Why does my throat constrict if I eat poultry sometimes?

[canyonview]

I don't usually have any trouble eating either chicken or turkey BUT, sometimes
probably if I'm eating it too quickly, MY THROAT WILL CONSTRICT AND I CAN'T SWALLOW
I have to breath through my mouth. In a few minutes I will start to vomit but even after an hour, when there is nothing left in my system, my throat is still very tight and I still can't swallow normally.
THis is not a simple matter of choking, because I don't get food stuck in my throat, it goes down, but something causes my throat to swell and stay swollen (tonight for over an hour now). THis rarely happens, but when it does, it scares the hell out me. Is there a chemical in chicken or turkey that i"m reacting to?
And if so, then why don't I have this reaction all the time? Yes, I'm a little stressed, but nothing out of the ordinary.
All I was doing tonight was nibbling on some turkey as I was bagging it up to put in the freezer.
Now I have the hiccups and I still can't swallow!! Does anyone know why this happens?
Clearly, being more mindful when I'm eating chicken will help prevent this, but why does it happen in the first place?

[Ahhbristo]

OK so I see that some people have taken it upon themselves to say this is something to do with acid reflux or heartburn or some other type of stomach issue. For someone who has had this reaction to Poultry since I started eating it at 16 (I'm 29 and before was vegetarian) I can absolutely 100% rule out ANYTHING to do with acid reflux or stomach problems. The reason being (as I'm sure other's who have this will concur) the intensity of the reaction happens way, way before the food even reaches the stomach. In fact, the painful gruelling process itself IS the process of your throat seemingly attempting to push the food substance down to no avail.

I get this real bad, and for me - it can really hurt and it is never pleasant.

These are the symptoms that I concur with from the above descriptions:


It happens with chicken - but some types more than others. -
Sometimes like the user 'Pesticides' above it will happen less severely with chicken that seems to be fresher or without additives - I can eat roast chicken from the supermarket and it won't be that bad - but give me a shish kebab and I honestly can't even interact with people I'm having to deal with what's going on so badly. I have at times felt like I was going to die!
It happens with the following other foods in order of severity: Turkey (obvs), Duck, sometimes Salmon (but never really badly), a little bit with Avocados and a fraction and only ever sporadically with some tomatoes...

But for certain chicken and poultry will mess me up. So here is what goes down if I so decide to indulge in some yummy chicken (Which I stupidly often do because I REALLY like it)!

I can feel a lump in my throat (assuming that is the meat) and my "throat" - (what feels like deep somewhere between my top few vertebrae on my back and my sternum ) starts to feel like it's constricting around the food in waves of about 20 - 30 seconds each of trying to push it down but not doing a great job. Each time I swallow I can feel my food pipe kind of properly trying to force it down and sometimes it feels like the force of the swallow works somewhat in doing that but it really hurts and after the pain is over the food still feels like it's there.

At the same time I get this thick saliva that seems to be being produced in copious amounts - entirely unwanted and unnecessary for normal digestion of food of course. It's some kind of reaction. SOOOO many times I've been with company or at a dinner table with people whom are looking over at me anticipating some pleasant retort to their humorous anecdote and all I can do is look back at them knowing I have this mouthful of thick gloopy saliva that I need to swallow down in order to keep talking but that doing so is gonna hurt like a b****.  

(Lol - on that note of social embarrassment this has been a running kind of joke between myself and my Brother who enjoys running the line that it's all in my head very much)

So lump, thick spit, and trapped air...
I feel like there is air trapped and I can't burp it up because the lump is in the way which forces what feels like more pressure behind it if I wanted it feels like I could use that pressure from the gas to like push the lump maybe - as some people have said - up. And vomit from this (albeit forcibly and often through my own construction) I have - frequently in fact when in the social situations mentioned above a not entirely antisocial length of bathroom visit is deemed a better approach than suffering in silence and coming across as Buzz-Killington!

The long and short of it is threefold:

IT IS CLEARLY REAL, MISIDENTIFIED IF NOT ENIRELY UNKNOWN, AND IT F****NG SUCKS!

There should be studies done for sure. Oh well - roll on Christmas / Thanksgiving if you're across the pond...

