Just finished talking with the fearless fertility naturopathic specialist, Rhiannon Hardingham, who wanted to let me know that after listening to my Update in Under 30: Silent Reflux she’s had a lot of success treating both GORD and insomnia in her pregnant patients. That calls for double the celebration …YAY! YAY!
‘What’s the magic answer?’, I hear you ask…
Well, in the Silent Reflux podcast I discussed the surprising evidence for melatonin as a treatment for reflux. I say surprising because I’d never appreciated melatonin’s key actions in the GIT and so this treatment idea seemed very left of field to me too initially but since then has become a firm part of my management strategies thanks to watching it work with my own patients who fail to get relief from the usual approaches.The mechanism comes down to melatonin’s capacity to speed gastric emptying while also protecting the lower oesgphageal lining from contact with the misplaced stomach acid.
What Rhiannon’s clinical experiences adds, is that insomnia in the 2nd trimester can come out of the blue for many and one explanation relates to elevated prolactin levels supressing melatonin. So women who present with both reflux and insomnia in this context are the perfect candidates and she’s dsicovered have great success with taking melatonin!
Now Rhiannon’s changed her treatment approach, improved her patient outcomes & she tells me she’s been spreading the word to her mentees. This is the ultimate good news story for me – a great illustration of the potent ripple effect that comes from good education & how we can all continue to contribute by sharing what we know 🙂
Want to hear the rest of the reflux story , the clues you might be missing and other surprising gems about how to effectively treat this common presentation? Check out the UU30 podcast Silent Reflux.