Salivary Glands!!!

I wanted to make sure everyone is aware of this. I have literally found almost nothing discussing it and I think it may help a lot more people then folks may realize. And by help, I mean help them not worry if it happens. It happens to me after fasting. So after I did 6 day fast last year, immediately after refeading, my glands swelled up. Both of them, but one more than the other. And I mean HUGE. All I could think was that they were my lymph nodes, because it's the same general area from were lymph nodes under the neck swell when sick. Submandibular salivary glands. So it freaked me out. But oddly in about 5 hours the swelling went way down. So I ate again, but they swelled up immediately again. So I did some research, and I found 3 references. And I mean 3, on the entire internet, that was all I could find, from some random question site and from this site. Apparently, the salivary glands can either get a little slow after not being used, or they can get small stones that block them a little, or they can get big stones that completely block them. It can be ipsilateral or bilateral. To me, one was worse than the other but both were pretty huge. This phenomenon of swelling after eating went on for a few weeks. So mine weren't blocked, my body just couldn't calibrate the right amount of saliva after not being used for almost 6 days. So a warm compress, massage, sucking on a lemon all helped but not much, it just took time for them to readjust. So I was afraid to do long fasts. I kept fasts at 4 days or under. But even with the 3 and 4 days my salivary glands would swell a bit when going back to eating. So I tried chewing gum during fasts, I know it has some calories, there is no 0 calorie gum. But I thought it was worth the trade off, if it would keep my salivary glands active during fasts. It worked and they didn't swell after refeading! At least not if I was careful and I ate bland food the first day. Then the next problem occurred😁 i was chewing a ton of gum. All of a sudden my bite was off, I thought it had to be structural. But after much research and experimentation, I realized my masseter muscle was over worked inflamed and probably in a spasm. After a week of hot compress and massage inside and outside the mouth, my jaw went back to normal, my bite returned to normal and I could chew normally again. So, if anyone gets either of these symptoms due to fasting, or things associated with fasting, don't freak out! They are transient, and you will find the best way to mitigate. I have good tricks that work for me if you do suffer from either issue.