Coughing while eating food—its because the food enters the airway pipe(trachea)...Resulting in cough....
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| Coughing while eating |
Clearly everyone knows that we breath through nose and eats through mouth....but we can breathe through mouth also....
To understand it we should know about anatomical features
the opening of nose and mouth travels into a single passage know as pharynx divided into nasopharynx,oropharynx and hypopharynx
Even though it's a common passage of entering but the air and food travels through different pipe know as trachea and esophagus
Here comes epiglottis fibrocartilaginous flap like tissue serve as a cover lid(epiglottis)to trachea preventing from food entering trachea
Just imagine if there was no lid cover of epiglottis in trachea than whatever we eat enter trachea resulting in airway obstruction and the person die because of breathlessness
In this way epiglottis plays a major role in protecting the throat
More Talking or laughing while eating results in opening of epiglottis and the small pieces of food enters airway pipe makes us cough as a instant reflux to eject the food out to protect the airway trachea
Why the epiglottis open?
in Normal physiology the epiglottis is always open allowing air to pass through trachea but while the food enters it closes to prevent food ending up in airway and lungs
But eating and talking at the same time makes the epiglottis to open because talking sound is produced by a vibration of vocal folds. Vocal folds is present in larynx. A internal air pressure is generated in trachea while talking and laughing. This internal air pressure hits epiglottis makes it open resulting in food entering the airway larynx and trachea.
If the entered food is little liquid or small food...we cough as a physiological reflux to throw out the food from airway...but if the injected food is large(choking)it will cause airway obstruction leading to hypoxia the person may die if untreated
For choking there was a sudden emergency technic know as Heimlich maneuver.By performing this technic will help to dislodge the food from throat...if the condition is still persist and sevear it's good to call first emergency service
It's good to avoid talking and laughing while the food was in your mouth....to avoid food entering airway...which may cause serious problem of obstruction to airway
