Has anyone had this similar experience?

[claal789]

Reflux for 5 years
endoscopy
PPIs

Always suspected it was muscular problem, stress related etc...
Noticed I was subconsciously holding in my stomach and had absolutely no idea I was doing so until yesterday. Let stomach completely hang out, symptoms improved noticeably.


I'm currently in a position where I should be getting rebound reflux and have been since I stopped taking Nexium regularly a week ago, but since I consciously made positive effort to completely relax and almost forcefully distend my stomach, my symptoms eased, noticeably. My throat feels less tight, swallowing feels more natural.
I mean really let the stomach completely hang out and relax your posture. This counterintuitively actually required a tiny bit of active pushing as I described above.

This is 100% not me trivialising reflux, this really has been a horrible journey for me and has caused me significant emotional and physical irritation for 5 years, I've seen doctors and had endoscopies etc... It just seemed to never end.

I think the human brain is as flawed as it is wonderful and we all carry stress in unusual different ways,

Just posting incase it helps anyone any amount.

Just reiterating, I had NO IDEA I was doing this subconsciously, and I have been obsessing over these symptoms for what seems like forever! How truly bizzare!

I have been into weight lifting and think the 'bracing of the core' habit maybe extended into everyday life, this is the only explanation I can think of.

Will see if the improvement really lasts, I have been falsely optimistic before.

[specialmom]

Hm, I'm not sure if that would really correlate.  Have you had ongoing improvement?

[specialmom]

Are you think the constricting of your stomach when sucked in is causing gerd?  

[claal789]

I'm thinking that unnatural subconscious muscular tension is affecting the way I swallow and potentially other functions like peristalsis or the closing of the LES. No idea if that is actually the case, but I just have a hunch it's stress/muscular tension related. But also yes if there is less space for your stomach I guess it would be similar to wearing restricting clothing which is known to make acid reflux symptoms worse. Diaphragm breathing is affected when you deliberately hold in the stomach, and diaphragm focused breathing exercises also known to aid in reflux symptoms. Improvement has been noticeable, but some sensation of burning still definitely present. One upshot is that I do feel a lot more relaxed if nothing else, making me feel better all round.