BATON ROUGE, LA – Do you ever feel like you constantly have to clear your throat? Some of you probably haven’t heard the technical term for it, but in this week’s Women’s Wellness, you are going to find out.
“Globus is the sensation that you have something in your throat. People will come in complaining like they have this consistent need to clear their throat or swallow, like they have a glob of something in their throat,” said Dr. Kelly Clements.
Dr. Clements is an otolaryngologist, and the most common name for that is an ear nose and throat doctor at the Baton Rouge Clinic.
“The most common cause of globus is underlying acid reflux or laryngopharyngeal reflux, that is acid that’s coming all the way up to the upper airway,” explained Dr. Clements.
So, who is more likely to get it?
“…Usually a lot of females more commonly than men, mid-40s and upper. That’s probably the most common patient that would come in complaining about this,” said Dr. Clements.
What are some of the symptoms?
“The symptoms of globus would be the repeated need to clear your throat, a sensation that you have to swallow more than once, and a sensation that even though you aren’t eating anything, you have a feeling that something is kind of stuck right in here,” explained Dr. Clements.
It can be uncomfortable, but the good news is it is treatable.
“The first step is usually some dietary modifications. We talk to patients about eliminating excess caffeine, trying to not eat between two or three hours of lying flat,” said Dr. Clements. “If it’s really bad, we’ll start a patient on Zantac or Pepcid, and sometimes we’ll actually even start them on a PPI, like Nexium. My concern with that is that if they’re needing that type of medication, we usually need a GI doctor to look a little bit further to make sure there’s nothing more serious going on in the esophagus.”
If you think you may have globus, make sure to contact your doctor.