woman gleeking
Jade Small
Jade Small
December 4, 2023 Â·  3 min read

‘Gleeking’ Is A Disgusting Human Function That People Don’t Realise They Can Do

Of all the wonderful things that human beings can do, there sure are some strange things that are celebrated over social media. A recent trend has started making its way around, where people are showing off their “gleeking” abilities. This is where one shoots saliva from underneath their tongue, like a snake and its venom.

The basics of gleeking

“Gleeking” is not a new phenomenon. Kids have been shooting saliva from their tongues for generations now, but last year it made its way into a TikTok trend. This year it has suddenly re-emerged and is making its way through our ForYou pages, grossing many people out.

Gleeking 101
Image credit: TikTok

What is “gleeking” exactly? Well, it is a skill that not all possess, although everyone can learn how to do it. Among the thousands of saliva glands in your mouth, there are three main ones. Two of them are the submandibular and sublingual glands which are located underneath the tongue. They are responsible for releasing saliva while you eat to help with digestion. However, they occasionally shoot out saliva when pressure builds up in the gland.

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How does one gleek?

For most of us, this happens involuntarily, which can be embarrassing. But, there are some people who have trained themselves in the art of gleeking. Often, they show off their skills as a party trick, receiving varying reactions. The TikTok trends will lead you to believe it is a rare ability that only 1% of the population can do. But, Dr. Aranov from Australia, says we could all become gleekers if we put our minds to it. Everyone can do it,” said Dr. Aranov. “We have glands that make saliva that sit right underneath our tongue. They release their saliva through two little openings.”He added, “There’s a way to train your tongue to squeeze those salivary glands and gleek.”

Dr. Wolff, dean of the School of Dental Medicine at the University of Pennsylvania, explained to Health some methods people could try if they are interested to learn gleeking on demand. Because our saliva glands are activated when eating, he suggested eating something sour. This hyper-stimulates our saliva production. Next, you must curl your tongue back inside your mouth so that the bottom of it sits on the roof of your mouth, behind your top teeth. Then, “If you tense the muscles in the tongue right,” said Dr. Wolff. “It squeezes the duct, and saliva squirts right out.”

Image credit: WikiHow

WikiHow explains

For the determined want-to-be gleekers, WikiHow has listed some tips and tricks to the skill of gleeking. According to them, yawning is another method of stimulating the saliva glands in your mouth. they suggest to “Yawn a couple of times to stimulate saliva.” Additionally, they recommend to “eat a sour candy to trigger your salivary gland.”

Next, they recommend drinking water. As being hydrated will allow more saliva production. “Water is an excellent way to stimulate your salivary glands,” reads the website.” It also has the added benefit of being good for you!”

Now, when it comes to the actual gleeking part WikiHo says, “Pucker your lips together and take a deep breath. Form a small circle by pursing your lips together. It’s incredibly hard to breathe and gleek at the same time, so you’ll want to catch your breath before attempting to gleek. Take a deep breathe and relax your shoulders. A deep breath will give the salivary gland time to generate enough spit around the bottom of your tongue.” The then go on to explain the same curved tongue behind your teeth maneuver.

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