Reflux doesn’t always show up as heartburn — and for singers, that matters.
In this episode, I share my personal experience with laryngopharyngeal reflux (LPR), or silent reflux, and how it affected my singing. We talk about the subtle vocal signs many singers miss, how LPR differs from GERD, and why reflux is so often misunderstood in the voice world.
I also share practical, singer-friendly ways to support vocal health while navigating reflux, along with when it’s important to seek medical guidance.
This conversation is about awareness, support, and building sustainable habits so you can protect your voice and keep singing with confidence.
00:00 - Introduction and Story Time
00:27 - Vocal Challenges and Medical Journey
02:37 - Understanding Silent Reflux
04:09 - Managing Reflux as a Singer
08:12 - Medications and Further Advice
10:42 - Conclusion and Resources
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Hello friends, today we are starting this episode with a little bit of story time, a look back at little Amber. I probably shouldn't say little Amber, I was 5'11 then just like I am now, younger Amber. I was a senior at Berklee College of Music, so I was performing, singing multiple hours a day in school. I also played in an acoustic trio in the evenings that toured all around the Northeast. I was the lead singer, I played rhythm guitar.
And then I sang on a cruise ship, that cruised around the Boston Harbor. And those gigs were multiple hours long singing, you know, every cover under the sun. So I was doing a ton of singing and I knew I was using good technique. I was very aware of my vocal budgeting. You know, I was in the middle of training my voice.
surrounded by great people giving me great advice. my voice just was getting tired more and more easily. I also found that my upper range specifically was first getting kind of breathier and airier than it normally was. Then I had a few notes that were not always there for me and I started to really get worried, like what is going on? So I went to my general practitioner. They then said, you know what this sounds like? It sounds like you have bad allergies. And I thought, well, I've never had that before, but.
whatever it takes to help me so I can sing fully and feel and sound like I normally do, I'll do it. So they started me on allergy medicine. It didn't help. Fast forward to they were getting ready to put me on breathing treatments for asthma. it just wasn't making sense to me. So I thought, I want to go to the voice clinic and I want to have a laryngologist actually look at my vocal folds.
and make sure everything's okay because that was the biggest symptom. I had gunk in my throat. I was clearing my throat a lot. It was worse in the morning, know, breathiness, fatigue, all of those things. So I went to have my vocal folds looked at by a laryngologist just nervous as can be thinking, I don't know what I did wrong, but something is going on. And they looked down at my voice and they said, oh, your vocal folds are totally healthy. They're just hugely swollen and irritated from it looks like.
pretty significant reflux. I was so surprised by that. I guess one, I should say I was thrilled that I had healthy vocal folds, but I didn't have any of those symptoms that you're supposed to get when you have reflux. wasn't having heartburn and burping, indigestion, discomfort in that way. My only symptoms were affecting my voice. And that's when they let me know about silent reflux. And it's something that a lot of singers deal with.
GERD and Silent Reflux. I get so many questions about what do I do when I'm a singer and I'm struggling with reflux?
So first, let me tell you a little bit about what silent reflux is.
You likely have heard of GERD before, gastroesophageal reflux disease. We have many commercials in the United States all about medications you can take if you have an upset stomach, indigestion, heartburn, all of those symptoms. But silent reflux, the medical term for that is laryngopharyngeal reflux. That means larynx, our voice. Pharyngeal means pharynx, our vocal tract, reflux.
And what happens when you have that is you might not have any of the other symptoms.
That's why it's called silent reflux. So you've got this extra acid in your stomach, let's say you go to lay down at night, you're laying flat. This acid then goes from your stomach, travels up the esophagus and spills over into your voice box, into the respiratory system. Your stomach is made to handle stomach acid.
Your esophagus is not, and certainly your voice box, your respiratory system is not. So what happens as it spills over is your vocal folds swell, they get irritated, and then many times the body shoots mucus up there to help protect them as much as possible. So then you wake up in the morning, you kind of have that fry voice, you feel really gunky, you feel like you need to clear your throat more and more. And then you might notice your voice doesn't feel as strong, you get tired more quickly, you've got some breathy parts.
Sometimes notes disappear and it's just because your vocal folds are so swollen, they have a hard time connecting really efficiently in the way that's gonna give you your best feel and your best sound.
So I want to talk to you about some things that you can do if you have reflux, if you're worried you have reflux, some different tools that you can work with to see if they help you feel better.
Keeping in mind, I am not a doctor. I'm a voice coach. I'm a vocal rehabilitation specialist. I've gone to many doctors that specialize in this, laryngologist and gastroenterologist for my own reflux. And I've worked with a lot of doctors and worked with a lot of singers who deal with this, but I'm not a doctor. So always, always go to your doctor if you want solid medical advice. This is,
vocal advice. And the first thing I would advise you is that every body is different. you can look online and Google what are typical foods that can cause reflux that are highly acidic, and it will give you a big list. Alcohol, citrus fruit, tomato, onions, pepper, caffeine, coffee Peppermint, chocolate.
There's a big list. It's lots of the good stuff. But everybody is different.
