Why Does Food Stay in My Throat First Aid

Why Does Food Stay in My Throat First Aid.










To understand choking, you first need to understand what is going on in the back of your neck hundreds of times a day. All the food you eat and the air you breathe passes through your neck to get into your body.



Food and liquid going down a tube - the esophagus (say: eh-SAH-Fuh-gus) - to your stomach. Air crashes another tube - the trachea (say: TRAY-kee-uh), or windpipe - to your lungs. These two tubes share an opening on the back of your neck.

So if they share an opening how the food at the tube to go down? Lucky for you, your body has it all under control. A small flap of cartilage (say: KAR-teh-lij) called the epiglottis (say: eh-PIH-GLAH-tis) is located near your windpipe, and every time you swallow, it jumps into action. Acting like a small door, it closes the entrance to your trachea, so the food will be sent down the esophagus into the stomach instead of the lungs.



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