Laryngospasm...any Experience?

[timebandit]

Firstly apologies for not being involved in the forum for sometime.

I was hoping other users had any experience of Laryngospasm and are able to givefeedback?

I had my own and first episode just over ten days ago, lasted just under a minute couldn't talk afterwards I then went into a second spasm.

They haven't stop with three attacks a day, with finally a visit to ENT today (all clear, possible link to acid-reflux or a new symptom of hay-fever)

Thankfully the consultant stated, at this stage no medical or surgery required and the episodes should decrease over time.

PS

Like the new forum layout.

[MrPin]

I've never heard of it! What is it?

[happy_renting]

I've never heard of it! What is it?

It's a spasm.

Of the laryngo.

[timebandit]

I've never heard of it! What is it?

Me neither Mr Pin until two weeks ago.

Symptoms your vocal cords going into a spasm then closing shut for a minute,. very frighting first night I thought I was dying.

[happy_renting]

Me neither Mr Pin until two weeks ago.

Symptoms your vocal cords going into a spasm then closing shut for a minute,. very frighting first night I thought I was dying.

Do you actually say anything while this is going on?

If you say something rude, you could pass it off as Tourette's, like MrPin does.

[MrPin]

Do you actually say anything while this is going on?

If you say something rude, you could pass it off as Tourette's, like MrPin does.

I'm a rather posh pottymouth, like Julie Andrews!

[timebandit]

LOL I wish I could speak you just make this awful baying noise.

Found a video link. sorry confusion with the new forum layout to link correctly.

[timebandit]

Hey the video linked worked start at 1 min

[happy_renting]

LOL I wish I could speak you just make this awful baying noise.

Found a video link. sorry confusion with the new forum layout to link correctly.

I paid for that video from what I was told was a gynaeocology 'specialist' website! I have been cheated!

[timebandit]

I paid for that video from what I was told was a gynaeocology 'specialist' website! I have been cheated!

Not just me then. 1970's Swedish p0rn movie just waiting for the plumber.

[Guest TheBlueCat]

Firstly apologies for not being involved in the forum for sometime.

I was hoping other users had any experience of Laryngospasm and are able to givefeedback?

I had my own and first episode just over ten days ago, lasted just under a minute couldn't talk afterwards I then went into a second spasm.

They haven't stop with three attacks a day, with finally a visit to ENT today (all clear, possible link to acid-reflux or a new symptom of hay-fever)

Thankfully the consultant stated, at this stage no medical or surgery required and the episodes should decrease over time.

PS

Like the new forum layout.

No experience myself but Scott Adams (Dilbert guy) suffered from it and wrote quite extensively and well on the subject. It's worth googling him.

[SarahBell]

Isn't that a bit part in a House episode?

[The Masked Tulip]

I have gone through periods of it and it is very upsetting as I have this awful gulping sensation of trying to swallow and breathe - and you naturally and immediately begin to panic.

A couple of things to look into:

1. Taking 300 to 400 mg of quality magnesium as a supplement daily to help relax your tissues.

2. Possibly it is related to contriction in the upper airways / throat (laryngospasm bronchospasm) so, believe it or not, a broncho dilator used for asthma to relax the airways could help.

I use a 12 hour reliever called Salmeterol which comes as the brand Servent in a circular green charger - within minutes of using it I can feel my throat constriction relax. This can work in seconds or in minutes dependent on how you react to it.

I don't use it everyday twice daily as I found it made me breathless so now I use it if/when I feel that Iam tightening up in the throat.

The problem is though that a lot of GPs probably do not associate the constriction as being something that possibly could be sorted by a bronchodilator - in fact, I am not sure any do as I do not believe that they connect the two... but I found that it works for me.

There are other relievers such as bricanyl which is a short-acting reliever and it only lasts for about 4 hours instad of 12.

Personally, I found that servent worked in my throat and upper airway/chest whereas the bricanyl seems to work deeper into the chest but it is horses for courses.

Perhaps you could talk to you GP about trying one or both and seeing if either help.

3. Consider seeing a chiropractor to see if you have some misalignment in your neck/back which is constricting/shorterning/tightening muscles and nerves in the area causing spasm.

Obviously do your own research and talk to your GP. Best of luck.

[Solitaire]

I've been getting this. It seems mine is linked to GERD that is linked to Hashimoto's disease (hypothyroidism) that I was diagnosed with late last year. If I take the thyroid medication all the throat symptoms, coughing and choking clear up but I stopped taking it because of horrible side effects.

I definitely react badly to foods like gammon, bacon and tomatoes as I can no longer digest them. Dropping tomatoes from my diet was a shame because I loved them so much but I think they give me the worst reaction, sometimes whilst eating them and sometimes hours later.

