Expert: Eric Brandt - 4/12/2007

Question
I'm 18 years old and this all started about 2 and a half years ago. After eating or drinking liquids my throat would make a gurgling sound and usually doesn't stop for about half an hour to an hour. It's sometimes embarassing because its really loud at times such as when I'm in class. I thought at first it had something to do with my thyroid because about 2 years ago i was diagnosed with Graves disease. It's about 1am and it started at around 10pm and it hasn't stopped. If I don't swallow my saliva a lot it slows down but as soon as I do swallow it makes the gurgle noise.  I don't know what to do and my family doctor has no idea, and whenever I go see my endocrinologist the "magic" doesn't happen. I hope you have some idea about what this is and why.

Answer
Hi Cassandra,
I think you may be eating/drinking too fast and swallowing too much air in the process. I think you should have a swallowing assessment to see if this is the case. In the meantime try smaaler bites, smaller gulps,chew slowly before swallowing and see if this helps.
Thank you for using Allexperts
Sincerely,
Eric Brandt, B.Sc. Pharm