I’m currently suffering with a nasty sickness bug and was wondering why my mouth fills with saliva right before I vomit?
NSFW just incase
In: 3025
More saliva protects your oesophagus, throat and mouth from your stomach acids. Stomach acids are strong enough to burn your hand so they’re more than enough to damage more sensitive parts. If you know who Steve-O of the Jackass cast is, his voice sounds quite raspy because of the damage to his vocal chords and a condition called Barrett’s oesophagus caused by excess vomiting.
I had hyperemesis gravidarum when pregnant and had to carry a cup around for 5 months to spit out my excess saliva. Mouth would fill up as if I took a swig of water.
The contents of the stomach are very acidic. In the stomach, our cells have protective mucus to stop the acid from harming us, but our mouth does not have that defence. So we have saliva to serve as emergency protection against the acid.
Saliva is to protect your teeth from eroding from your stomach acid and hence it’s a protective mechanism prior to vomiting.
I believe it’s a mechanism to lessen the damage the acid will do to your mouth/teeth on the way up? Others may know for certain
When we vomit, our body produces extra saliva as a natural response to protect our mouth and throat. Saliva helps to lubricate and protect the delicate tissues in our oral cavity and esophagus from the potentially harmful stomach acid that comes up during vomiting.
It acts as a protective barrier, preventing damage and irritation caused by the acid. Additionally, the increased production of saliva may help to dilute and neutralize the acid, reducing its corrosive effects.
So, the excess saliva production is a mechanism employed by our body to safeguard the sensitive tissues from the stomach acid during vomiting.
I always thought it was to somewhat neutralise the incoming but the other comments say otherwise
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