I'm religously taking an A-Z vitamin and mineral supplement at the moment that contains iodine and am hoping this might help support my thyroid enough to halt the Hashimoto's.

Probably very different from what causes your problem but it show's how a diagnosis of one thing can be caused by something else entirely.

[Battenberg]

I've been getting this. It seems mine is linked to GERD that is linked to Hashimoto's disease (hypothyroidism) that I was diagnosed with late last year. If I take the thyroid medication all the throat symptoms, coughing and choking clear up but I stopped taking it because of horrible side effects.

I definitely react badly to foods like gammon, bacon and tomatoes as I can no longer digest them. Dropping tomatoes from my diet was a shame because I loved them so much but I think they give me the worst reaction, sometimes whilst eating them and sometimes hours later.

I'm religously taking an A-Z vitamin and mineral supplement at the moment that contains iodine and am hoping this might help support my thyroid enough to halt the Hashimoto's.

Probably very different from what causes your problem but it show's how a diagnosis of one thing can be caused by something else entirely.

I didn't realise that GERD was linked to Hashimotos. I've been on lanzaprazole for years now and can't miss a tablet without being doubled up with gastric pain. Last week I was told my thyroid was underactive and I'm waiting for the results of further bloods tests to see if it's Hashimotos.

I've been choking many times recently and have noticed a change in my voice. I've not had this spasming however. That sounds pretty grim.

[timebandit]

Thank you for all the feedback it's been very informative and certainly helping me understand Laryngospasm.

A special thank you to TMT and Solitaire you both found the causes better than the inital GP who assumed I had hyperventilion.

I do suffer with the regular shoulder twinges, so have booked in with chiropractor (next week) and will start with a daily dose of magnesium.

Thankfully the attacks have improved today only two so far and lasting less than ten seconds, so hopefully I will be able to return to work tomorrow.

[The Masked Tulip]

Thank you for all the feedback it's been very informative and certainly helping me understand Laryngospasm.

A special thank you to TMT and Solitaire you both found the causes better than the inital GP who assumed I had hyperventilion.

I do suffer with the regular shoulder twinges, so have booked in with chiropractor (next week) and will start with a daily dose of magnesium.

Thankfully the attacks have improved today only two so far and lasting less than ten seconds, so hopefully I will be able to return to work tomorrow.

When we hyperventilate we breathe out too much CO2 which alters the oxygen carbon dioxode balance in the blood - which results in anxiety, panic attacks and eventual death. To counteract this the muscles in the airways and throat constrict to try and stop the CO2 loss. The constriction is a self preservation tactic by the body.

So your GP was partially right and partially wrong IMPO. Believe me, I have gone through all this and I wish I was not as expert in this stuff as I now am. I had a really crap 5 or 6 years with all this.

Personally, I think GPs have limited knowledge and also try to find a single cause when IMPO several things are going on here. To cut a long stoty short I wish that a chiropractor had been my first port of call circa 2005 and not when I first went in 2013. I hope this helps.

[MrPin]

When we hyperventilate we breathe out too much CO2 which alters the oxygen carbon dioxode balance in the blood - which results in anxiety, panic attacks and eventual death. To counteract this the muscles in the airways and throat constrict to try and stop the CO2 loss. The constriction is a self preservation tactic by the body.

So your GP was partially right and partially wrong IMPO. Believe me, I have gone through all this and I wish I was not as expert in this stuff as I now am. I had a really crap 5 or 6 years with all this.

Personally, I think GPs have limited knowledge and also try to find a single cause when IMPO several things are going on here. To cut a long stoty short I wish that a chiropractor had been my first port of call circa 2005 and not when I first went in 2013. I hope this helps.

Stotties are round! Every Geordie knaws that!

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Stottie_cake

[timebandit]

Thanks TMT, I was kind of lucky getting correctly diaognosed. I started getting real bad attacks over the bank holiday weekend, so I went to A/E and had a real bad attack in front of the triage nurse who thought I was chocking on a foreign object.

[timebandit]

Sorry, I meant to add I hope you all find a way of coping will life knocks. Thankfully we have forums and able to discuss symptons that family or friends may have no experience of.

[Solitaire]

I didn't realise that GERD was linked to Hashimotos. I've been on lanzaprazole for years now and can't miss a tablet without being doubled up with gastric pain. Last week I was told my thyroid was underactive and I'm waiting for the results of further bloods tests to see if it's Hashimotos.

I've been choking many times recently and have noticed a change in my voice. I've not had this spasming however. That sounds pretty grim.

It's the choking that bothers me the most. I recently ended up at my GP's because I was choking all night which was really awful. She put me on Lanzaprazole but I only took it for three weeks because it caused me to lose too much weight. My usual weight is between 7.5 and 8 stone so I can't afford to lose any more. Having Hashimoto's you'd think I'd put weight on but everything seems to be back to front with me.

