What Diseases Cause Swallowing Problems?

Having trouble swallowing your food or having dysphagia can be serious issue.  According to NIDCD, National Institute of Deafness and other Communication Disorders, often, dysphagia makes it difficult to take in enough calories and fluids to nourish the body and can lead to additional serious medical problems.  This disease mostly effects the elderly, however, swallowing disorders can effect anyone.

Generally this problem accompanies other neurological disorders.  Some neurological conditions that can cause swallowing difficulties are:
- stroke (the most common cause of dysphagia)
- traumatic brain injury
- cerebral palsy
- Parkinson disease and other degenerative neurological disorders such as amyotrophic lateral sclerosis (ALS, also known as Lou Gehrig's disease)
- multiple sclerosis
- progressive supranuclear palsy
- Huntington disease
- myasthenia gravis

The NINDS or National Institute of  Neurological Disorders and Stroke points out that changing a person's diet by adding thickeners helps many people, as does learning different ways to eat and chew that reduces the risk for aspiration. Medicines and surgery may be necessary for some people, but also holding your head or neck a certain way while eating can make swallowing easier, like putting your chin down and swallowing.  For a more serious problem, feeding tubes may be necessary.

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