989 On: Health

A couple of weeks ago, one of my family members had a stroke. Among the many things I didn’t know about strokes is that if you have one, you might lose the ability to swallow properly. It’s turns out, there is a very complex series of steps that have to occur in just the right way for a person to swallow without inhaling the food or liquid they’re trying to get down. From Gould’s Pathophysiology for the Health Professions - 5th Edition - Page 432 “When food is ready to be swallowed, the tongue pushes the bolus of food back to the pharyngeal wall, where receptors of the trigeminal and glossopharyngeal nerves relay the information to the swallowing center in the medulla. Because the reflex is activated at this point, deglutition becomes an involuntary activity. The swallowing center coordinates the actions required to move food or fluid into the stomach, without aspiration into the lungs, by means of cranial nerves 5, 9, 10, and 12 in the following steps: The soft palate is pulled upward The vocal cords are