Acid reflux throat occurs when stomach acid comes back up into your throat lining and causes irritation, typically as part of gastroesophageal reflux disease or another health issue that weakens the lower esophageal sphincter (LES).
Assuaging acid reflux symptoms can involve various measures, including eating smaller meals; waiting a few hours after eating before lying down; and taking over-the-counter antacids.
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Medications
Many people find that over-the-counter (OTC) and prescription medications help alleviate their acid reflux symptoms, such as sore throat. Unfortunately, medication alone won’t solve the problem; many need to change lifestyle factors in order to stop acid refluxing altogether.
Acid suppressing drugs are among the most effective medicines used to treat acid reflux and sore throat symptoms, and may include antacids, H-2 blockers, and proton pump inhibitors.
Antacids can help soothe stomach acid production and relieve mild heartburn symptoms. Over-the-counter (OTC) antacids include liquids like Maalox or Milk of Magnesia as well as chewable tablets like Rolaids or Tums; they provide short-term relief but won’t heal ulcers in your esophagus or repair damage caused by long-term GERD.
Histamine 2 receptor blockers such as Cimetidine (Tagamet HB), Famotidine (Pepcid AC) and Nizatidine (Anaprilis), reduce stomach acid production. Although these medicines don’t work instantly like antacids do, they can ease symptoms for up to 12 hours at a time while also healing esophageal erosions in about 50% of people.
Proton pump inhibitors like Nexium, Lansoprazole (Prevacid 24HR), and Omeprazole (Prilosec), suppress acid production more effectively than H-2 blockers and can help heal erosions in your esophageal lining while protecting against the development of Barrett’s Esophagus – an illness in which cells in your esophagus begin to mimic those found in your intestinal tract.
Barrett’s Esophagus is an increasingly prevalent complication for those living with GERD, which increases their risk for cancer of the esophagus. People experiencing frequent acid reflux and sore throat symptoms are more prone to this serious disease.
If a sore throat caused by acid reflux doesn’t disappear within several weeks, consult your physician. They may prescribe stronger medication or suggest other forms of treatment, including endoscopy. Endoscopy is a minimally invasive procedure in which doctors use flexible tube-like instruments equipped with imaging cameras to examine the inner linings of both your esophagus and throat using flexible tubing instrument equipped with cameras; your physician can also perform transoral incisionless fundoplication surgery (TIF) in order to repair valves that open/close when swallowing.
Lifestyle Changes
When experiencing GERD, stomach acid is allowed to return up into your throat and esophagus and flow backwards, creating a painful swallowing sensation and leaving behind a bitter acidic taste in your mouth. Acid reflux may damage its lining over time causing serious health risks to arise from continued exposure – using lifestyle changes can help protect it!
Diet changes may help alleviate heartburn and sore throat symptoms, including acid reflux. You should try eating smaller meals throughout the day and limiting foods that trigger acid reflux; drink plenty of fluids – particularly water – in order to stay hydrated, and ensure you eat non-citrus fruits such as bananas and melons, along with lean meats such as fish, chicken and eggs that do not increase risk for reflux. Finally, avoid foods high in fat which increase risk.
Acid reflux can also contribute to sore throats, and you can ease them by drinking warm liquids such as water or tea with honey added for soothing effects and coating of your throat. A few spoonfuls of lemon juice mixed with water may also help neutralize acid.
If your symptoms do not improve over time, or become severe, consulting with a doctor should be your priority. He or she can run tests to assess how much acid is entering your throat from outside sources and recommend personalized solutions tailored specifically to you.
Long-term untreated GERD can lead to Barrett’s Esophagus, in which normal cells that line your esophagus are replaced by cells similar to intestinal tissue lining the stomach lining, increasing your risk for cancerous growths in the esophagus. This condition should be taken seriously as it increases your chances of Esophageal Cancer.
Reduce the risk of sore throat from GERD by losing weight, quitting smoking and wearing loose-fitting clothing that does not put pressure on your stomach. Eat smaller meals throughout the day; no eating within three hours before bed. Elevating or reclining the head of your bed 6-9 inches may also help make it less likely that stomach contents rise up into your throat.
Surgery
When lifestyle and medication alone fail to address GERD symptoms, surgery may be recommended by your doctor. Most often this involves correcting the LES valve or treating hiatal hernia; other surgical options include Nissen fundoplication which wraps part of your stomach around the lower end of your esophagus; or more recently LINX which does not alter stomach structure directly.
GERD occurs when your LES valve does not close correctly, allowing digestive juices to circulate unchecked into your throat and esophagus lining, leading to constant exposure of acid which damages it further and causes swelling, irritation and ulceration resulting in inflammation, ulceration or scar tissue formation making swallowing hard or impossible altogether. Furthermore, this condition increases your risk for Barrett’s Esophagus precancerous condition in your esophagus which could eventually turn cancerous in itself.
Surgery for GERD may provide relief and prevent complications caused by the disease. Your physician will recommend the best surgery option for you.
Before surgery, your doctor will order tests to assess your esophagus and stomach. These may include barium swallow X-rays (GI X-rays), esophageal manometry and upper endoscopy as well as 24-hour pH tests with impedance probe studies to measure acid in your esophagus.
Nissen fundoplication surgery is a common way of treating gastroesophageal reflux disease (GERD). It may involve either open surgery or laparoscopic procedures. Most often, this surgery will relieve patients of their GERD symptoms and decrease long-term medication needs; however, some individuals will still experience some degree of reflux after treatment.
LINX is an innovative incision-less minimally invasive procedure that helps heal the esophagus lining by decreasing stomach acid production. This treatment method offers an alternative to traditional surgery for people suffering from severe acid reflux who do not qualify for other forms of treatment, but aren’t good candidates for traditional surgeries such as laparotomy or gastrostomy. We at UCI Health Digestive Health Institute are one of the few medical centers in Southern California to offer this advanced surgery; to see if this advanced surgical option suits you, please reach out and contact us today if interested!
Endoscopy
An endoscopy is a procedure in which your doctor uses a thin, flexible tube with a tiny camera at its tip to visualize your digestive tract and transmit images directly into an exam room via video monitors. This gives them a wide view of inside of your stomach, esophagus and duodenum – as well as tests for cancer or treating certain issues such as precancerous polyps.
Endoscopie can be performed anywhere from your healthcare provider’s office, an outpatient medical center or even hospital. Your physician will give you instructions for preparing for an endoscopy; usually this means not eating anything other than water for 12 hours prior to your procedure. Sometimes air pressure may also be used to inflate the esophagus to make navigation of the endoscope simpler. You may experience mild bloating as an effect of this air pressure inflate, however; it’s a normal part of endoscopy.
At an endoscopy, your doctor will apply local anesthetic and administer a sedative to ensure you won’t experience any pain or discomfort during the procedure. Once the sedation wears off, you should be free to return home, with any soreness or bloat from the endoscope insertion quickly fading over time. Your doctor should provide instructions as to when you can resume eating again as well as results of the endoscopy within days.
If the results of your esophageal endoscopy indicate acid reflux, your physician may decide to perform a biopsy and collect tissue from the lining of your esophagus lining to rule out cancer and other potential issues that could be contributing to it. A biopsy also helps your physician establish which treatment approach would be most suitable.
Your doctor can use an endoscope in several other ways to diagnose and treat disorders affecting the esophagus, stomach, colon and lungs. These include finding, sampling or removing tumors; placing tubes (stents) to bypass blockages in bile ducts; or installing drainage tubes into blocked gallbladder ducts.
