Why Do I Keep Choking When I Eat and Yet I Can Still Breathe
Have you asked; why do I keep choking when I eat, and yet I can still breathe? There are some alarming facts that have been gathered, see if you fall into any of these typical choking statistics. You are just about or over 40 years of age, you are slightly, to more than slightly over-weight, you choke on coated caplets, red meat, lettuce, baked potatoes, or cheese?
Does your esophagus close up but you are still able to breathe, and does trying to wash a liquid down, make you actually choke with the liquid trying to go down your wind pipe instead? Is there an unmistakable gurgling sound that accompanies this condition? Well, welcome to the club!
It seems as though there are numerous people with this problem. The most alarming facts are those just mentioned above, over 40, over weight, and choking on specific foods or pills. It appears there is a chemical reaction to certain foods or textures, at given times when we are eating.
Here’s is something else that seems to happen once you have encountered this issue more than once or twice. If you have been suffering from your throat clamping shut, when you are eating out in public with other people around or with you, you become self-conscious and tend to choke more often, right? That is a form of anxiety or subconscious thinking, that an attack is highly possible, and you just can’t shake it.
I am not a doctor and do not intend to play one in this article, but being a hard-headed male and reluctant to put my high-premium healthcare to the test, I have found some interesting things that work pretty consistently, when trying to avoid or free myself from this stopped up esophagus.
First of all, you must try to avoid certain foods that greatly contribute to this health scare that we put ourselves through. Red meat is a big one, if you must choose to eat red meat, have it cooked well done and cut into bite size pieces very small. The rarer the meat the worse it is for choking. Coated caplets, switch to a dissolving tablet that is not coated for the same prescription. The caplet coating is a chemical reaction to the back of your throat, that just doesn’t work for you. Over weight? Lose as much as possible, I lost 15 pounds and went for over a year without choking. That alone, is what seemed to work for me, other than following the other mentioned items. Once I gained the weight back, here came my choking again.
How to Clear Your Throat of the Obstruction or Spasm
The absolute MUST is to RELAX and that ain’t easy. If you realize that you can actually breathe, the only issue is getting your esophagus to relax and open. Most people think that your throat is normally open, but the opposite is true. Your throat is normally closed and when you swallow, it opens to allow food to pass.
ATTENTION: Try using a hot cup of plain water and sip a small amount, less than a normal size swallow, to allow it to sit at the back of your throat for just a few seconds and let your throat recognize it as just a bit of warm water. Any other type of drink either has sugar, carbonation, or other ingredients that are actually foreign to your body’s natural fluid intake.
Remember from science class, your body is 75% water. This water trick or method has proven to work 90% of the time for me, the only times it has not, was when I could not seem to relax enough from my hyper tension or anxiety of being impatient and allow myself to relax.
It’s not a race, don’t treat it as such or you will only wait longer. Just know that a cup of water as warm as a cup of coffee works best. If you are with other people, ask them to heat you a cup of water as you go outside or to the restroom, to spit or attempt to clear your throat. A cup of water heated in a micro wave oven for about 1 minute is a great concoction for opening your esophagus.
The ultimate medical treatment is to seek a doctor’s advice as well, but be sure to explain that your throat has an instantaneous spasm without any warning when you eat certain foods. Then ask the question; why do I keep choking when I eat, and yet I can still breathe? Whatever they tell you, be sure to share it with us who suffer too. The more we can gather information about the better we will all be.
I have two friends with the same problem and they both have had their throat stretched by separate doctors in an outpatient procedure. This is a temporary fix for some time, and the condition can return later on. By enlarging the esophagus for a time seems to put off this recurrence.