The situation of drooling in patients with amyotrophic lateral sclerosis — from the man will see a beautiful woman will be drooling to see a beautiful woman or food “drooling” we must have seen, or even had, then how this situation is how to appear? This article is based on a rigorous scientific attitude to answer for you. A, saliva is how to come saliva, medically called saliva. The human body has more than one salivary gland, small salivary glands are distributed in the mucous membrane of the oral cavity, there are four glands of the lips, cheeks, tongue, palate, large salivary glands are parotid, sublingual and submandibular glands. The parotid, submandibular and sublingual glands are the main saliva secreting organs, and the saliva secreted by the salivary glands flows into the mouth through the ducts to form saliva. The normal “flow” of saliva (secretion) will not flow out of the mouth. Second, the cause of increased salivation The regulation of salivary secretion is neuroreflexive, including unconditioned and conditioned reflexes. The efferent nerves that govern the salivary glands are sympathetic and parasympathetic. When these two nerves are excited, they both cause an increase in saliva secretion, but the parasympathetic nerve is the main effect. After the appearance of a beautiful woman in the eyes, men’s spirits are often in a state of excitement, sympathetic nerves are more nervous. But a little later it relaxes. Immediately afterwards the vagus nerve (with parasympathetic nerves) begins to excite, and one of the reactions is glandular secretion. This leads to an overproduction of salivary glands, so saliva involuntarily flows down from the corners of the mouth. Did not understand too well? To put it simply, a beautiful woman or food stimulates your nerves, the nerves stimulate your glands, and then saliva overproduction, and then it flows out. But this situation is not limited to men and beautiful women, for all the things that can stimulate the sympathetic nerve human beings are like yo. Not only do men see beautiful women drooling, women see handsome men drooling, and some men see men drooling, in short, it does not matter what you see, the important thing is that it is not stimulating your nerves. Third, why do ALS patients drool more. Definitely not caused by seeing beautiful women and handsome men, but because of the weakness of the throat muscles, unable to swallow the normal production of saliva. A normal person swallows saliva without thinking, but ALS patients with pharyngeal muscle involvement cannot swallow, so there will be a lot of saliva. In addition, emotional stress, anger, infection and other factors can also stimulate the nerves and increase saliva production. So how to deal with the situation of excessive saliva. Although there are many ways (see my other articles), the most common way is to use small doses of amitriptyline, said small because usually only 1 or 2 tablets are used, unlike the other uses of amitriptyline. Amitriptyline is originally a classic antidepressant and a multi-target drug with side effects such as dry mouth, drowsiness, constipation, blurred vision, difficulty urinating, and palpitations. To use it in ALS patients is to take its side effects. But it kills three birds with one stone, not only reducing drooling, but also improving sleep and partially improving mood.