like when your voice is raspy so you need to do that little cough to clear up your throat and your voice is back to normal, although there’s nothing in your passageway
In: Biology
I imagine it’s a mix of debris/dust from nasal inhalation and saliva drainage sitting in some cilia near the top of the trachea/vocal folds and blocking some airflow/impeding your vocal cords from contacting. Interesting question in general actually.
The inside of your throat and lungs is coated in mucus to help trap dust and other things in the air. Swallowing saliva keeps this mucus moving downwards. Occasionally, this mucus can build up in your throat if you haven’t spoken in awhile, even if you don’t notice it. Alternately, sometimes your throat is dry and you need to cough to move some mucus to lubricate your throat.
The throat is like a slippery slide for air.
We have a thin layer of mucus there to keep things moist (yeah, I hate that word but appropriate here). It also catches dirt or dust that could sneak in when we breathe.
Even if we don’t talk for a bit, the throat continues to work. The mucus can sometimes get sticky or dry out a bit. When this happens, we get the tickle tingle or irritation feeling. To counter this, the body has a built-in cough button. This is the throat clearing sound we make. It is like a mini cough which helps push the mucus around and loosen things up. The throat feels at ease again.
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