Question

A person, while eating food, starts coughing all of a sudden. What may be the reason for it?

Answer 1

Coughing:

• Coughing is the body's mechanism of avoiding unwanted objects to find their way into our airways.

Reason for coughing:

• At the end of the oral cavity, there is a pharynx structure, which leads into the trachea (windpipe) and esophagus (food pipe) separately.
• The initial portion of the trachea is called the larynx, which is guarded by a flap called the epiglottis.
• Whenever epiglottis remains slightly open, air passage immediately responds to the entry of food particles in the air passage, and as a result, the person starts coughing.

Thus, coughing is a natural body mechanism to keep the air passage safe.