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When you struggle with swallowing, she says you might have other symptoms, too, like throat pain, feeling like food gets stuck in your throat or chest, coughing, choking, weight loss, voice ...
Difficulty or pain with swallowing is called dysphagia, and it affects up to 15% or more of the population at some point in their lives.
Dysphagia is distinguished from other symptoms including odynophagia, which is defined as painful swallowing, [8] and globus, which is the sensation of a lump in the throat. A person can have dysphagia without odynophagia (dysfunction without pain), odynophagia without dysphagia (pain without dysfunction) or both together.
Individuals with pseudodysphagia have difficulty swallowing, and may experience panic before or during the act of swallowing. This can therefore lead to the avoidance of swallowing solid foods and liquids, taking any forms of tablets or pills without the presence of physiological or anatomical abnormalities.
Both of these features impair the ability of the esophagus to empty contents into the stomach. Patients usually complain of dysphagia to both solids and liquids. Dysphagia to liquids, in particular, is a characteristic of achalasia. Other symptoms of achalasia include regurgitation, night coughing, chest pain, weight loss, and heartburn.
Individuals with difficulty swallowing may find that liquids cause coughing, spluttering, or even aspiration, and that thickening drinks enables them to swallow safely. Patients may be advised to consume thickened liquids after being extubated. Liquid thickness may be measured by two methods, with a viscometer or by line spread test.
Barium swallow in nutcracker esophagus is also typically normal, [2] but may provide a definitive diagnosis if contrast is given in tablet or granule form. Studies on endoscopic ultrasound show slight trends toward thickening of the muscularis propria of the esophagus in nutcracker esophagus, but this is not useful in making the diagnosis.
Saliva is difficult to swallow, yet food is easy to swallow - eating, in fact, often makes the tightness go away for a time 'Lump' sensation comes and goes from day to day; Symptoms can persist for very long periods, often several months. The symptoms can be mimicked by pushing on the cartilage in the neck, just below the Adam's apple