What could cause dry mouth and a gagging feeling while playing basketball?

[Aldina]

My son has had this problem now for about a year. We have been to many doctors and no one has yet to figure out what could be going on.  He has played basketball for 6 years now and he is 16 years old. And for the past year when he starts to play basketball within 10 minutes he get dry mouthed, followed by a gagging feeling in his throat. It gets so bad that he has to stop playing and sit down and wait for this to pass. But they he has diminished  energy levels, and can not play a whole game like he use to.

They have ruled out EIA, and he has tried inhalers and done all kinds of test for this. And it is apparant it is not asthma. He has tried to medicines for GERD and that has done nothing to help. And meds for a possible stomach trouble and this has not helped. He has even had a echocardiagram  to check his valves in his heart, and this was normal too.

We have ran out of ideas, and we do live in a very rural area. I was wondering if you have any suggestions of where to turn and the right kind of specialist to go to.

He is a junior in High School and is a very talented ball player, he hs played varsity since his freshman year and has been approached from colleges already in his sophmore year. But with this current problem he is  not playing up to his abilities  and his scholarships are going to be at jeapordy if we can not get to the bottom of this and get it fixed. And he is getting very depressed.
I would appreciate some feed back.
Thank you,
Aldina

[EJ]

The first thing that would come to my mind is a mouth breather.
Is he possibly have any problems with his sinuses that would cause him to mouth breath, which if bad enough could cause the gagging reflex and could also cause him to be short winded.

[Concerned lady]

Dear Aldina,

I don't know what your son has, but if you mean "choking", rather than "gagging", he MAY possibly have Vocal Cord Dysfunction (or a related, similar condition). I wrote a website about "Vocal Cord Dysfunction" (VCD), which is often misdiagnosed as asthma. My husband and I had VCD, and many people of ALL AGES have it. It can be treated and controlled!!

The website is called, "Can't Breathe? Suspect Vocal Cord Dysfunction!", and you can get to the home page by clicking on this link,   http://cantbreathesuspectvcd.com

Read all 12 pages: home page, pages 1 thru 10, and the "links" page. It will give you plenty of food for thought, and ideas of many possible causes of your son's episodes.

The home page has an introduction to VCD and has an outline of the following 10 pages.

Page 1 tells you what VCD is.
Page 2 describes signs and SYMPTOMS of VCD.
Page 3 tells how to recognize and DIAGNOSE VCD.
Page 4 tells how to TREAT AND CONTROL VCD.
Page 5 describes CAUSES, "TRIGGERS", "AGGRAVATORS", AND PRE-DISPOSING/ASSOCIATED CONDITIONS relating to VCD.
Page 6 says it takes a little time to see positive results from all the ideas on page 4 and 5.
Page 7 tells how National Jewish Hospital knows the most about VCD.
Page 8 tells about VCD conferences for medical folks.
Page 9 gives References, including books, etc. that can help VCD patients.
Page 10 says VCD patients are not alone: It seems VCD is fairly common, even though hardly anyone has even heard of it.
The "links" page has links to other useful websites about VCD.

Your son is lucky to have such a caring parent! Good luck! Don't give up, until he is correctly diagnosed and treated, and feels better!!

Sincerely, Concerned lady
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