"What Causes Dry Mouth and Its Symptoms?"

1. Gastrointestinal diseases, such as chronic gastritis and peptic ulcer, often lead to dry and bitter mouth accompanied by bad breath.

2. Excessive smoking, alcohol abuse, snoring, sleeping with the mouth open, etc., can also cause dry and bitter mouth.

3. Psychological factors such as stress from work and life in modern society cause many people to suffer from long-term work stress, irregular lifestyles, insufficient sleep and lack of exercise, leading to dry and bitter mouth.

Dry mouth can be divided into three types: Physiological dry mouth is commonly seen in cases of inadequate water intake, excessive consumption of salty and dry foods, after intense exercise and heavy sweating, and due to neurological dysfunction. Additionally, mental factors such as menopause, tension, and anxiety can also cause dry mouth. Normal elderly people may experience varying degrees of dry mouth due to atrophy of glands in the oral mucosa and decreased saliva secretion.

Pathological dry mouth is often seen after illnesses such as colds, vomiting, diarrhea, and high fever. Patients with nasal congestion due to rhinitis, sinusitis, or deviated nasal septum often experience dry mouth due to evaporation of moisture in the oral cavity caused by breathing through the mouth. Asthma patients may experience dry mouth due to excessive evaporation of moisture from the respiratory tract caused by accelerated and deepened breathing. Patients with sleep-disordered breathing of various causes may experience dry mouth after waking up in the morning due to breathing through the mouth during the night.

Diabetes is a well-known cause of dry mouth, where patients may experience dry mouth and thirst due to increased blood glucose levels leading to increased plasma osmolarity and polyuria. Certain pituitary tumors can also cause dry mouth. Severe dry mouth is seen in patients with Sjögren's syndrome. Immune reactions can damage the parotid glands, salivary glands in the oral cavity, lacrimal glands, and glands in the nasal mucosa, causing unbearable dryness in the mouth, eyes, and nose, and severe cases may make it difficult to move the tongue or close the eyes.

Explanation of Dry Mouth in Traditional Chinese Medicine: Dry mouth is a symptom in traditional Chinese medicine, referring to the subjective sensation of insufficient fluid in the mouth. Traditional Chinese medicine divides the causes of dry mouth into two categories: deficiency and excess. Deficiency is mainly due to deficiency of qi, blood, and yin-fluid, leading to improper distribution of fluid and causing dry mouth; excess is mainly due to consumption of fluid by fiery and dry pathogens or stagnation of phlegm-dampness and blood stasis, causing obstruction of meridians and improper distribution of fluid.