For about 3 months I've had a sore throat that was getting progressively worse. This accompanied by postnasal drip. The past couple months been having periodic "episodes" of throat burning/stinging. When the episode is happening I can't talk because of the pain and throat spasming. My eyes are watering more like waterfalls. A nightmare when you have to talk alot in your job. The episodes went from occasional to constant. Also would wake up choking & coughing from the episodes coming on during sleep. Finally go to a throat specialist on Tuesday. Diagnosed with Laryngopharyngeal Reflux. (LPR) Since I'm seeing a doc in the same medical group as my shrink who prescribes the bac, he can see all my records. The throat doc says, bac is a muscle relaxant. It has relaxed a band of muscle at the entrance of the stomach known as the lower esophageal sphincter. If this band of muscle is not functioning well, you can have a backflow of acid into your esophagus and into your throat and voice box. The acid refluxes into your esophagus (or food pipe) and throat. It pools there causing problems. As of now, the acid reflux has severely burned my throat and I can't talk. I'm now on medication for the LPR. Must make other lifestyle changes like sleeping with head 6 inches up; no caffine & NO ALCOHOL! (Both these produce lots of acid); and weight reduction.
This gets me to the second revelation. Since getting to around 200 mg of bac I've gained about 20 lbs despite no change in eating, in fact thinking I was eating less. This throws me into a frenzied panic so I go into operation lose weight which I'm pretty good at. I follow the Atkins diet plan which is losing weight by eating less carbs. Typically, I'd see a 4-7 lb weight loss in a week. Nothing. So now I'm really freaked. I go to writing down everything I put in my mouth (except water). Every pill. Every morsel of food. And I reduce the carb intake. And I test my urine at least twice daily using a Keytone test strip. The strip will change from beige, to pink, to various hues of purple if you are in ketosis. Ketosis occurs when you are taking in low levels of carbs resulting in creation of ketones. When you are in ketosis you're burning fat stores for fuel and not gluclose. The by-products of burning fat are keytones. Even after being on a drastically reduced carb level, after 4 days the test strips are barely turning a pale pink. My revelation (but no solution to the problem): The bac therapy is hanging on to the gluclose (I think). I'll keep testing and see if it improves. For the record, my average carb intake per day is 10 grams and avg calorie intake is 750. As for the bac, I'm starting to dose down. Was up to 270. Now at 200. Perhaps the lower levels of bac will start to shake it loose. Still indifferent.
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