I have for a long time suffered from extreme reflux. Recently I have had an added complication in that I get severe coughing fits at night and almost asthma type attack. It is preceded by slight shaking all over and sweating and has the added complication of having the extreme reflux causing bad acidity in my throat. The doctor refuses to do anything unless I have an endoscopy which I adamantly refuse. Any ideas of the cause and possible remedies.

It is both foolish and dangerous to second guess a Physician. Your choice, of course, whether to be properly diagnosed and treated is just that - entirely your choice.

If your Physicians refuses to treat without diagnostic procedures there is nothing else to be said.

My late husband's heart attack symptoms were long-term indigestion (which may or may not have been indigestion), coughing, sweating. He never had pain.

Why on earth do you refuse to have an endoscopy? It's a piece of cake with no pain during or afterwards, and tells the doctor a lot about what is going on inside you.

I have bad reflux sometimes. I drink a ton of ice water and stand during really bad periods. It also helps a ton not to swallow the acid that your stomach is producing.

I am not trying to second guess the physician. They are professionals and I respect their comments. However, what they must respect is my wishes. They can tell me the options and their opinions which I will consider then I will decide how I am going to proceed.

Basically I refuse to have anything placed into any oriface. The number of times that this has led to serious problems such as perforation of the linings etc, and has been totally unnecessary is a joke. A friend of mine had "reflux" symptoms and when scoped they discovered he had throat cancer. The scoping actually accelerated the cancer, and it spread to the chest and lungs, and he died shortly afterwards. If "scoping is the only option then I will take my chances.

I find that getting up and moving around does relieve it a bit and will get rid of it so have been doing that.

You have made your choice. There is a disease called Barrett's Esophagus that develops after years of acid erosion. I would guess that that is one reason for the scope.

You can find countless home remedies online, from sleeping with your upper torso as raised as much as possible, to drastic dietary changes, especially cutting out all spices and caffeine, but for some people, all sorts of other foods too.
There are some advocates of drinking vinegar, despite it being acidic. I won't get into the theory. You can find out for yourself.
If you have breathing difficulties at night, they could be from matter rising into your throat and blocking your airway, but they could be from allergies to mites in your pillow and mattress too. You could have more than one condition.

Was there a lawsuit over the cancer-accelerating scope?