Do you know what that pain in your throat is? Let’s talk about acid reflux symptoms to see if that could be what’s causing your pain.
Discloser: I am not a trained health professional. All articles are based on my own experience and opinions. Please consult with a health professional before making lifestyle changes.
This post may contain affiliate links and I may earn a small commission when you click on the links at no additional cost to you. As an Amazon Affiliate, I earn from qualifying purchases. You can read my full disclaimer here.
Determining if that uncomfortable feeling in your throat and/or stomach can be tricky. Luckily, acid reflux has some pretty clear symptoms.
The trickier part is to figure out what is triggering your acid reflux and what you can do to get it to go away.
What Causes Acid Reflux?
Let’s start by understanding what causes acid reflux. You can dive deeper into the causes of acid reflux on another blog, but let’s cover the basics.
The tube your food takes to get to your stomach is called your esophagus. At the bottom of your esophagus is a small valve that opens to allow food into your stomach and closes to prevent stomach acid from coming back up your esophagus as your stomach digests.
Acid reflux occurs when that valve doesn’t properly close and stomach acid creeps back up. Because your esophagus doesn’t have the protective coating to protect against the acid that your stomach does, this can cause pain that can feel like “heat”.
If this happens often that stomach acid can start to cause serious damage to your esophagus.
Symptoms of Acid Reflux
There are a variety of acid reflux symptoms you may feel. It may feel the same every time or vary from day to day. If you feel a variety of these symptoms you may have acid reflux. Head here to learn about what could be causing your acid reflux.
- Heartburn: Heartburn is a pain in your chest when you bend over or lay down. It may feel like warmth or a heat sensation. You may even taste a hot, sour, acidic, or salty taste in the back of your throat
- Regurgitation: Regurgitation is when you feel food coming back into your mouth from the esophagus. Literally like you threw up a little in your mouth.
- Feeling like food is stuck in your throat: This may happen after you eat where you feel you have to cough a lot to clear your throat. This could be caused by other issues but is often associated with acid reflux.
- Coughing: This can feel like a dry cough and may happen more around meal times.
- Chest pain: This may be associated with heartburn and hurt more when you bend over or lay down.
- Sore throat: This often happens in the morning. It’s common to feel some of these acid reflux symptoms first thing in the morning because your body has had a hard time digesting overnight.
- Stomach pain: This could feel like a sharp pain or more of a dull pain like your stomach is rubbed raw.
- Burping: Excessive burping, especially after meals may be acid reflux related. This is common with carbonated drinks that can throw off the acidity levels in your stomach, causing acid reflux.
- Bloating: Bloating is a common sign of a gut imbalance that may be contributing to your acid reflux. Read more about the connection between gut health and acid reflux.
- Unexplained weight loss: A lot of times with acid reflux you may feel too much pain while eating that you don’t have an appetite and that can lead to some unintentional weight loss.
- Bad breath: With stomach acid coming back up your throat you may experience bad breath and even teeth issues.
- Hiccups: Hiccups, especially after eating your trigger foods, are a big sign of acid reflux.
- Nausea: Nausea after meals or first thing in the morning tends to accompany acid reflux. If it becomes a persistent thing you should see a doctor.
- Vomiting: Vomiting usually only occurs in severe cases, if you experience this in conjunction with other symptoms you should see a doctor.
- Problem swallowing: If you feel like your throat is closing up in conjunction with other symptoms it could be acid reflux related. If this is severe and doesn’t go away within a few minutes you should see a doctor.
Acid Reflux vs GERD
Having occasional acid reflux isn’t something you should be too worried about. Eating a large or very spicy meal may give you the feeling of “heartburn” or heat in your chest. Often times it can go away on it’s own.
What this site is focused on is helping people with chronic acid reflux heal their bodies from the damage acid reflux may have already caused and prevent it from happening on a daily basis.
But let’s talk about the difference between Acid Reflux and Gastroesophageal reflux disease (GERD).
Acid reflux is simply the act of stomach acid flowing backward into your esophagus. It can progress to the point where it happens often and greatly impacts your life and you may be diagnosed with GERD. Different levels of GERD may require medication or surgery.
What is Silent Reflux?
Silent reflux or laryngopharyngeal reflux (LPR) is when stomach acid flows back up the esophagus into the voice box and throat but does not cause any symptoms in the chest.
It’s slightly different than GERD but can be treated in the same way. The difference is if it comes up the esophagus alone it’s gastroesophageal reflux disease (GERD), if it comes into the throat or voice box is laryngopharyngeal reflux (LPR)
So if you don’t have a lot of chest pain but still feel yourself throwing up in your mouth it’s likely acid reflux. This actually started for me as a child and was my main symptom until I started treating it.
How To Measure the Level of Severity of GERD
There are different levels of acid reflux, but in this case, we’ll look at levels of severity of GERD, implying that your acid reflux is recurring and not a one-time experience.
- Stage 1: Mild GERD
- Mild symptoms 1-2 times monthly
- Can manage it with lifestyle changes, natural remedies, or over-the-counter medications.
- Stage 2: Moderate GERD
- Symptoms are more frequent or on a weekly/daily basis
- May need a prescription
- Associated with esophageal inflammation
- Stage 3: Severe GERD
- Symptoms are poorly controlled even with medication
- Erosive esophageal inflammation is likely
- Surgery may be needed
- Stage 4: Reflux-induced precancerous lesions or esophageal cancer
- Only 10% of chronic GERD patients will develop stage 4
- Results from years of untreated severe reflux
How To Treat Acid Reflux Naturally
Mild to moderate GERD can be managed with lifestyle changes and natural remedies. You can learn all my favorite natural remedies for acid reflux here.
Severe GERD should be treated with a combination of medical advice and lifestyle changes. If your symptoms worsen or you have nausea, vomiting, or difficulty swallowing you should talk to your doctor.
On this blog, I help people with mild to moderate GERD (chronic acid reflux) who didn’t respond well to prescription antacids or are more interested in a natural approach to managing their pain.
I used daily antacids for nearly 5 years and was completely dependent on them. If I missed even one dose I would feel like my stomach and esophagus were literally on fire regardless of what I ate.
I didn’t like being dependent on medication and after I got a second endoscopy that showed no tissue damage or inflammation I was confused why I felt so much pain when I didn’t take my pills.
So I set out on a journey of healing. For 4 weeks I committed to getting off my meds and using natural remedies to balance the level of acidity in my stomach and let my body heal itself. You can read all about that journey and the exact steps I took here.
Nowadays I don’t deal with chronic acid reflux, I do experience it from time to time but nothing I can’t take care of in a matter of hours. I don’t have a restrictive diet either, I eat what I want without pain on a regular basis.
Now I know how to listen to my body and give it the tools to heal and thrive when it needs them.
If you’re like I was and you also want to kick your daily antacid and focus on a more holistic approach to managing your acid reflux check out my 4-week guide to getting rid of acid reflux.
If you have any questions about my personal experience with acid reflux and how I’ve come to manage it feel free to leave a comment below or email me at acidrefluxqueen@gmail.com. I am in no way a medical professional, just someone who’s been there and understands the struggle.