pioneering physician & scientist

Dr. Koufman’s Bio

Dr. Jamie Koufman is an award-winning, pioneering physician & surgeon, researcher, author, and one of the world’s leading authorities on acid reflux. With 45 years experience practicing medicine, Kings, Presidents, Rock Stars, Opera, Broadway and TV Personalities have all trusted their Voices and Vocal Cord Surgeries to Dr. Koufman. In addition to being a New York Times best-selling author, Dr. Koufman has been seen on Dr. Oz, Good Morning America, CBS News, and lectured at Harvard, Hopkins, Mayo Clinic, and UCLA, to name a few. She coined the terms laryngopharyngeal reflux (LPR) and silent reflux, and it is her seminal scientific work that put LPR on the map. In addition, she was the first to connect the three words reflux, diet and cure in her book Dropping Acid.

As an educator, Dr. Koufman has been keynote speaker and visiting professor all over the nation and internationally. She has received many awards, including the Distinguished Service Award of the American Academy Otolaryngology—Head and Neck Surgery; the Casselberry and Newcomb Awards of the American Laryngological Association, and the Chevalier Jackson Award of the American Broncho-Esophagological Association. Dr. Koufman has been listed among the Top Doctors in America every year since 1994.

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At her core, Dr. Koufman is an educator, healer, and catalytic visionary. She has always promoted the “next” state of the art, a new, better, future version. Discovering and disseminating advances in her field is what drives her. In 1978, for example, Dr. Koufman acquired the 4th CO 2 surgical laser in the U.S. Indeed, she chose to go into otolaryngology (laryngology) specifically to become one of the world’s first microlaryngeal laser surgeons; and many of her early, most-influential publications were to introduce new surgical techniques.

In 1981, Dr. Koufman had a case that changed her career: the patient could not breathe due to large, obstructing, reflux-caused growths (granulomas) in her larynx. Dr. Koufman rushed her to the OR, and removed the lesions with the laser. Thereafter, Dr. Koufman began to see more and more patients with life-threatening airway problems caused by reflux, and the field of LPR was born. And in the decades that followed, many of her important discoveries were proven to be valid in the laboratory. It has always been Dr. Koufman’s objective to improve healthcare by advancing knowledge. At the same time, for decades Dr. Koufman has helped thousands of individual patients; and she still enjoys taking care of patients.

Reviews & Testimonials

Dr. Jamie Koufman is the pre-eminent reflux physician-scientist in the world. This cookbook is the culmination of the many years of her dedicated work on the subject of laryngopharyngeal reflux, focusing on how patients can modify their diets to better treat this insidious condition.

Ramon A. Franco Jr., M.D. - Director, Division of Laryngology, Harvard Medical School

Dr. Jamie Koufman has rekindled for us the physiologic link between the stomach and throat. Her contributions have redirected science and benefited the care of millions.

Clarence Saski, M.D. - Director, Division of Laryngology, Harvard Medical School

Dropping Acid is a culinary masterpiece with the potential to transform the treatment of reflux disease. It is another breakthrough from Dr. Koufman, one of the most innovative minds in medicine.

Peter Belafsky, M.D., Ph.D - University of California Davis

Dr. Jamie Koufman is a giant in the field of laryngology who has revolutionized our understanding of reflux and its consequences. With this beautifully written book, she uses brilliant analogies that will help millions of people treat this disease simply by modifying their diet.

Nikki Johnston Ph.D - Director of Airway, Digestive and Voice Research, Medical Collage of Wisconsin

Dr. Koufman changed the face of otolaryngology with the laryngopharyngeal reflux paradigm in the 1990s. Millions of patients around the world have already benefited from the research and treatments that followed this seminal work.

Martin A Birchall, M.D., F.R.C.S. - Professor of Laryngology, Royal National Throat, Nose and Ear Hospital (London)

Dr. Jamie saved my life. This may sound dramatic, but it is exactly how I feel. When you are gasping for breath, unable to speak, sleep, or do much, your life takes on a whole different meaning. And all that changed thanks to Dr. Jamie.

Suze Orman - Host of The Suze Orman Show

Dr. Koufman’s Acid Reflux Diet is two great books in one. First, it provides an informative, iconoclastic, and bluntly honest scientific viewpoint and the opportunity for a cure for millions of people suffering from misdiagnosed respiratory diseases. Second, as a cook-book, it offers terrific reflux-friendly recipes that are also vegan and gluten-free.

Dr. Edythe Heus - Founder and Director, Revolution in Motion

I am so excited to find a book that truthfully addresses the connection between nutrition and an active lifestyle which leads to optimal health. This book is easy to read, giving clear medical explanations for why acid, sugar, and fat are detrimental to kids. Our family has learned important lessons from it and I know yours will, too.

Annika Sörenstam - World-Renowned Athlete and World Golf Hall of Fame Inductee

In 2018, Dr. Koufman came up with a new name for LPR, as the term, laryngopharyngeal reflux, is a mouthful. The new term, Respiratory Reflux, is more intuitive and refers to acid reflux that can affect any part of the respiratory tract, including ears, nose, throat, sinuses, vocal cords, airways and lungs. She is currently working on a legacy book, Respiratory Reflux: How Silent Reflux Causes Respiratory Disease and Why the U.S. Healthcare System Is Failing. Failing? (Yes, the specialist model of American medicine has failed as specialists appear to be unable to diagnose and treat respiratory reflux, which affects as many as half of Americans.) Hopefully this book — which accounts 45-years’ of Dr. Koufman’s discoveries and clinical experience — will help catalyze changes in healthcare, including better quality care with simultaneous cost reductions and greater transparency. It may also help build a broad public ground-swell for a healthier American diet and lifestyle — the only way to truly cure reflux.

Jamie Koufman, M.D., F.A.C.S.  Curriculum Vitae
Physician, scientist, world authority on acid reflux, author of Dropping Acid & The Chronic Cough Enigma

Dr. Koufman has won awards, received accolades, or has been a keynote speaker for the following organizations:

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