I'm not sure if my GERD symptoms are because of too much or too little stomach acid, it can be either. I don't get the acid burning feeling at all but it seems the doctors just prescibe the Lanzaprazole without investigating which one it is. Having said that my GP is being really helpful and I've got to go back and see her in a few weeks.

I've put the weight back on now and the GERD is better than it was before but I think I might have to give the thyroid meds another go as that's the one thing that really did help.

[The Masked Tulip]

Worth doing a google about vitamin d deficiency and the thyroid. I think all this stuff is related and you can end up with a cascade effect of symptoms.

I was getting bizarre and weird sensations going on with my thyroid - I am pretty certain mega vit d doses helped solve this.

[Battenberg]

Worth doing a google about vitamin d deficiency and the thyroid. I think all this stuff is related and you can end up with a cascade effect of symptoms.

I was getting bizarre and weird sensations going on with my thyroid - I am pretty certain mega vit d doses helped solve this.

When you say mega how much have you been taking? I have been having this fluttering sensation, almost like a twitch in my throat, bang on where my thyroid is.

Also to add, seeing as chiropractors have been mentioned, it was actually going to see one that has pushed me to go back to the GP this last fortnight. I've been suffering for over a year with awful shoulder pain and burning in my upper arm muscles so turned to the chiro after going back and forth to the gp and being told I had RSI and not being offered a single blood test. My chiro said she could see that I wasn't benefiting and she'd rather I pay to go privately to a GP or Endocrine specialist (obviously she had suspicions on what was going on) than continue to pay her.

I went back and told the GP I wanted to go privately and suddenly they decided they wanted to investigate which is why I've now had some blood tests.

Solitaire, I'm the opposite in so much as I can't shift any weight even though I have no appetite.

Timebandit, I hope you have some success with the chiropractor. I think they can come under a bit of criticism but mine was fantastic for reasons mentioned above.

[The Masked Tulip]

Fluttering - yes, that was the word I was looking for and exactly what I would be getting. It would come at odd moments but usually at moments of anxiety - i.e. whilst out driving in the car and someone cuts me up.

I was taking 10,000 units a day at one point for about 6 to 12 months. I made sure to take calcium, magnesium and some vitamin K also.

I did lay off calcium at first though for a few months as I suspected - no proof - that I was getting some kind of degenerative calcification going on in my spine, ribs and sternum.

I now don't take vitamin D in the summer as I have been making sure I have got out daily but, in a week or so, I will be starting up again on about 6,000 units a day.

I think that the spine / ribs can, whether because of injury or because of vitamin d deficiency and subsequent calcification - or both, end up trapping and compressing... and then damaging... nerves, blood flow, etc. I think then people end up chest pains, internal inflammation in the chest, airways, throat and lungs. So doctors diagnose things like asthma or GERD.

As the nerves become compressed I think that any slight anxiety or tightening, which your body used to normally deal with, then becomes a BIG thing... so a bit of anxiety whilst out driving can result in a searing chest pain... or you can have your throat close up on you in a meeting. I think your physical symptom/reaction all depends on where in the spine you have damage and nerves are trapped/compressed.

The spine is your information highway for your nervous system so if there are any problems there I think they manifest themselves in all sorts of symptoms and illnesses. I now know - far too late - that most UK doctors have a very low opinion of chiropractors despite themselves often having had very little training and/or knowledge about the spine and the importance of a healthy spine. Something that is not shared by doctors across Europe.

As I said above, I think that years of really, really bad health could have been saved me if the doctors that I saw had directed me to a chiropractor instead of just giving me drugs and inhalers to mask the symptoms. But that would be like the manager of Tesco telling you to go down the road to Sainsburys.

Heck, I can remember seeing a cardiologist in Swansea who did numerous tests on me, found nothing and then wrote on a piece of paper 'muscular skeletal' and I had no idea what that meant. I suspect he suspected what the problem was but couldn't bring himself to tell me to go and see a chiropractor.

So, to summarise, I think vitamin D is vital and I think a healthy spine is vital - we all have to get the right levels of vitamin d, calcium and magnesium... and some K... right.

I am aboslutely convinced that there are thousands and thousands of people in this country who are taking asthma medications who actually have inflammed lungs due to some misalignment or injury in their spine... and I believe that if they got their spine sorted that their inflammation would subside over several months and their asthma would disappear.

Sorry, I am ranting. Off out to sunbathe for 30 minutes.

[ccc]

If it may be linked to tightness in your upper body (sounds potentially logical) - then head along to a yoga class and see what loosening up your muscles over a few months does.