Can someone regain their gag reflex?

October 11, 2005 12:02 PM

If someone has lost (or greatly reduced) their gag reflex, is there any way to get it back?

Like if someone was a sword swallower for 20 years and then stopped, could they resume an average readiness-to-gag?

posted by 23skidoo to health & fitness (8 comments total)

Usually people who have "no gag reflex" haven't lost the ability to gag, they can just relax their throat in a way that their gag reflex isn't triggered.
posted by nekton at 12:44 PM on October 11, 2005

The gag reflex is an autonomic response. Swallowing swords involves a conscious relaxing of the throat so that this reflex is not triggered. It's like pressing a manual override button.

So if I encountered a sword swallower who also happened to be a mouth-breather, I doubt I could choke him by throwing a carefully-aimed gobstopper into his mouth.
posted by pmbuko at 1:06 PM on October 11, 2005

Letterneversent, obviously you haven't met his girlfriend.

Seriously though, I thought that your gag reflex had to do with the valve that closes your larynx when you swallow so you don't swallow food or water. A sword swallower is not jamming a sword down into his lungs so he's not triggering the gag reflex.
posted by Pollomacho at 1:11 PM on October 11, 2005

OH MY GOD! PIGGYBACK QUESTION!...

How on earth do you lose or reduce your gag reflex? It's so strong for me, I gag when I'm brushing my back teeth. My dentist always remarks that my front teeth are fine but my back ones are messed up. It's SO hard for me to brush them.

Sorry to derail, but I'm hoping gag experts (gag writers?) here can answer both questions.
posted by grumblebee at 1:14 PM on October 11, 2005

[pruned a few responses. on topic, folks?]
posted by jessamyn at 1:28 PM on October 11, 2005

grumblebee - I used to have that problem when I was a kid. I switched to less-sweet toothpastes and it hasn't been a problem since.

Also, since I started drinking lots of hard liquor straight (late HS, college), I *think* that my gag reflex in general has been attenuated.
posted by PurplePorpoise at 1:35 PM on October 11, 2005

It's more mental than anything...if you think about something gagging you, it probably will. My suggestion to you is that you get used to having something near the back of your throat (or even, I suppose in your case, the back of your mouth) incrementally.

Breathing through your nose helps a lot. I've also heard humming helps too (talk about multi-tasking...)

Another thing to remember is that the bottom part of your throat (i.e. contiguous with your tongue) is more sensitive than the rest of your throat (sides and top). Just now sitting here I found that I was able to hook my fingers around the sides of my throat with no problem, and reach back towards my nasopharynx with no real problem, but when I reached down towards my esophagus/trachea, it was a bit worse.
posted by nekton at 1:37 PM on October 11, 2005

Every once in a while, if I'm not concentrating, my gag reflex fails and I suck a large food item down my throat with no resistance. Trust me, your gag reflex can weaken signifigantly. I don't know of any way to retrain it.
posted by Radio7 at 10:55 PM on October 11, 2005