Chronic Pharyngitis: symptoms, causes, prevention

The symptoms of chronic pharyngitis are not obvious at first, but mainly consist of chronic inflammation of the mucosa, submucosa and nearby lymphatic tissues. Because chronic inflammation causes thickened saliva secretions that do not lubricate the larynx, patients begin to experience a foreign body sensation in the throat, followed by the typical symptoms of pharyngitis, which sometimes persist or recur for more than 3 months.

Common Causes of Chronic Laryngitis

Allergic rhinitis

People with allergic nasopharynx (hay fever) are prone to sneezing, runny nose and other rhinitis symptoms, often generating more nasal mucus, which leads to a backflow of nasal mucus into the throat, which can then stimulate the throat and cause symptoms of pharyngitis.

Gastroesophageal reflux

When gastric juices retrograde into the esophagus and throat, these fluids with stomach acid can cause discomfort to the throat, which can lead to symptoms such as inflammation and redness in the throat and hoarseness.

Persistent tonsillitis

Prolonged tonsillitis can also lead to delayed infection and cause laryngitis.

Eosinophilic esophagitis

A type of esophagitis caused by food allergies. It is difficult to identify the source of the allergy because when the symptoms of esophagitis appear, the allergy has often been inflamed for a while and does not produce immediate discomfort, which is not conducive to the patient’s recall to identify the allergen. In severe cases, patients may experience difficulty swallowing and narrowing of the esophagus.

Unclean environment

Staying for a long time in an environment with greater smoke, dust, or high PM2.5, the throat will be irritated thus leading to laryngitis, and symptoms such as runny nose, cough, and sore throat will occur.

Other causes

Severe snoring can dry out the throat, thus aggravating the symptoms of laryngitis. If you feel irritable and anxious frequently, that may also make the symptoms of pharyngitis severe.

The three main types of chronic pharyngitis

Endogenous chronic laryngitis

Patients often suffer from stress, anxiety, and insomnia.

Exogenous chronic pharyngitis

It is mainly caused by other chronic diseases, such as allergic rhinitis, chronic gastroenteritis and gastroesophageal reflux disease.

Infectious pharyngitis

Chronic pharyngitis is caused by some respiratory infections, such as syphilis, tuberculosis, mold infections, etc.

Ways to prevent chronic pharyngitis

1. Exercise to enhance physical fitness

The actual fact is that you will be able to get into the habit of doing physical exercise regularly to improve your health and help prevent various diseases, like chronic pharyngitis, obesity and other conditions. The usual life should be regular, combined with work and rest, more outdoor activities, breathing fresh air, receiving sunshine bathing. Coldwater baths and body rubs are often used to energize people, enhance their ability to adapt to heat and cold, and improve body resistance.

2. Prevent upper respiratory tract infections, prevent acute attacks of chronic pharyngitis

When the seasons change, the body is easily affected by the warm and cold air, so you should pay attention to increase and decrease clothing at any time. Do not go to a cold place or blow the wind or take a cold shower immediately after sweating from exercise. Keep warm when you sleep. During the flu-prone season, try to go to crowded places as little as possible to avoid mutual infection.

3. Pay attention to oral and nasal hygiene to prevent and control oral and nasal diseases

Oral hygiene can also affect the health of the throat because the organs of the mouth and nose are connected, so when the mouth, nasal cavity, and sinus chronic infection often due to viruses, bacteria, pus, and other waves of the pharyngeal mucosa and lead to pharyngitis. Therefore, it is important to pay attention to keeping the oral cavity clean and treat periodontal diseases in a timely manner.