Does your mouth produce more saliva when your sick?

[Grimlock]

Early March i had quite an aggressive throat infection basically i had to resort to take bricks/penicillin before i finally got rid of it.
One thing i noticed and i think most of you who have had a throat infection is that it seems that your mouth is producing an awful lot of saliva more then usual.

My question is, is this just in my imagination or is our mouths actually producing more saliva then normal when we,´re sick and if so why?

 

[nasher168]

From the title I thought you meant when you vomit...
...
...

Anyway, I don't know if it does happen, but I can certainly see the advantage if it did. Washing microbes into your stomach would be an effective way of stemming their numbers and with a throat infection this could really help give your immune system more time to respond.

 

[Memeticemetic]

Good question. It does make some measure of intuitive sense that this would be the case. I've noticed that whenever my attention is brought to how much saliva I'm producing, sick or not, I tend to produce obnoxiously more saliva. Like, say, now. So thanks. Jerk.

 

[Andiferous]

There is a condition during the nausea phase of pregnancy in which some women are documented to routinely produce "excessive" saliva. So sure...

 

[aeritano]

Saliva serves many purposes other then the digestion of food in your mouth.

It provides a mucosa layer to help protect sensitive irritated areas , such as an infected throat
The mucosa layer also provides protection from further infectious particles.. now the virus of bug has to get through a thick layer saliva.
It also provides a matrix for virus and bacterial particles to get stuck in. n which provides an easy way of expelling the pathogens from the body trough swallowing into the acidic environment of the stomach or expelled out through spitting

so yes, there is an excess of saliva formed when sick.. and it serves a purpose

Immune system FTW!

 

[kenandkids]

This is far too vague. Some sicknesses produce excess saliva, some cause less saliva to be produced. Did you take medication? Because many medications restrict saliva yet some cause more to be produced. Were you contemplating saliva? Because that increases production, or puking? Because so does that.