As the air gets drier, people tend to experience dry mouth.
What about a dry mouth? “Drink more water” definitely helps!
But what if you still feel dry mouth no matter how much you drink, even if you drink plenty of water for a long time?
Beware! This may be an important signal that the body is releasing certain diseases!
Dry mouth, to put it bluntly, means that the mouth is thirsty, but the performance of dry mouth is actually related to a person’s tolerance.
(Source: soogif)
Observing the people around you, it is not difficult to find that some people can go several hours without drinking water, while some people need to drink water constantly, and they will be unbearably thirsty if they don’t drink water for a while.
Our salivary regulation is mainly based on neural reflexes, and the efferent nerves that innervate the salivary glands are mainly sympathetic and parasympathetic. In both cases of nerve activation, more saliva is secreted.
So, we see a lot of older people who don’t have much saliva and no discomfort because they’ve gotten used to this reflex. Conversely, children tend to drool more because they have not yet tolerated it.
Looking at the salivary glands, our salivary glands are mainly composed of the parotid, submandibular and sublingual glands.
Salivary glands generally secrete 1000~1500ml of saliva per day. The composition of salivary glands is relatively fixed. If the composition changes or the amount of saliva secreted decreases, the symptoms of dry mouth will appear [1].
Feeling dry mouth may be a normal physiological phenomenon. Usually, pay attention to drinking more water, and it is basically no problem [2]. For example:
You usually drink less water and your taste is heavy. After work, you made an appointment with three or five friends for a spicy and spicy Sichuan hot pot; p>
As parents get older, with the degeneration of bodily functions, salivary glands atrophy, saliva secretion decreases, and dry mouth occurs;
Dry mouth that occurs after prolonged strenuous exercise without timely hydration.
There are also some dry mouth caused by certain diseases or special conditions of the body. In most cases, as long as the right medicine is prescribed, the dry mouth will basically disappear after the symptoms are cured or relieved. For example:
When you have a fever or diarrhea, you lose water in your body, and you may experience dry mouth;
Trauma leads to stenosis of the lumen that secretes saliva or destruction of glandular tissue, resulting in reduced salivation;
After a cold, dry mouth may also occur due to upper respiratory tract infection, but this symptom will disappear as the cold heals; p>
Long-term use of some drugs, such as certain antidepressants amitriptyline, imipramine, etc., antihypertensive drugs clonidine, prazosin, etc., also There will be symptoms of dry mouth[3];
Having oral diseases, most commonly mumps or oral gland stones, can also cause dry mouth symptoms.
If dry mouth has nothing to do with the clues mentioned above, then pay attention, it may be a signal of the following diseases!
1. Diabetes
This is the one that needs the most attention.
When blood sugar increases, plasma osmotic pressure also increases, resulting in osmotic urination, which leads to water loss in the body. The thirst center of the brain is thus stimulated, and dry mouth naturally occurs.
So, if you find yourself thirsty all the time, your urine output increases for no reason, you lose weight for no reason, and you feel unrelieved fatigue, be sure to check to rule out diabetes possible[4].
Especially those with a family history of diabetes should be vigilant.
2. Blood system diseases
Iron deficiency anemia, pernicious anemia, or a lack of B vitamins can lead to atrophic glossitis.
At this time, symptoms such as atrophy of the tongue papilla and decreased saliva secretion will occur [5].
3. Mental illness
Some depression and anxiety patients suffer from conscious dry mouth due to long-term medication or psychological factors (actually there is no dry mouth, but because of psychological factors, they always feel that they dry mouth) and even feel the need to add water to swallow when eating [6].
4. Sjögren’s syndrome
Sjögren’s syndrome is also known as “autoimmune exocrine adenitis.” This disease is caused by immune cells attacking and destroying their own exocrine glands, resulting in gland atrophy and decreased secretion function, resulting in various dry symptoms in the body, such as dry mouth and dry eyes.
However, at this time, the patient’s body is full of water. Generally, people with Sjögren’s syndrome like to drink water many times, and the amount each time is very small [7].
5. Diabetes insipidus
Diabetes insipidus due to vasopressin deficiency can cause symptoms such as polyuria, dry mouth, and polydipsia.
Our normal urine volume is about 2~3L a day, so if the 24-hour urine volume is greater than 4~10L, and this phenomenon lasts for more than half a month, we should be alert to diabetes insipidus the possibility of disease [8].
In addition, diseases such as benign lymphoepithelial lesions, primary biliary cirrhosis, chronic obstructive pulmonary disease, asthma, and sleep apnea can cause dry mouth.
Physiological dry mouth can basically be relieved by drinking more water, but if it is pathological dry mouth or unexplained dry mouth, it is difficult to completely relieve even if you drink more water, and if it is delayed for a long time, it will be It may be more and more serious, I suggest you go to the hospital to see it!
Contributing Author: Xu Hao
Attending Physician of Neurosurgery, First Affiliated Hospital of University of Science and Technology of China
Reviewer: Fang Hongjuan
Deputy Chief Physician, Department of Endocrinology, Beijing Tiantan Hospital
References
[1].Silvers AR, Som PM. Salivary glands. Radiol Clin North Am. 1998 Sep;36(5):941-66.
[2]. Pedersen AML, S rensen CE, Proctor GB, Carpenter GH, Ekstr m J. Salivary secretion in health and disease. J Oral Rehabil. 2018 Sep;45(9): 730-746.
[3]. Tan ECK, Lexomboon D, Sandborgh-Englund G, Haasum Y, Johnell K. Medications That Cause Dry Mouth As an Adverse Effect in Older People: A Systematic Review and Metaanalysis. J Am Geriatr Soc. 2018 Jan;66(1):76-84.
[4]. Fran ois H, Mariette X. Renal involvement in primary Sj gren syndrome. Nat Rev Nephrol. 2016 Feb;12(2):82-93.
[5]. Yamamoto K, KuriharaM, Matsusue Y, Komatsu Y, Tsuyuki M, Fujimoto T, Nakamura S, Kirita T. Atrophic change of tongue papilla in 44 patients with Sj gren syndrome. Oral Surg Oral Med Oral Pathol Oral Radiol Endod. 2009 Jun;107(6) :801-5.
[6]. Cappetta K, Beyer C, Johnson JA, Bloch MH. Meta-analysis: Risk of dry mouth with second generation antidepressants. Prog Neuropsychopharmacol Biol Psychiatry. 2018 Jun 8;84( Pt A): 282-293.
[7]. Vivino FB. Sjogren’s syndrome: Clinical aspects. Clin Immunol. 2017 Sep;182:48-54.
[8]Arman F, Shakeri H, Nobakht N, Rastogi A, Kamgar M. A Case of Kidney Involvement in Primary Sj gren’s Syndrome. Am J Case Rep. 2017 Jun 3;18: 622-626.
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