How is saliva so readily produced? Do we just have reservoirs of water in storage somewhere in our head?
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In essence, we do. Blood is mostly water so the various glands and tissues just soak up some of that water whenever they need it. Fatty tissues will then release some water in order to compensate.
Reservoirs? Not really. Pipes? Yes. The “water” for saliva comes from your blood.
Saliva is made by the salivary glands. The cells in these glands pump out saliva through their membranes. This depletes the amount of water inside themselves, but they’re constantly replenishing themselves by taking water from your bloodstream.
Note that “pumping fluid out through their membranes” sounds pretty obvious, but it’s actually an important distinction. A lot of other glands in your body don’t work that way – they secrete fluid by either partially or fully self-destructing like microscopic water balloons.
We have a couple of [saliva glands](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Salivary_gland).
If you bend your tongue down and inwards, you can feel two soft pointy bits. A bit like a snake’s fangs. With some practice, you can make them squirt saliva if you press your tongue down 🙂
Actually yes we sorta do.
Fell around your mouth. With your tongue or finger. You might notice that on both sides of your tongue, under it there is this firm sponge like structure: This is a salivary gland, you have 3 on both sides of your mouth. Under your tongue, under your back teeth and then kinda behind your jaw and under your ears, to touch it you really need to take your finger deep in to your mouth. In 2020 they discovered totally new organ which was a salivary gland in around your throat near where the ear tubes end.
These a spongy because they contain liquid saliva in reserve. They make this by taking liquid from your blood, which is mostly just water. They work kinda the same way as kidneys or breast tissue, being made of ducts that collect water and whatever else that organ adds to it.
Average human being makes about 1,5 liters of saliva a day, most of it ending back in to our bodies as water.
Oh and… just like kidneys can make stones, so can your salivary glands. I leave it up to you to google about that little fun topic. Just thought to add to your nightmare fuel with this fun little fact.
Your blood is mostly water. Saliva is made by salivary glands that draw water out of the blood and mix it with proteins that they produce; the result is saliva.
Youre not conceptualizing “water” in something. Say you take some jello mix. Its originally just some dry dust looking stuff. Add some water (and mix/fridge it) and now you have gelatin. But if you cut into jello, does water spill out as if its a baloon? Of course not. There is a lot of water, but it is being held in place within the structure of the gelatin.
Something similar happens in your body. You have a lot of water all throughout your body. Sure, a lot in your blood, but you also have water just all throughout — water allows cells in your body to move electrolytes and other things around.
In the whole history of mankind, as well as history of species before mankind, food was not always ubiquitous, was not always ready on the table just waiting to be eaten. Food was opportunistic, was pure chance. So if you get food out of blue, you wouldn’t sit there and wait three hours for your saliva as well your stomach acid and enzymes to come out enough for your digestion. You’d want to process the food immediately, to avoid getting scooped up, also to have them not contaminated and gone spoiled. Fast secreting of body fluid is an advantage trait through evolution.
So what is happening when you take medication that dries out your mouth and mucus membranes? I drink a shitload of water just trying to keep my mouth and throat comfortable. It’s kind of like a medication cotton mouth.
Also – it’s not necessarily readily produced. A LOT of people suffer from dry mouth and it is a very real problem
You think we produce a lot of saliva? Cows produce 100-180L of saliva per day.
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