Select Language

Snoring + Reflux = True

Snoring + reflux = true

Snoring and acid reflux are connected. Both problems effectively ruin a good night’s sleep for very many. But, did you know that they have the same root cause: weakened internal muscles? This means that it is common to both snore and have acid reflux. This also means that snoring and acid reflux can be treated with the same method – simultaneously.

The natural swallowing process includes a total of 148 muscles from the lips, oral cavity, pharynx, oesophagus, down to the diaphragm and stomach.

These muscles are central to many important functions, such as breathing, eating, talking and smiling. Thus, problems can arise, if the muscles are weakened.

Snoring occurs in the throat

When the muscles in the throat are weakened, it relaxes too much when you sleep. The muscles are then unable to keep the airway completely open and it becomes too constricted for the air to pass when you breathe.

This causes the soft palate to start vibrating in the air flow, and these are the vibrations that cause the snoring sounds. Try to inhale yourself, to make a snoring sound. You can then feel where the vibrations occur.

There are other causes of snoring, but weakened and overly relaxed throat musculature is the most common one.

Sleep apnoea is caused by weakened muscles in the throat and upper airways

The cause of acid reflux is located further down

If you follow the food’s path to the stomach via the oesophagus, you will arrive a bit further down at the diaphragm. This is a thin powerful muscle that divides the upper body into two halves.

The oesophagus enters the diaphragm through a hole called the hiatus canal. Under the diaphragm, the food passes through the gastroesophageal junction and down into the stomach.

Along the way, there are muscles that work in a coordinated manner to transport the food down to the stomach, safely and efficiently. Once there, it is mixed with the corrosive stomach acid, and you’d rather not have those contents come up again.

However, it can be necessary for these contents to come up on certain occasions – when we belch or vomit. The stomach can then slide up through the hiatus canal, allowing the stomach to release its contents.

The problems arise when the diaphragm is weakened, allowing the stomach to slide up in an uncontrolled manner. This leads to leakage of stomach acid, which we experience as acid reflux, heartburn and acid regurgitation.

Do you have weakened muscles that can lead to acid reflux?

A simple self-test of 3 minutes shows if you have a hiatal hernia

TEST YOURSELF

Snoring and acid reflux are linked

All these muscles are thus part of the same process – the swallowing process. If the musculature in one part of the muscle chain is weakened and causes problems, it is not unusual to also cause problems in other muscles in the same muscle chain. This is why snoring and reflux are linked.

It is also common for your acid reflux to worsen when it’s time for bed. Pain and discomfort caused by acid reflux disease can make it difficult to sleep.

When you lie down and your body relaxes, the risk increases that the stomach will slide up through the hiatus canal and the leakage of stomach acid will worsen.

In fact, for this reason many people can only dream of lying down to sleep. The compromise is to sleep half-seated, to keep at least some control over the position of the stomach.

It's common to have to sit up and sleep when you have reflux.

Acid reflux makes it difficult to lie down and sleep

Snoring, on the other hand, does not always affect the sleep of the snorer. However, it often contributes to a disturbed night’s sleep. Snoring can cause you to wake up during the night and miss out on a good night’s rest. Moreover, snoring may affect the person with whom you share the bedroom.

It is quite common for snorers to also have sleep apnoea, pauses in breathing during sleep. If the airways collapse completely during sleep, and the air supply is restricted for at least ten seconds while you sleep, it is defined as sleep apnoea.

Many sufferers are not aware at all of this themselves, but it can still have a big impact on how rested you feel and the recovery that sleep provides.

Several problems – one solution

The advantage of both problems being rooted in the same process and muscle chain is that it is also possible to solve both problems by strengthening the muscles in that process. 

When you prepare to swallow, nerve signals are sent from the oral cavity via the brain and out to the muscles in the swallowing process to tell the muscles to start working.

Muscles that are activated and regularly get to work become stronger.

IQoro is a patented neuromuscular training device that uses this very process in a high-intensity way. During intervals of ten seconds, the nerves are stimulated, which, via the brain give signals to all 148 muscles in the swallowing process to work – i.e. to exercise.

One could say that IQoro starts a protracted power swallow. Studies at Swedish universities have shown that training weakened muscles in the swallowing process is very effective and, thus, treats all the symptoms linked to the weakened muscles.

For this reason, you can get rid of snoring and acid reflux at the same time. Simple, effective, completely natural and so smart that many people do not even believe it can really work.

Read more

Do you keep clearing your throat because of silent reflux?

Did you know that your troubles may be due to silent reflux, and that you can treat throat clearing by strengthening your inner muscles?

Read the article

Corrosive damage on your teeth due to reflux?

Corrosive damage to the teeth due to acid reflux is more common than you might think. But how is reflux connected to poor oral health?

Read more