# Can you actually swallow your tongue? **URL:** \ **Category:** Factual Questions\ **Created:** [July 10, 2014, 2:54pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/can-you-actually-swallow-your-tongue/692769 "2014-07-10T14:54:56Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 7\ **Page:** 1
**Author:** ![grude](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/g/e47774/32.png) [@grude](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/grude)\ **Post date:** [July 10, 2014, 2:54pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/can-you-actually-swallow-your-tongue/692769/1 "2014-07-10T14:54:56Z")
I’ve seen this suicide method mentioned in various fiction, I know one place sure it is mentioned is in Silence Of The Lambs where Lector talks one of his fellow inmates into swallowing his tongue and killing himself. :dubious:Can you actually do this? I don’t see how it is possible anatomically, I’ve given it my best shot and no dice. Googling mostly shows the fictional references, no real medical reports. I can also remember seeing in older fiction if someone had a seizure people would rush to force a spoon in their mouth to stop them from swallowing their tongue, this stopped at some point in the 80’s and I can find no real world references to this practice. ---
**Author:** ![WhyNot](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/w/c77e96/32.png) [@WhyNot](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/WhyNot)\ **Post date:** [July 10, 2014, 3:12pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/can-you-actually-swallow-your-tongue/692769/2 "2014-07-10T15:12:46Z")
[No.](http://sciencebasedlife.wordpress.com/2011/06/27/its-impossible-to-swallow-your-tongue/) Your tongue can swell up and block your airway during a severe allergic response, or for a completely relaxed (due to drugs or seizure) tongue to block the airway by flopping back, but you can’t \*swallow \*it unless you cut it out first. It’s attached too far forward to allow that. Still, don’t put things in the mouths of people having a seizure. When they are having a seizure, their tongue muscle is anything but relaxed and not going to block the airway. When they’re done with their seizure, if they’re still unconscious, roll them to their side in the rescue position to allow the tongue (and possibly vomit, which may come up as they wake) to stay in a safe position. ---
**Author:** ![bob\_2](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/bob_2/32/3341_2.png) [@bob\_2](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/bob_2)\ **Post date:** [July 10, 2014, 3:23pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/can-you-actually-swallow-your-tongue/692769/3 "2014-07-10T15:23:00Z")
And yet - if you scroll down on that link, there is a link to a youtube video of someone doing just that. ---
**Author:** ![Machine\_Elf](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/m/82dd89/32.png) [@Machine\_Elf](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Machine_Elf)\ **Post date:** [July 10, 2014, 3:24pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/can-you-actually-swallow-your-tongue/692769/4 "2014-07-10T15:24:57Z")
> [@WhyNot](#): > > Still, don’t put things in the mouths of people having a seizure. When they are having a seizure, their tongue muscle is anything but relaxed and not going to block the airway. [WebMD backs you up on not putting things in their mouth.](http://www.webmd.com/epilepsy/guide/first-aid-seizures) However, I always understood the tongue-related seizure hazard to be not swallowing it, but biting it, like [this guy did in this rather blood-filled video.](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=wmAiABeP08k) I thought the idea (apparently now ill-advised) behind inserting something in their mouth was to keep their tongue away from their teeth, not to keep them from swallowing it. ---
**Author:** ![jtur88](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/j/e9c0ed/32.png) [@jtur88](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/jtur88)\ **Post date:** [July 10, 2014, 3:43pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/can-you-actually-swallow-your-tongue/692769/5 "2014-07-10T15:43:10Z")
If any object gets lodged in the throat, it can cause choking, which can lead to death. An undetached tongue can be flexed back far enough into the throat for this medical phenomenon to occur. “Swallowing” would be the most appropriate verb, in both medical and vernacular terminology, for this process. It could be the cause of death in an unconscious or paralyzed person, but would seem unlikely in a person who had the reflexes to cough it up. ---
**Author:** ![Chief\_Pedant](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/c/a6a055/32.png) [@Chief\_Pedant](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Chief_Pedant)\ **Post date:** [July 10, 2014, 4:25pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/can-you-actually-swallow-your-tongue/692769/6 "2014-07-10T16:25:32Z")
> [@jtur88](#): > > If any object gets lodged in the throat, it can cause choking, which can lead to death. An undetached tongue can be flexed back far enough into the throat for this medical phenomenon to occur. “Swallowing” would be the most appropriate verb, in both medical and vernacular terminology, for this process. > > It could be the cause of death in an unconscious or paralyzed person, but would seem unlikely in a person who had the reflexes to cough it up. Out of curiosity, are you just winging it here, or are you able to back this up? I’ve been the bedside physician for quite a few of the newly dead and actively dying, and I’ve never seen such a phenomenon. I’ve intubated a boatload; handled quite a few chokers, foreign body inhalers, seizers and so on; not to mention evaluated a plethora of those who have swallowed a wide variety of things deliberately and accidentally. Swallowing one’s tongue? Really? And given the (brain stem) level of defect required to paralyze the hypoglossal nerve, how it the world would you decide such a paralyzing injury caused death by swallowing the tongue? While it is true that various levels of obtundation can lead to respiratory distress, aspiration or similar, I’d like some clarification or support on your contention that “swallowing a tongue” is a possible mode of exodus from this world. ---
**Author:** ![jtur88](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/j/e9c0ed/32.png) [@jtur88](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/jtur88)\ **Post date:** [July 11, 2014, 6:16pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/can-you-actually-swallow-your-tongue/692769/7 "2014-07-11T18:16:12Z")
> [@Chief\_Pedant](#): > > Out of curiosity, are you just winging it here, or are you able to back this up? > > I’ve been the bedside physician for quite a few of the newly dead and actively dying, and I’ve never seen such a phenomenon. I’ve intubated a boatload; handled quite a few chokers, foreign body inhalers, seizers and so on; not to mention evaluated a plethora of those who have swallowed a wide variety of things deliberately and accidentally. > > Swallowing one’s tongue? Really? And given the (brain stem) level of defect required to paralyze the hypoglossal nerve, how it the world would you decide such a paralyzing injury caused death by swallowing the tongue? > > While it is true that various levels of obtundation can lead to respiratory distress, aspiration or similar, I’d like some clarification or support on your contention that “swallowing a tongue” is a possible mode of exodus from this world. Thank you for correcting me. If the sum of all knowledge is that which I have seen, I cannot say I have seen a person die from swallowing his tongue.