the throat. You can also easily ensure that LPR no longer troubles you by taking some important precautions. These precautions include not smoking at all, changing over to a low-fat diet, and avoiding fried foods, chocolate, eggs, and cheese. Limiting the intake of butter, caffeine-containing drinks that include tea, coffee, and soda, and avoiding peppermint and alcohol can help you to reduce LPR symptoms to easily manageable levels. Avoiding tomatoes, red meat, and citrus fruit juices also is recommended. Shedding any excess weight can also help reduce the severity of your LPR symptoms. Avoiding the wearing of tight clothes that constrict the stomach is another good precaution that you can take to assuage your LPR symptoms. All the above diet-related and behavioral lifestyle modifications can help patients to become free from LPR provided they strictly and regularly keep to the prescribed schedule. There are many patients who leave the program half-way through as they have already got relief from LPR. It is important that they do not leave the program in the middle, because by going back to their earlier diet or behaviors, they can again aggravate the laryngopharyngeal reflux and resuffer the adverse consequences. When patients do not keep to the prescribed plan and suffer the consequences, doctors have no option but to conduct surgery to provide relief. Therefore, doctors emphasize that patients keep to the LPR reflux diet schedule for the whole duration of the plan. |