my jaw dropped I don't think i've ever heard RCPD get a mention on the telly!

Everyone who knows this about me is either really weirded out or just doesn't believe me. This sub is hysterical. Thank you for existing, and happy new year!

Hi! I am a medical illustrator finishing my master's degree. I created these informational graphics for R-CPD as part of my graduate research project! The first one is a physiology-based poster intended for healthcare providers and the second is meant for the patient population. Both of these were reviewed and edited by Dr. Bastian.

I noticed an information gap in illustrations for this condition so I hope this helps fill it and bring awareness. Feel free to share!

does anyone else feel like they ruin the vibe while out drinking?😭i always have to leave to go air vomit in the bathroom

We have secured the perimeter

Hello, I’m a 35 year old male in the UK who has suffered with all of the horrible symptoms of no burp for as long as I can remember and I never thought I would be one of the people writing a success story on this group.

My life was plagued with horrible bloating, daily gurgles, wind. Nights out with friends would often be ruined because I would feel like I was about to explode from the trapped air after a few beers. I also started to get anxiety about eating on a night out with friends if I knew I was going to have a couple of beers as well because I knew this would be a recipe for disaster.

In March this year after discovering this community I decided to do something about it. properly.

I initially started trying all of the suggestions on this group. Shaker exercises, extreme shaker exercises, cricoid massages, air vomiting, throat punching and I made some progress. Doing all of these things daily and consistently saw some results. Essentially I went form 1 uncontrolled micro-burp every 6 months to 1-2 uncontrolled micro-burp every day.

I also realised that this weird hiccupy thing I used to be doing constantly throughout the day was actually my body trying to burp, I had just never associated the two before I started tying to fix it.

My progress pretty much paused there for 6 months and I was incredibly frustrated.

I needed to take a different approach and change things up a bit.

The process of doing all of the above made me a lot more aware of the anatomy of my neck and just generally more aware of what was going on in my body. Most importantly it made me realise just how tight my chest and neck muscles were. Particularly the left hand side of my neck from my collarbone to my jaw and I figured the best way to fix muscles that aren’t functioning properly would be to stretch and strengthen them so this is what I started doing. I started working out my chest muscles with really light weights to make sure I was activating the muscles that I had noticed were tight. I also started doing something similar to the shaker exercise (I think this exercise was the key) by lying on my side and raising my neck to the side (using my head as the weight) to activate the muscles on the side of my neck that were tight (Basically it’s the same principle as doing a sit up but with the muscles on the side of my neck). I also started doing the stretch I’ve attached to this post which I found was really good for stretching and mobilising my chest and neck muscles at the same time.

I would do the neck sit ups daily, 30 reps on each side and the stretch a few times throughout the day to keep things loose.

Doing this made the progress I had made over the past 6 months massively accelerate. Within a few weeks of doing the exercise and stretches above I’ve gone from 1-2 micro-burps a day to about 100 burps a day. Yes 100!!! I genuinely do not know how I managed to walk around with this much air in me for the past 35 years.

I’m very much still learning how to get better control over the burps (I would say I’m about 80% cured) but it’s getting easier and easier. All have to do is tilt my head to the right side and up a little (the opposite side to the really tight side) and the burps just come out. When I feel like I’m going to do one of the weird hiccupy things I just consciously relax my chest muscles and most of the time a burp pops out.

I cannot tell you how much my quality of life has changed over the past few weeks. I feel like a new person who can actually enjoy eating and drinking and having fun with friends without the fear of being incapacitated by no burp.

Like i said earlier I genuinely never thought I would be a person writing one fo these posts and there have been so many times since March when I’ve felt depressed and wanted to give up but persistence kept me going and it paid off!

Sorry this is a bit of a brain dump. I just wanted to write my story and experience down and if it can help even one other person then that’s got to be a good thing right? Happy to answer any questions anybody has.

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UPDATE: After a couple of requests I have made a quick video to demonstrate the exercise that I think was the key to curing my noburp: https://youtu.be/DDZ8zMZHUuA

The key to the exercise is taking it slowly so you really feel the stretch when your head is on the floor and really feeling the muscle activate when your head is raised.

UPDATE 2: Over the past week I would say I’m 95% cured and no longer need to tilt my neck to let out a burp. I can just let out a burp like a normal person whenever I feel the air in my throat that would previously have turned into a gurgle. The muscles that I identified on the side of my neck that were right now feel looser and stronger and I’m only having to do the stretch once a day and the exercise 20 reps on each side once a day in the morning. Getting my first burp out in the morning g still takes a little effort but around 1 hour after I wake up I’m burping normally.

If you’re stuck in the miserable situation I was in for so many years commit yourself to doing this stretch and exercise for a couple of weeks and see if it makes a difference to your noburp. It may not work for you but if it does you have nothing to lose and everything to gain. It took me nine months to figure it out and ultimately cured me very quickly once I worked out the root cause of the problem.

