IQoro treatment results – what do 18,629 users say?
If you are considering IQoro, you are probably curious about the treatment results other users have had. We have compiled what 18,629 users answered in our annual customer survey, and here we give you the answers you may be wondering about:
– Does it work? How quickly can I get better? Can I reduce my use of medication?
Since 2018, every year we have followed up on how people using IQoro are getting on. In total, 18,629 users responded to our survey between 2018 and 2025. This is not a single study in a laboratory setting. Instead, it is the everyday experiences of real users, and the results are clear.
How quickly can you notice results from IQoro treatment?
This is the most common question we receive. Here is how users answered:
- 48% noticed improvement within < 1–2 months
- 75% within < 1 to 3–5 months
- 82% within < 1 to 6–8 months
- 84% within < 1 to 9+ months
- 16% no improvement yet
This means that almost 50% of our customers feel better in their symptoms after 1–2 months of training, and 75% will have noticed improvements after training for from one to 3–5 months. At the same time, most people will have experienced results of IQoro treatment after 6–8 months. After that, the curve levels off, although there are individuals who need to train for a longer period and only notice their first improvements after 9 months.
At the same time, it is important to know that:
- 22% had trained for less than 2 months when they responded
- 5% had not started training yet
IQoro treatment results for acid reflux and heartburn
Acid reflux and heartburn are the most common reasons for starting treatment with IQoro according to our customer survey. Therefore, it is particularly interesting to see users’ treatment results with IQoro after training:
Acid reflux
- 84% improved
- 48% became much improved or symptom-free
Heartburn
- 84% improved
- 50% became much improved or symptom-free
The IQoro customer survey shows that a clear majority improve in symptoms such as acid reflux and heartburn. In addition, close to 50% become much better or symptom-free.
Many people who have heartburn and acid reflux use medication to relieve their symptoms. Therefore, later in this text, we ask our customers whether they have been able to reduce their medication after treatment with IQoro. That is something very interesting to get answers to, given these results.
But first, we look at customers’ experiences of IQoro for the eight other most common symptoms.
Do you have a lump sensation in the throat, mucus in the throat, and pain in the chest?
Many people with acid reflux also experience one or more other symptoms, such as a lump feeling in the throat (globus sensation), hoarseness or a dry, irritating cough, pain in the chest, and food going down the wrong way easily, especially dry textures such as chicken. Some people get regurgitation of food in connection with or after a meal, like a sudden vomiting attack.
Here we summarise customers’ experiences of IQoro for the eight most common symptoms – in addition to acid reflux and heartburn:
Lump feeling in the throat (globus sensation)
- 83% improved
- 50% became much improved or symptom-free
Pain in the chest/oesophagus
- 84% improved
- 52% became much improved or symptom-free
Difficulty swallowing food (dysphagia)
- 83% improved
- 45% became much improved or symptom-free
Regurgitation of food
- 85% improved
- 53% became much improved or symptom-free
Dry, irritating cough
- 80% improved
- 45% became much improved or symptom-free
Hoarseness
- 77% improved
- 38% became much improved or symptom-free
Gassy, frequent belching
- 77% improved
- 37% became much improved or symptom-free
Mucus in the throat
- 76% improved
- 36% became much improved or symptom-free
Taken together, the treatment results with IQoro are clear – all symptoms improve to a similar extent.
This means that acid reflux, heartburn, and symptoms such as those mentioned above are functionally connected. When users train the swallowing muscles with IQoro, a neuromuscular training device, they thereby improve several symptoms at the same time.
One treatment – for several symptoms
Have you noticed that acid reflux, heartburn, a lump feeling in the throat, mucus in the throat, swallowing difficulties, hoarseness and dry cough are often treated as completely different problems? In addition, they are traditionally treated by different professions.
It is easy to think of them as “separate problems” in the body, but when we look at the responses from nearly 19,000 users, we see something different.
The results show a clear overall picture – a similar level of improvement, which means that treatment with IQoro improves users’ 10 most common symptoms by more or less the same amount (76–85%). That is because the symptoms are connected.
In addition, what all of these symptoms have in common is that they are linked to the same area in the body – the muscles and function from the face, mouth and pharynx down to the diaphragm and the upper part of the stomach.
If the diaphragm is weakened, for example in a hiatal hernia, this can appear as:
- acid reflux
- heartburn
- a lump feeling in the throat
- difficulty swallowing
- mucus and cough
- hoarseness
In other words: different symptoms – but the same underlying cause, a weakened diaphragm. When you train with IQoro, you activate and strengthen this entire area of muscles. Altogether, this involves 148 muscles working together from the face, lips and mouth down to the diaphragm.
Anyone who trains with IQoro will experience several symptoms improving in parallel as the muscles become stronger and the interaction between the muscles works better.
That explains users’ experiences of IQoro, where they describe that acid reflux, heartburn, a lump feeling in the throat and swallowing difficulties all improve at the same time.
Can you reduce or stop PPIs and acid reflux medication?
Many people who start using IQoro are already taking medicines for acid reflux and heartburn.
“Proton Pump Inhibitors” (PPIs) is the name of the prescription medicine for acid reflux. These medicines may, for example, contain omeprazole, lansoprazole, pantoprazole, rabeprazole or dexlansoprazole. Others use over-the-counter medicines that can be bought directly from the pharmacy.
