How put an end to Chronic throat clearing? – Dr. Satish Babu K

The thing to understand is that mucus, film or sputum whatever you call it is not harmful to the body, so it is contrary to the popular belief but yes it is not harmful so it need not be removed regularly rather the mucus there is needed constantly and it is as important or more important as a lubricant oil in an engine. So we should not attempt to remove it whether it is more or less, thick or thin, its coloured or not coloured, it is sticky or not sticky, it is from the throat or nose any place the mucus remains as such. Whatever excess mucus is there, there is a mechanism in the body which will take care of the excess mucus. So we don’t have to do any attempt to remove that. Throat irritation, pain, congestion, foreign body sensation all the symptoms do not occur because of mucus or the presence of it. Some other process could be, so if there is a constant excessive mucus then you should probably have a consultation and get it checked and find out the reason for having excess mucus. In any effort to remove mucus mill will result in drying of the throat and causing more such problems as throat irritation and pain. A dry skin in the throat gets readily violated when you try to clear it either by cleaning with the tongue cleaner or hacking or cough involuntarily, any of these things will crack up the skin and sometimes it start bleeding and then causing more pain and more trouble, understand that mucus is important for the body then there is no need to clear the throat. The next step is to come out of more harmful habits, diversional tricks like in trying to keep some toffees or spices like cardamom or clove in the mouth, drinking sips of liquids more frequently as in when the throat starts irritating you need to clear the throat just a bit of water that itself will reduce the sensation and you don’t have to do that again, improving the hydration of the body, the water content of the body is is also very helpful in such situation. We generally recommend about 4 litres of liquids altogether half of which will be water the other half can be picked a liquid like butter milk, lassi, tender coconut, soup, coffee, tea anything that is available around you the info on taking it throughout the day. Steam inhalation will be quite useful if it is done during the periods of excessive irritation. If you follow the instructions then you can you sell put a stop to the habit of clearing the throat.