Ingestion: When Food Enters the Windpipe

Eaten hastily, quickly swallowed the bite and it has happened: A chunk of food slips into the trachea and not into the esophagus and is conveyed back into the air under vigorous coughing. Everyone has swallowed at one time or another – however, there are diseases in which constant swallowing becomes life-threatening.

The act of swallowing and swallowing.

In the oral cavity and throat area, the path of the food, which wants to reach the esophagus in a crushed form, crosses with the path of the breathing air, which flows from above via the nose in the direction of the lungs. It is obvious that such a “traffic intersection” is susceptible to disorders such as swallowing. For the normal act of swallowing to function, the interaction of several nerves must be coordinated and various processes must occur in sequence – if only one nerve fails, the entrance to the trachea is unprotected and food enters the lungs. While chewing and the beginning of swallowing are influenced and consciously initiated by us, the transport of food from the pharynx to the stomach is automatic and involuntary. In the process, the epiglottis, which is the upper end of the trachea, is reflexively closed, so that the food pulp can simply flow past here. If you imagine that an adult swallows up to 2,000 times a day, it shows how rarely this process normally goes wrong – it becomes all the more problematic when nerve failures cause this process, which we take for granted, to fail.

What about hiccups?

Why hiccups occur is still unclear. It is thought to be related to the breathing exercises of the unborn, and the sequence of movements of hiccups helps babies suck. Many home remedies help against hiccupschiropractic therapy is also used for stubborn, recurring hiccups. You can find out what helps against hiccups here.

In what situations do people hiccup more often?

As a healthy adult, you know typical situations that are predestined for swallowing: You hastily gulp down your food during the short lunch break, while still discussing an urgent problem with colleagues, you are distracted by external influences and do not concentrate on the eating process. Or you’re eating an enjoyable meal in a relaxed atmosphere and then an unforeseen event occurs: Thunder rumbles, the doorbell rings, a picture falls off the wall or a door in the next room creaks open due to a breeze. Both lack of concentration and fright can cause the normal act of swallowing to falter and the individual processes to continue incorrectly – whether the food then enters the windpipe or a bite that is too large is swallowed too soon. Coughing fits or pain in the esophagus while the chunk of food is laboriously transported to the stomach are the consequences.

Swallowing in babies and children

Babies and young children also swallow. But it is more common for them to put objects in their mouths during play and accidentally swallow them that are not intended for consumption. Especially money coins and small toy parts (Lego, components, marbles) are swallowed and reach the gastrointestinal tract this way. That these foreign bodies get into the trachea is fortunately rare and usually leads to a violent coughing attack.

Neurological diseases

The situation is different for people who suffer from a neurological disease. About half of all stroke patients develop a swallowing disorder after a short time, which means that eating, drinking, and even swallowing the body’s own saliva becomes a health risk because of the daily risk of aspiration – the medical term for the entry of foreign substances into the respiratory tract during inhalation. Other neurological disorders are also associated with an increased risk of aspiration, such as.

  • Parkinson’s disease
  • The craniocerebral trauma
  • The multiple sclerosis or
  • Tumors of the nervous system

In all these diseases, the normal nerve conductions are disturbed, so that the nerve excitation can not proceed in a coordinated manner.

Aspiration during surgery

Aspiration during surgery is a special case.Anesthesia overrides the swallowing mechanism, and food or liquid ingested just before surgery can then leak back out of the esophagus and enter the trachea – which is why so much emphasis is placed by anesthesiologists on staying sober before a scheduled surgery.