Alterations to Swallowing Physiology as the Result of Effortful Swallowing in Healthy Seniors.

A significant proportion of healthy seniors report difficulty swallowing, thought to result from age-related decline in muscle bulk/function. Effortful Swallowing (ES) is used both as a compensatory maneuver to improve pharyngeal propulsion/clearance and has been proposed as an exercise to improve pharyngeal strength. This study sought to quantify the immediate kinematic, temporal, and functional changes during an ES maneuver to quantify its exercise potential to combat age-related changes in swallowing.