I have a feeling which seems related to satiety, in that I get it after eating and it makes me disinclined to eat more, but I experience it in my upper throat/back of my mouth rather than in my stomach. It’s not exclusive with hunger in my stomach.
Does anyone recognise the sensation I’m describing, and know anything about it?
Possibly relevant details, but I haven’t been keeping good track so maybe don’t take them too seriously: I first noticed it, I think more than a couple of months ago, but less than three years ago. I associate it with chips (fries, but moreso thick-cut ones), but I definitely don’t always get it from them. Also to some extent with bananas. Those might be a red herring, because I think I’m mildly allergic to them—if they’re not sufficiently ripe they can give me a burning sensation in my throat, but possibly also separately the sensation I’m describing now. I have it currently, the last thing I ate was cuppasoup, about three hours ago. I eat cuppasoup most days and don’t think I usually get this sensation from it.
I’d guess the experience is, in fact, allergic reactions, and what you’re feeling is a mild swelling of the tissues affected. Your banana allergy, given that it’s particularly common with unripe bananas, is probably a latex allergy; kiwi, mango, guava, avocado, and a few other fruits also contain natural latex and should be avoided.
Chips, I’m less certain of, unless you’re associating it with chips you happen to be dipping in guacamole.
ETA: Oh. English chips. That could be the oil they’re cooked in; do you have any other food allergies you’re aware of? (That burning sensation? Pay attention to it when you eat. I’d describe the flavor of allergic reaction as being like copper needles poking into your tongue—a spicy metallic taste. Personally I find it delicious.)
Also ETA: Try taking a Benadryl and see if the symptoms subside, provided you’re not sensitive to it (dipenhydramine hcl, if looking for generics).
Also also ETA: Cup-A-Soup contains celery, which is listed as a moderately cross-reactive food for latex allergies.
Latex condoms have bothered me exactly once, and I used them for several years. The one experience was sufficient to put me off of them, though.
Kiwi hits me every time. Banana, only if it’s unripe, and then again only some of the time. Avocado, I get the feeling about 30% of the time. With avocado, it appears to be a variance in me, rather than the fruit; I can sometimes eat guacamole (which contains multiple avocados), and sometimes not. I hate celery, but have never reacted to it. AFAIK potatoes and carrots have never bothered me, nor tomatoes. And an unidentified legume in a split pea soup once hit me, but I’ve never figured out which legume it was. (Powdered peanut butter, but not peanuts or “normal” peanut butter, weirdly enough.)
Short of it—nope. Not surprising at all. Allergies behave in mysterious ways, AFAICT, and extremely inconsistently. A doctor might be able to tell you more.
It is possible that some amount of soft foods are sticking in your throat—probably your epiglottic vallecula; this might be more apparent when you are having a mild allergic reaction, making that area of your throat more sensitive. (Wiki fails to mention that one of the functions of your vallecula is to catch bits of food that might be trying to fall into your windpipe).
It is also possible that one of your epiglottic sphincters, or the peristalsis in your epiglottis, has gone wonky, and food is having trouble making it to your stomach in a timely manner. As TezlaKoil says, in many cases this is accompanied by acid reflux. If you feel pain, see a doctor. Otherwise, don’t worry too much, but eat sitting up straight and take a swallow of water when you have this feeling.
Since you know something about these things, may I ask you a question? (I have consulted doctors, they didn’t find anything, and it’s just an annoyance really, but I don’t know what it is.)
Sometimes, after I have lowered my head forward, or pillowed my neck on my arm, or just tightened my scarf too much, I straighten (or not) and am unable to talk or swallow. I breathe fine, only my throat (lower forward) pains a bit and feels as if it has bent backwards. I rotate my head from sides and massage my Adam’s apple, and it goes away.
It’s mostly just inconvenient, but sometimes scary, too:( (when I think that it might happen when I’m asleep.)
So, some disclaimers: 1. you have not given nearly enough medical history for me to say anything certain in any case; 2. this is not my area of specialty (I am an SLP, but do not work with swallowing disorders); 3. I obviously cannot do any tests to back anything up; and 4. seriously, do not read this link and panic.
