Question

Why swallowing and breathing cannot occur simultaneously

Answer 1

Dear Student

We can breathe during chewing of food. However, during swallowing the opening of trachea (wind pipe) gets closed for small fraction of time to prevent entry of food into the trachea.
The opening of wind pipe is covered by a flap of elastic cartilage called epiglottis. The wind pipe remains open during breathing of air but gets closed by epiglottis during swallowing of food. This prevents the entry of food into the trachea (windpipe). This opening and closing of epiglottis takes place in only fraction of seconds. Thus, we are able to breathe during chewing and swallowing but not simultaneously.

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