Featured Image Credit: TikTok / @jessebeharrell
Topics: Health, Science, Social Media, TikTok, Viral
Poppy Bilderbeck
Topics: Health, Science, Social Media, TikTok, Viral
A TikToker has tested if your body allows you to swallow more than two to three times in a row - so you don't have to?
If you ever lie in bed at night and think about the stupid comment you made in grade nine which resulted in everyone laughing at you, well, fear not, because now you have another rogue thought to let consume your brain.
A TikToker called Jesse Beharrell took to his page to claim - and not just claim, but film himself supposedly proving it too - that you 'can only swallow two to three times before your body forces you to stop'.
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He continued: "Go on, try it, let me know how many times you can do it."
Let's not lie, we've all just started swallowing to try and test the theory, and it certainly didn't take fellow TikTok users flooding the post after trying it out to weigh in.
One user said: "OMG haha that's true I got angry."
However, another added: "Who else did it four times just to prove him wrong."
"15 and then I got bored," a third wrote.
A fourth added: "Stopped at seven but could go on."
And the video even attracted the attention of FOX 5 DC broadcasters, who started swallowing live on air to try and see whether or not it's really only possible to swallow two to three times before your body intervenes.
Alas, shockingly, it turns out, you probably shouldn't always look to TikTok for your education.
When you swallow, the muscles in your throat contract in a sequence - the scientific term for this being peristalsis.
If you have adequate levels of saliva in your mouth, you should be able to swallow many more times than just two or three in a row, and it's easier when you have water or food to actually swallow.
If you perform dry swallows, less contractions occur and the Journal of Applied Physiology breaks it down even further, explaining that 'a wet swallow was associated with slower wave speed, greater duration of the contraction wave, and later time of appearance of the peristaltic wave in the distal esophagus than a dry swallow'.
It added: "The results of our studies indicate that although the act of swallowing alone in man initiates peristalsis, afferent information contributes to the regulation of primary peristalsis."
So, if you are trying to figure out how many times you can swallow in a row and did, in fact, get stuck on two or three, just take a swig of water and try again, or maybe just stop copying TikTokers.