I’ll stop preaching now! 😜

hi! Im really dunk rn and i just daw this on my fyp and whoa i never thought about oeiple who can;t burp. it's lwk rlly sad and i swear that ill pray for you all that you;ll burp. i realllly hope that u can burp someday bbc idk what that woudl do but it doesn;t so good. and that also means u can t burp the abcs whis is peak childhood so i reeally hopw you can do that soon. (
ps, sorry for the drunk typing, im kike 10 shots deep.*

Edit: thought i'd add that, while im pretty hungover, i in fact don't remember how i got to this subreddit, what post I saw or posting this in the first place lol though I do still really hope you all get that ability because, as I'm reading, I can tell that it's really disruptive. Cheers!

I always thought that was the air squeezing up and out, but this diagram says the frog noise is actually the air backing up and going back down into the stomach! Dear god no wonder I fart so much, if this is true 🫩🙄

I have been through so much over the years with various GI doctors trying to diagnose me and failing to give me real answers and relief from my abdominal bloating, gas pain..., was diagnosed with gastroparesis, irritable bowel syndrome, SIBO, lactose intolerance.. But nothing gave me relief, And I figured I would just have to deal with this pain and discomfort! Then I came across this group, with the help of my sister telling me that our "throat burps" are actually a disorder! I self diagnosed myself! I have an upcoming consultation appointment with my ENT.

I thought I'd share the CT that finally gave me my A Ha moment. And maybe some validity that my pain isn't "all in my head" A month ago I had a followup CT (had a lesion on my liver, they wanted to recheck) so I had no oral contrast and I freaked the tech and Radiologist out. This was the scout film that they do quickly before they start the scan in detail, and they had to call my doctor to get approval to add the pelvis to the CT scan because my stomach was so distended with air that it was extending into my pelvis!

They wanted me to go to the emergency room but I was like... oh my God we finally caught this on a CT scan! My R- CPD. They were confused byy excitement.They didn't want to show me the scan, but they know I'm a nurse practitioner so they snuck me back into the room after it was over. I explained to them about this crazy disorder, and that I have an upcoming appointment and that I was very excited to actually see something like this on a CT scan, I've had multiple scans in the past and this would never be able to be picked up. They thought it was a bowel obstruction, but I assured them it wasn't. Usually I always have a lot of large bowel gas on imaging, so here you can see both (oh and my hip pinning surgery too 🤣)

⚠️ TW: Body Checking / ED Talk ⚠️

Before Botox, my biggest insecurity (and symptom) was bloating. It hurt so badly. I developed multiple eating disorders and some severe body dysmorphia, how could I possibly wake up one day a size 6 and the next a size 14? Mentally and physically, I was wrecked. That was just the tip of the iceberg when it came to my symptoms.

I wanted to share here because the difference between pre/post Botox for me has been dramatic. So dramatic that I had to get rid of almost my entire wardrobe- even my bra size changed (36E → 34DD).

I had to get Botox four times before it worked. Four. F*cking. Times. I was convinced it would never kick in for me. But once it finally did? Holy sh!t. The relief has been life-changing. I literally look like a different person- signifigantly less bloated, less swelling, improved skin texture and less discomfort. My face even looks different.

As for the pain no one else could feel, here’s just some of what changed:

• I can actually burp (even if I don’t love it lol).

• My bloating went down, my appetite came back, and I can eat comfortably without feeling like I can’t breathe.

• I fart like a normal human now, like once a day, not once a minute. I honestly didn’t realize how bad it was before (I thought it was pretty normal to shake the earth upon flatulence lol)

• My Interstitial Cystitis flares only during my period instead of every single day.

• I can eat whatever I want now. No more random, miserable food restrictions thrust upon me by random GI doctors.

• My hair literally changed in color and texture (my stylist says it’s my hormones balancing).

• My mental health has blossomed. Being in constant pain will break you down, and I didn’t realize how much until it stopped.

• Throwing up and hiccuping don’t hurt anymore (who knew that wasn’t supposed to be excruciating?!).

• Sex feels different. Not in a subtle way either, like, noticeable to everyone involved lol.

• Less chest pain/pressure, I used to have this sharp stabbing pain that has totally disappeared.

• Less of that awful “air stuck in your throat” feeling

• I'm no longer chronically constipated

• No more frog noises lol

• Dramatic decrease in nausea, reflux, and heartburn

• Better sleep because I'm not waking up from trapped air anymore (or to massive farts HAHA)

• More energy throughout the day (not constantly drained from fighting my own body)

• I'm saving about $300-400 a month on medical expenses. Turns out buying a bunch of medication and going to countless doctors' appointments adds up pretty damn fast.

Even with the awkwardness of learning to burp (ew), and even though it took multiple rounds and got worse between doses, the Botox was absolutely worth it. I wasn’t living before this. Now I am.

I am so grateful to this community and to Dr. Karla O’Dell at USC for literally giving me my life back. If you’re still in the thick of it: please don’t give up. Relief is possible, even if it takes time.

EDIT: For the people who were wondering...

