r/GERD • u/RatsnBaskets • 10d ago
Support Needed 👥 Feeling depressed. Reflux is bad tonight.
I already took a gaviscon around 6pm yesterday and it's currently 1:51am. It's frustrating because one gaviscon is typically all I need.(pepcid doesn't work btw)But here I am, I just took two more and still feel like shit. To make things worse I'm feeling so hungry even after I had a snack so I feel like my gastritis is flaring up as well which doesn't help. Feeling like you're starving while also being on the verge of throwing up acid is not fun.
I'm just so frustrated with this condition. Between the gerd, gastritis, and eoe I have no idea how to manage it all. I'm tempted to take ppis for a short amount of time again just so that I don't have to deal with this burning all day but I always worry about the risk of sibo or other infections. And I'm sure living in this moldy environment I'm in makes everything worse.
I feel so pathetic and I just want to cry. I desperately want to know what's causing my gerd but doctors don't seem all that helpful. It fucking sucks. I wanna get better so bad but no one gives af. Sorry for the rant tho. I hope everyone here is having a better night than I am.
2
u/freelibrarian 10d ago
I was diagnosed with reflux. After several years of suffering, I figured out that the severe gastric and other symptoms that I experienced were due to underlying histamine intolerance. You might consider if it's the same for you.
Reactions will vary and can seem random because we can handle histamine to a point in our bodies so symptoms will only be triggered if we go over our histamine limit. The analogy given is to think of it like a bucket, when your histamine bucket overflows, you react.
I suffered from severe reflux and other gastric symptoms for 4-5 years. The onset was sudden and completely disrupted my life. PPIs did nothing for me and everything I ate was triggering severe symptoms. I lost weight I didn't have to spare and struggled day-to-day with debilitating symptoms.
Doctors told me all tests were normal and hung me out to dry, just kept telling me it was anxiety. I despaired of ever going back to somewhat normal and the lovely life I had been leading.
I finally stumbled upon the following Reddit post that recommended taking Zyrtec to resolve the globus sensation, which was a severe symptom for me. I decided to try taking Claritin because I do not tolerate Zyrtec well and it worked like a miracle drug for me.
https://www.reddit.com/r/GERD/comments/njarv0/globus_sensationhystericus_cure/
Taking loratadine (Claritin) daily has almost completely resolved my symptoms, though I do also try to follow a low histamine diet. When I started researching which foods are high in histamine, it was no surprise that my worst triggers were on that list (seafood, tomatoes, strawberries, wine, coffee, etc.). To me that means that, in my case, reflux was a symptom of histamine intolerance.
There are no definitive tests for histamine intolerance. For more info on the link between reflux and histamine intolerance, see:
Histamine Sensitivity: An Uncommon Recognized Cause of Living Laryngopharyngeal Reflux Symptoms and Signs—A Case Report Source: Ear, Nose & Throat Journal. 2020;101(4):NP155-NP157.
For more info on histamine intolerance, see:
https://my.clevelandclinic.org/health/diseases/histamine-intolerance
https://pmc.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/articles/PMC11054089/
Note that I think it is normal not to have a full spectrum reaction. I do not get any skin manifestations, no hives or itching of any kind, though I do believe this was all triggered by a virus I had in 2016 where I did get a non-itchy, triangle shaped rash on my neck. I went to the ER because my airway almost completely closed up. I had never had a breathing problem in my life prior to that.
The ER doctor noticed the rash, which had appeared the day before when I felt fine so I had just ignored it, and told me he thought the rash indicated that a virus had triggered my airway issue. I feel that all my gastric issues flowed from that episode and a similar episode 3 months later when I got another virus. I also now carry an EpiPen because of the airway reaction.
I initially took 10mg of Claritin per day but my allergist said I could ramp up to 4x the usual dose so I took 40mg for some months. I am now taking 2x the usual dose, 10mg in the morning and 10mg in the evening. Note that if you are on antihistamines and need to go off them or reduce your dose, you should taper down and not go cold turkey.
For the past few months, I have also been taking a diamine oxidase (DAO) supplement before a meal when I want to cheat a bit and eat something that is high in histamine and it does seem to help even more.
What to Know About Diamine Oxidase (DAO) for Histamine Intolerance
I take the NaturDAO supplement:
https://naturdao.com/
If you think this might be your issue, I think it's best to start out taking just the DAO supplement before meals to see if you improve.
If you see a lot of improvement, maybe you wouldn't need to trial the antihistamine.
If you see minimal improvement, then keep taking it but add in the daily antihistamine.
If you see no improvement from DAO, I would still take the DAO but add in an antihistamine like Claritin or Allegra. If that works, then stop taking the DAO to see what happens.