Wonders of Creation
The Smart Design of the Throat: Why One Passage Serves Both Food and Air
Discover the hidden logic behind the body’s structure, how it prevents choking, and why this compact design reflects remarkable efficiency
- Daniel Blass
- |Updated
"Greetings Rabbi. I ask this out of curiosity, not Heaven forbid as if I were giving advice to the Creator. Why did Hashem, the Creator of the world, make the esophagus so close to the trachea? Isn’t there a risk of choking, God forbid? Thank you very much in advance for your answer."
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Shalom and blessings,
The passageway for swallowing divides into two tubes: the esophagus, which carries food and drink, and the trachea, which connects to the lungs and is used for breathing.
God created everything with great wisdom, and as compactly as possible. If there had to be one separate tube for swallowing and one separate tube for breathing, then our throat would need to be split in two. It would be twice as large, harder to move, and, more seriously, we would need two mouths! Considering that we require both teeth and a tongue to form speech and words, each mouth would have to have teeth and a tongue, even though only one would actually be used for eating.
In addition, the trachea that leads to the lungs allows us to cough, pushing out any foreign object that might enter. But if the tubes were completely separate, then any foreign object stuck in the esophagus (say, a small insect or item) could never be removed except through surgery. Because the two tubes are connected, a person can use the force of air from their lungs to cough and thereby prevent foreign objects from blocking either the trachea or the esophagus.
In His wisdom, God created a special muscle deep in the throat, which automatically seals the trachea whenever we swallow food or drink. Choking usually occurs only when people are talking while eating, when food is still in the mouth. Besides the fact that this is impolite and unattractive, it also carries a risk of choking. A person should not talk while their main purpose is to eat and swallow.
Choking is in fact a very rare cause of death, with low fatality rates. The overwhelming majority of people who choke on a foreign object manage to cough it out successfully.