You know what I mean... ;)

[MAK56]

You literally describe to the greatest detail of what happens EVERY time I eat chicken. I’m a 56 year old female and this has only been occurring for a few years. But it’s getting worse—to the point I think I’m going to completely eliminate chicken. Thank you for this amazing post! It’s great to finally know.

[Betty5777]

This has happened to me for over 25 years. Chicken, turkey, eggs and rice. It's horribly painful and embarrassing.

My family has to change their eating habits when they come to visit because they know I can't be around any kind of poultry or rice or else I get seriously sick to the point where now I have to carry an EpiPen to help even though testing shows no allergies??

I vomit a lot. I also found that I am not able to eat anything that was fried in the same oil that any type of poultry was in at a restaurant or I will suffer the consequences from doing so.

This has disrupted my life and my family's life for well over 25 years now. And I agree study needs to be done on it because it's affecting more and more people and I really think it has something to do with all the steroids and poultry

[Josie522]

I suffer from this. I have had this for about 8-10 years. More recently it has Ben happening more often. It has happened with chicken, hamburger meat, pizza and tuna fish, French fries and possibly a few others foods I can’t think of right now. I had an EGD done and was told I have EOE. It is a collection of white blood cells that think the food is foreign and it “attacks” the food, the reaction to that is the throat “closing up”. EOE is for the rest of my life and I am at a predisposition to get throat cancer. I have had all the signs and experiences I’ve read on here. Throat closing up, heavy pressure on my chest, thick saliva, sipping on something helps to ease it open but it also hurts like hell in the process, a few times it was so intense tears came out my eyes ( it wasn’t me crying, I think it was just from the pressure) hard to breathe and talk during an episode. I hope this helps you all out, I am doing to have another test done because it has been happening more often. Best of luck to you all.

[RodiKenley]

Because you're around 4-5 years of age inside when it comes to the hiccups and need fennel, agave or ginger to help.  We all go through phases and stages onto being a late bloomer at times -

[RodiKenley]

Different strokes for different folks; anyways, cause there's acids, salts, sometimes fats or sugars that heat-up and take up space i.e.  Also because hot air rises; cold air sinks and sometimes we take in too much protein per calories at times to stomach i.e

[John1375]

Hello all.
I've been suffering with same symptoms and with increasing frequency and severity over the past decade. I've found my answers and relief from avoiding lectins, GMO's; milk, meats grains are high in lectins from the feeds.

[poppyseedpies]

Hey guys, as it was mentioned before, it could very well be a symptom of Acid Reflux Disease or heartburn. The reason why it might happen is often a low level of stomach acid. Do a Google search for this thing: Hypochlorhydria. Also check out the common symptoms and natural remedies for this. What can help is to regain the balance for your stomach acid. There are many natural methods for doing so (betain HCL, cabbage juice, vitamine U supplements, etc.).
Low level of stomach acid and reflux / heartburn is usually a sign of a much more serious gut problem and in that case the main goal should be to repair the gut flora (and with that the immune system). The SCD diet and the GAPS diet can help you with that, but you might need to make some tweaks and research your own conditions even further.
I hope this info will help some people.

[Pestaside]

Happens to me to I did an analysis, it usually happens in some restaurants. It definitely happens when I eat grocery store Perdue or brand name grocery store chicken. It doesn't really happen when I eat chicken from a butcher or Bell Evans which says no bacteria. I started eating 1 chicken wing and my throat closed so hard not letting anything else go down. It probably has something to do with the chemicals or antibiotics in the chicken. All doctors would say you have something wrong with your throat, if I had somuething wrong with my throat it would happen with everything I eat. When I see this happen to many other people a study should be done. The study won't be done unless the person who does studies or their children have this happen to them. That's when it becomes a really serious issue to address.