But, my first guess would be a mild case of esophageal dysphagia. That sounds like a specific diagnosis, but it is not; it just means that you have trouble swallowing, and the problem is probably in the area of the esophagus. This would explain the fullness in your throat, and would explain the pain appearing during those times that you change position so that gravity is no longer helping keep the food down. Your vocal folds and throat muscles are going into panic mode in case any food tries to go down your windpipe, so speaking would be unwise (I would bet that you could say ‘ahh’ if you tried, but don’t try). You can’t swallow because the food is in the wrong place—coming up instead of going down.
If you want to solve this, you will probably want to go to a speech-language pathologist; you should select one that specializes in swallowing—if you go to the hospital, they will pick the right one for you. The odds are that they will tell you to sit up during meals and not to recline for 30 minutes after eating, or something like that. If heart burn is a significant factor, they may give you medication for that.
While I do not think that the symptoms you describe are enough that I would recommend further testing, it is important to note that if there are other symptoms that you did not mention, this could be something that needs checking out. For example, if you had symptoms of an esophageal diverticulum, that would be something to get checked out.
Thank you! (It has, so far, nothing to do with eating, it just happens once in a while. I swallowed something sharp several years ago with food, which cut some small vessel in my throat, and I do not remember this to happen before that, but the doctors I talked to said it’s probably not connected. Anyway, I’ll be sure to check this now I have at least a formed question to start.)
I used to get a feeling in my upper throat/back of throat that sounds similar to what you are feeling. It has been several years since I’ve felt it. It seems like the only time I ever had it was when eating thick cut fries. It felt like I had a wad of food stuck in the back of my throat or upper throat, even though I didn’t. I usually found it to be uncomfortable and it seems like it was often accompanied by a slight sensation of heartburn. It didn’t typically last long though, no more than ten minutes, possibly less if I drank a lot of water. But aside from having felt something similar, I have no further light to shed on the subject unfortunately.
It’s been a while, but if I recall correctly, my mouth felt pretty dry, definitely no excess saliva. I may have to buy a big bag of fries and conduct research.
I have a feeling which seems related to satiety, in that I get it after eating and it makes me disinclined to eat more, but I experience it in my upper throat/back of my mouth rather than in my stomach. It’s not exclusive with hunger in my stomach.
Does anyone recognise the sensation I’m describing, and know anything about it?
Possibly relevant details, but I haven’t been keeping good track so maybe don’t take them too seriously: I first noticed it, I think more than a couple of months ago, but less than three years ago. I associate it with chips (fries, but moreso thick-cut ones), but I definitely don’t always get it from them. Also to some extent with bananas. Those might be a red herring, because I think I’m mildly allergic to them—if they’re not sufficiently ripe they can give me a burning sensation in my throat, but possibly also separately the sensation I’m describing now. I have it currently, the last thing I ate was cuppasoup, about three hours ago. I eat cuppasoup most days and don’t think I usually get this sensation from it.
I’d guess the experience is, in fact, allergic reactions, and what you’re feeling is a mild swelling of the tissues affected. Your banana allergy, given that it’s particularly common with unripe bananas, is probably a latex allergy; kiwi, mango, guava, avocado, and a few other fruits also contain natural latex and should be avoided.
Chips, I’m less certain of, unless you’re associating it with chips you happen to be dipping in guacamole.
ETA: Oh. English chips. That could be the oil they’re cooked in; do you have any other food allergies you’re aware of? (That burning sensation? Pay attention to it when you eat. I’d describe the flavor of allergic reaction as being like copper needles poking into your tongue—a spicy metallic taste. Personally I find it delicious.)
Also ETA: Try taking a Benadryl and see if the symptoms subside, provided you’re not sensitive to it (dipenhydramine hcl, if looking for generics).
Also also ETA: Cup-A-Soup contains celery, which is listed as a moderately cross-reactive food for latex allergies.
http://latexallergyresources.org/cross-reactive-food—includes celery and potatoes. Thin-cut fried potato might have all the proteins in question destroyed by the frying process.
This sounds plausible, thanks!
The main things that don’t seem to fit are
apart from banana, I don’t think anything else gives the burning sensation
it only seems to come from food, and in particular I haven’t noticed any issues with latex condoms
I’ve eaten many of the cross reactive foods, and regularly eat some of them, and don’t associate it with any of them
But I wouldn’t be surprised if none of those are actually surprising, and I could easily fail to notice if other things were associated.
No other food allergies that I know of. Benadryl seems to mean something else in the UK, but I’ll try to pick up some diphenhydramine.
Latex condoms have bothered me exactly once, and I used them for several years. The one experience was sufficient to put me off of them, though.