Round One / 80 Units (4/17/24) I thought I was burping… but nope. In hindsight, it was just me making a loud croaking noise while zero air escaped. After a month, I realized it had failed. That’s when I started doing inhale-burps (IBs), which I nicknamed “ReVurps”- basically sucking in even more air. My symptoms got way worse. It was awful.

Round Two / 160 Units (6/19/24)
The miracle round. For about two to three months, life was great. I burped regularly, symptoms almost entirley disappeared, and microburps were an everyday thing. Then it wore off. I didn’t fully lose the ability, but I’d say it was 80% croaks, 20% burps.

Round Three / 220 Units (12/18/24)
This one came with a ROUGH slow swallow, but it did bring my burping back. Still, I never felt as good as I did after Round Two. Lots of croaking, not enough relief. I even started vomiting instead of burping, which created a pretty big fear of doing so in public- I’d stop myself instead of letting it happen, which stunted my progress signifigantly. After 8 months, I decided to try again. My doctor mentioned the option of permanently cutting my esophagus, but that freaked me out, so I went for one more Botox round before considering surgery.

Round Four / 160 Units (8/20/25)
We’re only 2 weeks in, but for the first time, I’m not just burping, I’m BELCHING. Loudly. Constantly. Honestly, I’m a tiny burping machine now. If this keeps up for the full 3 months, I think I’ll be golden. And if not, I'll probably consider the more permanent procedure.

Each procedure was under $100 with my insurance. My doctor told me she’d do a peer-to-peer review if insurance ever denied it, but thankfully, it never came to that. The only real hiccup was between Rounds Three and Four, it took a long time to get that fourth round approved, which meant a much longer gap than I wanted.

EDIT PT2: Turns out my insurance billed me incorrectly the first round. I've now gotten the correct bill and it looks like each round was about $450. Worth it, but ick.

I’ve wanted to write this for a while because the whole thing still feels a bit ridiculous to me.

I had R-CPD and all the usual stuff that came with it for me — trapped air, bloating, discomfort, especially after carbonated drinks, and basically not being able to release the air normally.

Like most people with R-CPD, I eventually found out about Botox and assumed that if I ever wanted to properly fix it, that was probably what I would have to do.

Then I had a strange experience with an ENT doctor here in Germany. I mentioned R-CPD and he really didn’t like the term at all. He basically dismissed it and said something along the lines of: it’s not some special condition, the muscle is tense/stressed.

I wasn’t exactly happy with the appointment, but for some reason that sentence stayed in my head.

Around the same time, I had also seen some videos of people doing different neck exercises for R-CPD. Some people said those exercises helped them, while other people seemed to do the exact same exercises for weeks and got nowhere.

So I started thinking about those two things together.
If the issue somehow had something to do with this muscle not working properly, and some people seemed to get results from movements or stretches around the neck, maybe the important part was not a specific exercise.

And then I had this very simple thought:

What if I could somehow stretch that whole area from the inside while swallowing?

That sounds much more dramatic than what I actually did.

I just took a glass bottle of water, lifted my chin up quite high so the front of my throat/neck was stretched, and drank from the bottle in that position.

The best description I can give is that it looked a bit like the way a chicken drinks water — head up, throat stretched, then swallow.

That was literally it.

The first few times it felt really weird and uncomfortable. Not painful, just very unnatural. But I could clearly feel that drinking in that position felt completely different from drinking normally.

So that day, whenever I drank water, I tried to take at least a few sips like that. I wasn’t doing exercises for 30 minutes or following some routine. I was just drinking water in this weird position throughout the day.

Then something started happening.

I think it was around the next day when I noticed that air was coming up through my throat. Not some huge movie-style burp. It was more like small releases of air. Sometimes it happened when I moved. Sometimes when I sat down. Sometimes when I lay down.

So I kept doing the same thing. Chin up, stretch the throat, drink some water. After another day or so, it started happening more and more naturally. And then the thing I cared about most changed: the bloating was basically gone.

After around three days, I stopped doing the weird drinking technique.So I just went back to drinking normally.And… the improvement stayed. I could drink soda. I could drink beer.I wasn’t getting that horrible trapped-air feeling and bloating anymore. And I wasn’t consciously doing anything special.

At first I thought maybe it was temporary, so I didn’t post anything. I wanted to see what would happen. But it has now been months, and I’m still fine. I don’t use the technique anymore. I just drink normally. I still get air coming up naturally, sometimes with movement or changing position, and I don’t get the old R-CPD bloating.

My original thought was simply that I was somehow stretching the area while swallowing and maybe getting the muscle to work differently.

I’m not posting this because I think I discovered some universal cure or because I’m trying to convince anyone to do it.

I just know that I had R-CPD, I tried this weird little experiment for a few days, something changed almost immediately, and months later the result is still there. And because the whole thing was so simple, I felt like I should at least tell the story here.

Basically:
lift the chin quite high → stretch the front of the throat → drink from a glass bottle in that position → swallow.

That’s genuinely all I did.

Wishing all of you to get the pressure off!

Hope it works for you too.