What is actually happening when you drink something and it get’s “caught” in your chest/throat and it’s really painful?
In: Biology
I have eosinophilic esophagitis. It feels like what you describe when I’m not managing it. The condition is characterized by an abnormally high number of eosinophils (type of white blood cell) in the tissues of the esophagus. Over time, this can cause the tissue to lose its elasticity (which is necessary to allow the passage of a bolus – a clumped portion of whatever you swallow).
If left unmanaged, this lack of elasticity causes difficulty and discomfort swallowing (I personally experienced it most with dry foods and at the beginning of a meal). In extreme cases, especially when coupled with acid reflux, the damage and inelasticity of the lower portion of the esophagus can cause it to tear, which has the potential to cause internal bleeding and death (there’s a series of anastomoses around the lower portion of the esophagus which have significant blood flow).
If you’re experiencing difficulty or discomfort swallowing, please see your doctor. Eosinophilic esophagitis can be easily diagnosed with a small biopsy of your esophageal tissue. Mine is managed effectively with Omeprazole.
There is a condition called eosinophilic esophagitis that is essentially similar to an allergic reaction your body can have to different things. This can make your esophagus smaller due to inflammation and lead to things getting stuck. Its a bit more complex than that but….different sub.
I used to think getting food stuck occasionally was normal. Turns out it isn’t normal but it is treatable by a few different methods.
If you meant “swallowing wrong” as some people use, you have two tubes from your mouth that lead into your body: a tube to your stomach and a tube to your lungs. There is a flap over the tube to your lungs, called the epiglottis, that’s protects from food and water entering your lungs normally. Sometimes, you can swallow water and even food, that might enter the tube to your lungs, which typically causes coughing.
My guess, your peristaltic activity fails to work properly/can’t move the bolus effectively. I say this as someone who has no peristalsis due to a rare condition so I get that sensation with every bite unless I take small enough ones and drink small amounts of water with every meal.
Edit: Peristalsis is the involuntary movement of muscles in your throat that move a bolus (chunk of food) down your esophagus to your stomach. This painful sensation can be a chunk of food that is too big, too dry (think a huge chunk of dry bread) having difficulty moving down your esophagus so the muscles can spasm or fire in an irregular way. Unless you’re like me with an esophageal disorder, just chew your food and don’t eat too fast and this will seldom happen to you.
I’m a speech and language therapy student, so not sure but I think this is what I was taught:
The pipe that goes from your mouth to your stomach, moves involuntarily. So it will move naturally and react to what is happening. Sometimes, it will also just have some spasm or not be ready for what’s happening. F.e. when you swallow something thats really cold, it’s more extreme of a sensation so the reaction can be different.
So practically: it’s just the tube (esophagus) that has a cramp, a spasm or some other strange reaction to a normal action (drinking)
Since I don’t study this in English, I hope I used the correct words and it’s understandable 🙂
i have esophageal achalasia so basically it means that i have this every time i eat. my esophagus doesn’t move involuntarily so for me, food just sticks to my esophagus and gravity pulls it down. it sounds terrible i know, but i’ve learned to live with it. in normal humans usually it just a spasm of the muscle but if it happens a lot then i recommend seeing a doctor
This is no help, but one of my most painful experiences was taking a too big slug of Diet Coke from the bottle and effectively pouring it down my throat – skipping swallowing. When the flow exceeded the capacity to pass through my esophagus it began to fill up, just like pouring it into a glass. And like pouring into a glass, the carbonation was released. It was like someone dropped Mentos down my throat. The foam was shooting out my mouth and nose, and the pressure and bubbles from the released carbonation was excruciating, literally bringing me to my knees, taking about 20 or 30 seconds to subside.
This does nothing to answer your question.
I have enosinophillia esophogitis.
When I eat a trigger food (for me; fish, milk, whole potato, dense meat, dry food, verry hot or cold food) my esophagus, the “food tube” swells and blocks the passage of food. This can be painful and some times, if gone untreated for the condition, needs an emergency endoscopy to push the food down into your stomach… Or you’ll die of dehydration,… Or the impacted food pressing into the walls of your esophogus could slowly eroad the lining of your painfully swollen food shoot until you start to bleed to death.
So the muscles in your esophagus push food and drink to the stomach by contracting and relaxing in “waves”. Think of trying to push a small piece of food through a drinking straw: you can squeeze the straw just behind it, and it’ll move forward a bit. Then move your fingers forward a little bit and squeeze again. Eventually you can push it all the way through.
The muscles in your esophagus do that over and over again, but instead of squeezing one spot, it’s squeezing lots of places all at once, and there are “pouches” of loose spots between the squeezy spots; the food rides down in each of these “pouches” as the squeezy spot behind it pushes forward.
Sometimes, a piece of food or drink can get stuck in a squeezy spot. Then the esophagus muscle tries to squeeze to push it down but since there’s something in the way, it HURTS, like any strained muscle. Sometimes the food can stay stuck with that squeezy spot, and it’ll hurt all the way down to your stomach.
The esophagus has both voluntary (skeletal) and involuntary ( smooth) muscle. The lower part of the esophagus (smooth muscle) can go into spasm, preventing the passage of food. This condition is known as achalasia. In this condition food gets stuck and can be quite uncomfortable.
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