I was diagnosed with silent reflux about 6 years ago after several years of incidents where my throat would suddenly shut in a way that was quite frightening. After my first child was born I decided to get it looked at, and a camera down my throat (or up my nose, whichever way you think about it) showed damage in my throat from silent reflux.
I was put on medication, and after about 4 years (a long waiting list made even longer by the pandemic) it was determined that without the drugs my reflux was as bad as ever. I was getting increasingly concerned about being trapped between the long term effects of the condition on the one hand and the medication on the other.
I tried the recommended route of reducing onions, tomatoes etc etc etc to no effect. But as I looked into the topic, I came across the hypothesis that reflux is caused by an overgrowth of bad bacteria in the upper part of the gut. Some people advocate starving the bacteria by going low carb, but I took Dr Megan Rossi’s approach to see what would happen if I tried feeding the good bacteria to help them outcompete the bad ones.
I went onto an exclusively wholefoods, plant-based diet last January and successfully came off of the prescribed medication. I have been able to slowly reintroduce some eggs and dairy into my diet in such a way to make life a bit easier to manage and I hope to slowly continue increasing. With resources provided by The Gut Health Doctor, I am really happy to have brought my condition under control without replying on drugs. Hurray for plants!