[RonCW]

Here's a really good description of this problem.  As the author admits, it's not a diagnosis or medical advice but it does contain helpful information.  From the author's personal experience this happens with heavier guys in their 30s or 40s but I'm pretty lean in my 50s and this has only been occurring in the last couple of years.  My last incident resulted in my throat shutting down completely for almost 24 hours until a trip to the Emergency Department cleared it up. I'm going to avoid meat for the next month and hopefully this problem won't re-occur. Here's the link:

http://justaskchip.com/throat-constriction-spasm-condition.htm

[investit]

I have the same thing happen to me and I was told it could be due to the low level amounts of arsenic in chicken.
What other foods do you notice it happening with?
It happens on occasion when I eat rice and a few other foods that I can't think of right now.
If you look up arsenic in food you will see that it is in both chicken, turkey and rice you will also find that small amounts of arsenic will cause throat constriction and feeling like you have a lump in your throat that won't go down.

[Artogami]

Hey- it looks like you guys haven't had this answered yet- I've had it for a while and every time I eat chicken or even drink orange juice with pulp it gets stuck and it feels like my throat is trying to force it down or something, and usually I burp, too- air gets stuck under it. Yes I end up vomiting.my mom has always called it Acid Reflux Disease- it seems pretty close to the symptoms I have. What I've found works is sitting straight- if you bend over it won't help to food at all. It can be extremely painful at first but drinking (a little) water can help.

[musicas]

This has been happening to me for 5 years now and it is depressing.  I do not see any answers or solutions to this problem.  Would love a solution.....

[Cas2G13]

Why does nobody ever actually ANSWER the questions on these things? I understand the urge to write, "this happens to me, too!" but I always feel like saying, "let's assume we all got to this page because it happens to us." Now, does ANYONE have the answer?

[JFXG]

Well it seems like nobody on here knows the answer and neither do I, but it seems clear this is some sort of allergic reaction to something that's in or on some chicken. I get it too - much milder than some of you, I've always been able to get it unstuck by trying to relax my throat and taking tiny sips of water but that's just me.

To me it seems like this happens less frequently with fresher chicken and I always buy the freshest chicken they have at the store (I look at the sell-by date) and cook it that day or the next day at the latest.  

It may be from a bacteria, or perhaps some chemical is produced in chicken flash as it begins to decay? Just wild guesses. Honestly your guess is as good as mine. But eating fresher chicken, and rinsing it well before cooking generally seems to work for me. Chicken at a restaurant is a crap shoot, I avoid it now after way too many problems.

[Pneeema]

I have has episodes like this on random foods. All of a sudden my esophagus clamps down hard and it won't release the food. I can't swallow the bite of food - it hurts 10x more when I try and doesn't go anywhere, I can't even swallow water to loosen it. My throat starts to make this phlegm which I have to spit out and eventually I have to regurgitate the food back up because I can't get it down, all the while it is very painful.  Does this sound familiar? I am waiting to have a gastrocopy to see what's going on in there....

[Josie522]

Same here, I have had this happen to me with different foods such as chicken, hamburger, pizza and tuna fish patties. I had an EGD done and was told I have EOE. I was told it’s a collection of white blood cells that sees the food as being foreign and it tries to “attack it” and the reaction is my throat “closing up” on me. If is very painful and scary. EOE never goes away, I will have it for the rest of my life and it leaves me at a predisposition for throat cancer.

[nassarine]

I'm glad I wasn't home alone yesterday.  My daughter actually did Heimlich on me yesterday.  I might have gotten it out of my throat, but felt like my throat was just clamping down on the small bite of turkey I had taken.  This is like the 4th time that turkey has done this to me.  Am I alergic??

[ScottFree49]

This just happened to me.  I was eating chicken.  It does not happen all of the time.  Just sometimes.  I find that phlegm or congestion in the back of my throat causes me to have to cough and attempt to throw up which gets rid of the crowding substance.  If I take cold medicine and also gargle cough syrup, that seems to help immensely.  I have not found out why.  It would appear to me to be some sort of allergy perhaps to the chemicals added to chicken?

[browniesgal]

The absolutely same thing happens to me!!!  There are actually a couple of other things that can trigger this but chicken/turkey seem to be consistent (especially cold.)  I get real phlegmy and retch and have to yack most of it up before it settles down.  Sometimes I get a real sharp pain in my esophagus too - like a heart attack but not really... I am so relieved to hear that I am not alone!