So the first thing I recommend singers do is keep a food diary. and I think that sounds like far more work than it actually is. That means open up your notes app on your phone, jot down what you eat. If something bothers you, make a note of that. So if you have orange juice in the morning, you go to the gym and you're like, I kind of have heartburn pain, or you have something at night, you wake up and you're extra froggy and gunky and possibly got hit by reflux. Note what those foods are.
Try and take them out of your diet for a while, see if it helps.
It's really all about what works for your body and your voice.
I know the foods that bother me. stay away from them generally. And then every once in a while I cheat and I have them. If I know I don't have a big singing thing, I'm aware they're going to affect me. But I also have other things in place that help offset some of those typical reflux symptoms. A huge one for me having silent reflux is sleeping with the head of my bed elevated.
there are bed frames that can elevate to all different kinds of angles, all those smart number bed frames and all those different types of things. Those are fantastic. I don't have one of those
What I did is I went to a Lowe's out to their garden area and I bought five inch cement pavers. So just little stones that are made to go in somebody's garden or to pave a pathway. and I slid them under the feet at the head of my bed. So the right foot, the left foot and kind of in the center. So our entire bed leans about five inches up at the head of the bed.
For the first couple of nights, my husband complained because we would wake up and the covers would be at our waist. But then I think we just got used to holding them up. We can't even feel a difference now. We're completely used to it. The only time I feel it is when I go to a hotel and I go to lay flat and I'm like, whoa, this feels weird. But with that elevation, If I've got extra acid in my stomach and it goes to move up, it can't.
I'm lifted up, gravity stops it. So it saves it from moving up the esophagus and spilling over into my respiratory system. The other thing you can use is a body wedge. I use that when I travel. It's not just elevating your head. I have singers who are like, I sleep on five pillows now, Amber, my reflux is just as bad. And my neck is all jacked up. And I'm like, well, yes, just lifting your head does nothing from keeping the stomach acid going up your esophagus and spilling over into your larynx.
You need to elevate yourself from the waist up. And a body wedge is exactly that. It's kind of shaped like a ramp, and it's most narrow at your waist, and then it lifts you higher and higher. So again, you are sleeping elevated. Just that really, really helps me and has really helped so many others.
Another thing to be aware of is tight clothing around your belly.
tight clothing can make things worse. And I know many times as performers, especially female performers, you might have on really tight pants.
That can worsen reflux. Obviously you have to wear what you have to wear for your gigs. Get out of those suckers as soon as you can. Give your body a chance to fully expand and contract like it needs to, potentially not squishing everything, elevating those reflux symptoms.
As far as medications, again, always talk to your doctor. I have tried everything from I used to drink aloe vera juice. I'd read about that one. That was decades ago. I don't do that anymore. I have some singers who swear by it. Again, you need to listen to your body, your voice, talk to your doctor. Didn't do a thing for me. One of the medications I like, and this is over the counter, something you can try, is called a Esophageal Guardian.
And all that it does, is it creates kind of like a sponge barrier at the top of your stomach. So that acid wants to go up the esophagus, but it can't because that sponge barrier is there.
I now take that if I eat or drink something that I know is going to bother me. I try not to eat or drink for multiple hours before I go to bed. That's another biggie. Give your body time to already digest everything you have ingested for several hours before you go to bed in an ideal world. when we are performing late night gigs, that's not always the case. But just do the best you can. You'll find that that can be helpful.
But if it's something where I have to eat closer to bed than I would like, I eat something like salsa that I know might bother me, but I love it. ⁓ I'll take an esophageal guardian. There are lots of other things.
There are medications like proton pump inhibitors, famotidine, all these different medications that you want to talk to a doctor about because they can be very helpful. And also they can have side effects. And so you always want to talk to your doctor, weigh the pluses and minuses. But my hope with today's episode is you kind of know some of those warning signs to look out for to see if reflux might be an issue for you.
And then you have some tools that you can play with, work with to see if they make you feel better. If you notice that you are waking up always gunky and fry and you're having some of the symptoms that I had, breathiness, more fatigue, and you take your food diary and you see certain foods that are triggers and you take those foods out and you feel a whole lot better, that probably was your issue or it very likely was your issue.
If you do that, you take those foods out, you don't notice a difference. You elevate the head of your bed. You're mindful of not eating and drinking much before you go to bed. You're not wearing tight clothing. You're not smoking. You're limiting alcohol. If you're doing all those things, you're still having symptoms. You definitely want to go see a doctor. A laryngologist is the person to see that's a voice specializing ENT to have your vocal folds looked at.
And then a gastroenterologist, who your regular general practitioner can refer you to, both of those doctors, will be the person to really kind of look at what is going on potentially with your stomach and your digestive system.
I hope you found this helpful. have freebies in the show notes per always a free sing along vocal warmup with one of my favorite belt exercises two weeks free of my vocal pro membership.
one of my favorite places to be and more down in the show notes. If you have things that you want to learn about, questions that you want to ask me, leave a comment, DM me directly, and I look forward to seeing you in next week's episode. Bye.