Kiwi hits me every time. Banana, only if it’s unripe, and then again only some of the time. Avocado, I get the feeling about 30% of the time. With avocado, it appears to be a variance in me, rather than the fruit; I can sometimes eat guacamole (which contains multiple avocados), and sometimes not. I hate celery, but have never reacted to it. AFAIK potatoes and carrots have never bothered me, nor tomatoes. And an unidentified legume in a split pea soup once hit me, but I’ve never figured out which legume it was. (Powdered peanut butter, but not peanuts or “normal” peanut butter, weirdly enough.)
Short of it—nope. Not surprising at all. Allergies behave in mysterious ways, AFAICT, and extremely inconsistently. A doctor might be able to tell you more.
It is possible that some amount of soft foods are sticking in your throat—probably your epiglottic vallecula; this might be more apparent when you are having a mild allergic reaction, making that area of your throat more sensitive. (Wiki fails to mention that one of the functions of your vallecula is to catch bits of food that might be trying to fall into your windpipe).
It is also possible that one of your epiglottic sphincters, or the peristalsis in your epiglottis, has gone wonky, and food is having trouble making it to your stomach in a timely manner. As TezlaKoil says, in many cases this is accompanied by acid reflux. If you feel pain, see a doctor. Otherwise, don’t worry too much, but eat sitting up straight and take a swallow of water when you have this feeling.
Since you know something about these things, may I ask you a question? (I have consulted doctors, they didn’t find anything, and it’s just an annoyance really, but I don’t know what it is.)
Sometimes, after I have lowered my head forward, or pillowed my neck on my arm, or just tightened my scarf too much, I straighten (or not) and am unable to talk or swallow. I breathe fine, only my throat (lower forward) pains a bit and feels as if it has bent backwards. I rotate my head from sides and massage my Adam’s apple, and it goes away.
It’s mostly just inconvenient, but sometimes scary, too:( (when I think that it might happen when I’m asleep.)
So, some disclaimers: 1. you have not given nearly enough medical history for me to say anything certain in any case; 2. this is not my area of specialty (I am an SLP, but do not work with swallowing disorders); 3. I obviously cannot do any tests to back anything up; and 4. seriously, do not read this link and panic.
But, my first guess would be a mild case of esophageal dysphagia. That sounds like a specific diagnosis, but it is not; it just means that you have trouble swallowing, and the problem is probably in the area of the esophagus. This would explain the fullness in your throat, and would explain the pain appearing during those times that you change position so that gravity is no longer helping keep the food down. Your vocal folds and throat muscles are going into panic mode in case any food tries to go down your windpipe, so speaking would be unwise (I would bet that you could say ‘ahh’ if you tried, but don’t try). You can’t swallow because the food is in the wrong place—coming up instead of going down.
If you want to solve this, you will probably want to go to a speech-language pathologist; you should select one that specializes in swallowing—if you go to the hospital, they will pick the right one for you. The odds are that they will tell you to sit up during meals and not to recline for 30 minutes after eating, or something like that. If heart burn is a significant factor, they may give you medication for that.
While I do not think that the symptoms you describe are enough that I would recommend further testing, it is important to note that if there are other symptoms that you did not mention, this could be something that needs checking out. For example, if you had symptoms of an esophageal diverticulum, that would be something to get checked out.
Thank you! (It has, so far, nothing to do with eating, it just happens once in a while. I swallowed something sharp several years ago with food, which cut some small vessel in my throat, and I do not remember this to happen before that, but the doctors I talked to said it’s probably not connected. Anyway, I’ll be sure to check this now I have at least a formed question to start.)
I used to get a feeling in my upper throat/back of throat that sounds similar to what you are feeling. It has been several years since I’ve felt it. It seems like the only time I ever had it was when eating thick cut fries. It felt like I had a wad of food stuck in the back of my throat or upper throat, even though I didn’t. I usually found it to be uncomfortable and it seems like it was often accompanied by a slight sensation of heartburn. It didn’t typically last long though, no more than ten minutes, possibly less if I drank a lot of water. But aside from having felt something similar, I have no further light to shed on the subject unfortunately.
Was there also excess saliva production/thick-feeling saliva?
It’s been a while, but if I recall correctly, my mouth felt pretty dry, definitely no excess saliva. I may have to buy a big bag of fries and conduct research.
In my experience, acid reflux can cause similar sensations.