Of the people who answered the question about prescription (PPI) medicine for acid reflux:
- 69% had used PPIs
- Of these, 65% were able to reduce or stop completely
As regards over-the-counter medicines for acid reflux and heartburn:
- 75% had used over-the-counter medicines
- Of these, 74% were able to reduce or stop completely
Taken together, the figures clearly show that medication use is common – and that many people experience a reduced need when function improves. Always consult your prescribing doctor before changing your medication. Any tapering of PPIs should be done slowly; please see our PPI guide.
In this survey, fewer than half of the users had trained for the recommended treatment period of at least 6 months, yet 65–74% had been able to reduce their use of medicines for acid reflux. This suggests that users feel better after treatment with IQoro and can therefore reduce their medication.
How well is the training routine followed?
With the simple enclosed instructions, 97% of users think it was easy to get started with treatment with IQoro. A daily training routine with IQoro looks like this:
3 pulls x 10 seconds, three times a day.
This is what adherence looked like:
- 51% train according to the recommendation
- 32% train almost according to the recommendation
(2–3 times a day, at least five days a week)
Taken together, this means that 83% train at least 2–3 times a day, five days a week. This shows good adherence overall. At the same time, we can see that only half of users train exactly according to the recommendation – yet the majority still experience improvements in several different symptoms.
Treatment results with IQoro – in real everyday life
The results show that 76–85% improve in the 10 most common symptoms even though the training is not always followed completely optimally and everyday life gets in the way.
It is reasonable to assume that if even more people were to train exactly according to the recommendation (3 times a day, every day), the results would probably approach the levels consistently achieved in controlled scientific studies, where up to 97% improved after 6–8 months of training and the majority became symptom-free.
At the same time, it should be remembered that this is a real-life survey – not a strict scientific study.
Summary
– what do IQoro treatment results mean for you?
Finally, here we compile the most important results from 18,629 IQoro users:
- Fast treatment results with IQoro
48% noticed improvement within less than 1–2 months.
75% saw improvement within the first five months. - Improved quality of life
84% improve in acid reflux and heartburn. - Reduced need for medication
65% of PPI users reduce or stop the prescribed medicine.
74% reduce or stop over-the-counter acid reflux medicines. - One treatment – for several symptoms
Such as acid reflux, heartburn, a lump sensation in the throat, difficulty swallowing, mucus in the throat, hoarseness and irritating cough.
76–85% improve in the 10 most common symptoms. - Easy to get started – a routine that fits everyday life
97% think it is easy to get started with IQoro treatment with the simple enclosed instructions.
83% train at least 2–3 times a day, five days a week.
These are the experiences of real users – in everyday life, over several years.
Therefore, the overall picture is clear: IQoro helps with several connected symptoms – by strengthening the underlying cause of the problems.
When the weakened diaphragm is strengthened – at the junction where the oesophagus passes through the diaphragm to the stomach – the body’s own anti-reflux barrier is restored. When it functions better, the strain on the whole system is reduced – and several symptoms can improve at the same time.
This is how the survey was carried out – IQoro treatment results
IQoro treatment results are based on the experiences of real users from several European countries. The first survey was sent out around Midsummer in 2018. After that, the follow-up survey was sent out at the same time every year for seven years. With the exception of the first two years, the questions have remained essentially unchanged, and therefore the results are comparable over time.
The survey to follow treatment results was sent to all users whom we were able to identify and who had received their IQoro within the previous 12 months, and for whom we had a registered email address. No other selection criteria were used in addition to that.
This means that the responses include people who:
- had just started training (22%)
- had trained for several months (73%)
- had not yet had time to start their treatment (5%)
Taken together, this provides a broad and realistic picture of how IQoro works in practice.
2026-03-13
Written by: Linn Hägg, Cheif Business Development Officer. Acting Medically Responsible
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Sources
- IQoro Patients’ Reported Outcomes (n=18,629), 2018–2025
- Hägg M, Tibbling L, Franzén T. Esophageal dysphagia and reflux symptoms before and after oral IQoro® training. World J Gastroenterol.21 (24):7558-7562. 2015. Open access: http://www.wjgnet.com/1007-9327/full/v21/i24/7558.htm
- Franzén T., Tibbling L., Hägg M. Oral neuromuscular training relieves hernia-related dysphagia and GERD symptoms as effectively in obese as in non-obese patients. ActaOtolaryngol. 2019 Jan10. https://doi.org/10.1080/00016489.2018.1503715
- Hägg M, Tibbling L, Franzén T. Effect of IQoro® training in hiatal hernia patients with misdirected swallowing and esophageal retention symptoms. Acta Otolaryngol. 135(7):635-9. 2015.
- Hägglund P., Hägg M., Wester P., Levring Jäghagen E. Effects of neuromuscular training on swallowing dysfunction among older people in short-term care – a cluster randomised, controlled trial. Age and Ageing 2019; 0: 1-8. doi: 10.1093/ageing/afz042
- Hägg M., Tibbling L. Effect of IQoro® training on impaired postural control and oropharyngeal motor function in patients with dysphagia after stroke. Acta Otolaryngol. 136 (7):742-748. 2016. DOI:10.3109/00016489.2016.1145797 http://dx.doi.org/10.3109/00016489.2016.1145797
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- Mittal RK, et al. “Crural diaphragm and the LES: reflux barrier function.” Am J Gastroenterol 2006.