Why do our throats feel uncomfortable?

The climate has changed repeatedly recently, and there is no sign of the flu stopping. In addition to fever, almost everyone has symptoms of throat discomfort. Some time ago, I felt a little dry in my throat, and I always had the urge to cough. I was shocked at the time. Did I avoid the new crown but end up with the influenza A? As a result, after a few days, I found that there were no other symptoms except dry throat. It has been a month now, so it must be a simple dry throat. In addition, I have to wear a mask almost every day, which makes my throat even drier. The first thing I thought of was to go to the hospital, but considering that many people have been given injections and infusions in the hospital recently, I was still daunted, so I went to the pharmacy downstairs to buy some throat lozenges.

Actually, I have bought throat lozenges before, but due to my personal habit, I would research the medicine every time I took it, which made me wonder why throat lozenges can moisten the throat. After all, you have to know the reason in addition to the fact. I browsed the web for a long time, but there was no answer to explain the principle of throat lozenges to moisten the throat, so I could only look up information on my own. So below I will introduce my personal opinion after combining various information.

01. Why does the throat feel uncomfortable?

First of all, we need to figure out why the throat feels uncomfortable?

The throat is actually a collective name for the pharynx (pharynx) and the larynx (larynx). The cavity behind the oral and nasal cavity and above the esophagus is the pharynx; the part of the laryngeal cavity near the upper end of the trachea is the larynx.

Simply put, the throat is the part that connects the mouth, trachea and esophagus. Normally, there will be no problems with this part, but if the throat is infected by microorganisms or causes inflammation, or if the body consumes too little water, some discomfort will occur in the throat.

02. How to relieve throat discomfort

I believe many people are very familiar with relieving throat discomfort. The best way is to swallow a mouthful of saliva, which will immediately make you feel more comfortable. Why is this?

In fact, we have to mention an important liquid in our mouth: saliva. Saliva is a liquid secreted by salivary glands. There are multiple salivary glands in the mouth, such as lips, cheeks, tongue, palate, etc. Saliva can be secreted. Under normal circumstances, saliva is secreted naturally, about 80% of it is water, and the rest is some digestive substances such as amylase, in addition to some mucins, lysozymes and immunoglobulins, etc. These substances themselves have certain bactericidal effects and can help us clean harmful bacteria in the mouth.

Of course, the main function of saliva is to keep the mouth moist and prevent the mucous membrane from drying out and losing its protective effect on the human body. When we have throat discomfort, swallowing a mouthful of saliva rich in water can naturally moisten the throat and relieve the discomfort.

03. How to stimulate saliva secretion?

How to make saliva secrete? Two words: stimulation.

In fact, under normal circumstances, saliva is secreted slowly, but when the salivary glands are stimulated, they will be secreted quickly. A typical example is when people eat, saliva will be secreted in large quantities. This is also the first step of our body's digestion, physical digestion of chewing in the mouth plus chemical digestion of salivary amylase.

However, once you stop eating and lack stimulation, saliva secretion will decrease. Some people have too little saliva secretion due to insufficient water intake or their own health conditions, which leads to dryness in the mouth and throat.

04. What is the mechanism of throat lozenges?

When you are not eating, the effect of throat lozenges comes into play. The core ingredients of throat lozenges are mostly common herbal ingredients. Even for those who do not recognize the effect of herbs, it does not matter, because when you take them, it is equivalent to eating, which naturally stimulates the secretion of saliva in the mouth.

In addition, throat lozenges can be divided into sugar-containing and sugar-free types according to their auxiliary ingredients. There are also pure sugar-free types. You can go to the pharmacy to choose the throat lozenges you need according to your needs.

I use a picture to summarize the effects of throat lozenges. When your throat is uncomfortable, you can eat throat lozenges. These ingredients can produce food-like stimulation in our mouth (in fact, they are food themselves~), so the salivary glands in the mouth feel the stimulation and start to secrete saliva, thereby moistening the throat and relieving the discomfort in the throat.

Therefore, in essence, throat lozenges are a kind of eating behavior, which can moisten the throat by stimulating the salivary glands to produce saliva secretion. While moistening the throat, the saliva itself contains mucin, mucopolysaccharide and some immune proteins, which will produce a bactericidal effect and can also relieve inflammation in the throat to a certain extent.

In fact, in general, dry throat itself should be related to less water intake. With less water intake, saliva secretion itself is naturally restricted to a certain extent. Therefore, in order to reduce throat discomfort, you can still use a straight man's standard: