A patient recently told me they’ve been having some problems swallowing lately. What can cause this? Swallowing is a pretty complex body function. It starts in the oral phase, when food is moistened ...

You probably don’t think too much about eating. You pop something in your mouth, chew it up and swallow it. But, sometimes, what you eat may seem like it won’t go down, or it feels like it’s stuck in ...

Vocal fold (or vocal cord) paralysis occurs when your vocal folds, the two bands of tissue in your larynx (voice box), stop moving. Usually, this occurs because one or both of the nerves that go to ...

That frustrating sensation of food seemingly caught in your throat during moments of stress isn’t just in your head. When anxiety strikes, it can transform the simple act of swallowing—something most ...

Riedel’s thyroiditis is a rare type of chronic thyroiditis in which scar tissue replaces thyroid tissue. It can cause symptoms such as breathing problems, difficulty swallowing, and hoarseness. Riedel ...

The 4 stages of dysphagia range from mild to severe, but no single, universally accepted scale exists. Dysphagia refers to difficulty swallowing. It occurs when there is a disruption in one or more ...

Swallowing difficulty serves as a significant predictor of frailty progression in older adults, according to new research following nearly 800 community-dwelling Japanese seniors over two years. The ...

An older adult’s swallowing function is associated with lower social interaction levels, a new study finds. People with swallowing problems who lived at home laughed less than those without swallowing ...