Get Rid of the Lump in Your Throat with Globus Sensation Treatment
That sensation that has you constantly needing to clear your throat may be an age old malady appropriately dubbed “lump in throat.”
Have you ever experienced a prolonged feeling of a foreign body in your throat—a painless physical obstruction of some sort with a tight or choking sensation? Rest assured, you are not alone.
A Natural Approach to a Seemingly Mysterious Disorder
According to a publication in the British Journal of General Practice, up to 45 percent of the global population suffer with you and tolerate the disorder that sometimes goes hand-in-hand with a frequent need to cough, swallow, or clear your throat.
The condition goes by many names. Western medicine refers to it as globus hystericus, globus pharyngeus, globus sensation, or simply “lump in throat.” Traditional Chinese medicine calls it “plum pit throat” or “plum pit qi.”
Causes for the disorder seem as manifold as its names—stuck qi or phlegm, stress, a depressed state of life, fear, or anxiety, gastro-esophageal reflux, post nasal drip, or sinusitis—and those are only a few of the symptoms that can apparently cause the mysterious lump.
Tangible or Imaginary?
Hippocrates first wrote about “globus pharyngeus” around 2,500 years ago, and Chinese physician Zhang Zhongjing wrote about the condition in his famous work titled “Shang han za bing lun” (Treatise on Febrile and Other Diseases) in the third century.
To this day, however, the cause of the disorder is still not fully understood and cannot be properly explained to patients. Regularly, primary care physicians cannot physically locate the lump their patients are describing, and repeated ear, nose, throat (ENT) examinations do not reveal any causes.
Controversial indeed, as research in the mid to late-20th century labeled globus sensation as a purely hysterical symptom, hence the unflattering title globus hystericus. Nowadays, however, “the research has been mainly focused on somatic causes and it is suspected that the etiology is complex,” declares the team of scientists.
Early Research and Treatment of Globus
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In primary care practices, doctors most frequently use the Glasgow-Edinburgh Throat Scale in attempts to diagnose their patients or gauge the severity of the disorder. Recent studies—2018 in Japan and 2020 in Turkey—proved the scale as a valuable resource and confirmed its validity in cross-cultural adaptation worldwide.
During that research, 3,360 individuals from urban and rural areas were asked to fill out a questionnaire regarding their experience and symptoms of globus pharyngeus “The incidences and severity of anxiety, depression, and sleep disorders were significantly higher among patients who presented with globus in the urban area than among those in the rural area,” the results of the Chinese research team found.
Natural Management Techniques
The following is a compilation of ways to lower your stress level, strengthen your nervous system, or employ natural herbs and remedies to “calm the spirit” as traditional Chinese medicine would refer to.
Herbal Remedies
Traditional Chinese medicine sees “plum pit throat” or “plum pit qi” as a condition of stuck qi or phlegm or an overproduction of the latter. As a remedy, the qi should be activated and phlegm be dissolved.
The Ban Xia Houpu decoction is also a topic of a paper released in 2010 by the Journal of Traditional Chinese Medicine. The research team points to the elixir’s therapeutic value regarding globus hystericus and explains further, “Its mechanism may be related to its function in relieving depression and anxiety and regulating the psychological state.”
Japanese traditional medicine features the same herbal extraction for the obstructive sensation in the throat. The only difference is the name: Hangekobokuto “is well-known in North-East Asia for its effective treatment of psychological characteristics, stress and pressure of psychiatric disorder as well as bronchial asthma and impairment of swallowing reflex,” states an article in Biomedical Reports.
Home-Grown Applications
Passionflower and chamomile are two of the featured herbs in a 2022 study published in the journal Pharmacological Research. Amongst other herbs, the duo shows promising results for the treatment of anxiety disorders. In addition to positive results in treating anxiety, chamomile has also been shown to be a useful herbal remedy for depression.
As Linden flowers target both the respiratory tract (throat) and the nervous system, they are excellent herbal candidates for the treatment of globus sensation. Prepared as a tea, these petals make an outstanding non-narcotic sedative remedy to battle insomnia and anxiety, states the University of Texas El Paso on their website.
Hops and lemon balm “have consistently been shown in clinical trials to relieve mild forms of neurological disorders, particularly depression, anxiety, and stress,” the journal Molecules reports in a 2022 study about the herbs’ prevailing medicinal qualities.
Physical Exercises and Stretches
Finally, experiencing restful sleep is extremely important in the treatment of globus sensation. This can be a bit of a catch-22, as insomnia is a symptom of the disorder. Such is depression, which according to Johns Hopkins Medicine is closely linked to sleeplessness.
