There's a horrifying bodily function called 'gleeking' - and most people don't realise they can do it

You may never have heard of gleeking — a bizarre and unpleasant bodily function that apparently anyone can do. 

Gleeking is the ability to spray saliva out of the mouth from the glands that sit underneath the tongue in a move that's been compared to a cobra spitting venom. 

Medics estimate that about a third (35 per cent) of the population may 'gleek' accidentally.

In fact, to their horror, many of those who can gleek do so while yawning, leading to an embarrassing spraying of people and objects near them.

However, experts add anyone can learn how to do it, if for some reason they wanted to.

Gleeking has taken social media by storm, with horrifying TikTok videos of people showing off their ability — often in slow motion — racking up millions of views. 

People can gleek by pressuing the tongue to the roof of the mouth, with the mouth open — this applies pressure to the saliva-filled sublingual glands under the tongue.

This pressure causes the sublingual glands to squirt out their saliva reserve in a fine jet. 

Gleeking tutorials seen by over  two million people have a few tips for those who want to try to gleek intentionally.

The first step is to agitate the sublingual glands, prompting them to produce more saliva, by moving your tongue around.

Then stick up your tongue to the roof of your mouth as far back as you can go.

The final step is to push your tongue up while squeezing down and, if successful, causing a geyser of watery saliva to erupt from the floor of the mouth.

Some people also recommend consuming sour food or drink like sour sweets or lemon juice beforehand as this encourages the body to produce more saliva.

Dr Mark Wolff, dean of School of Dental Medicine at the University of Pennsylvania, previously told Health.com that 'everyone' can gleek, though it can take some practice. 

'If you tense the muscles in the tongue right, it squeezes the duct, and saliva squirts right out,' he said. 

Saliva is a natural bodily fluid produced to help us digest food and keep out digestive system lubricated for swallowing.

There are no known hazards to gleeking, besides potentially offending someone in the splash zone, but no benefits either. 

Many social media users commenting on gleeking videos either admitted to trying and failing to gleek entirely or commiserated with others on the awkwardness of accidently spraying people. 

'I can't do it on command it only happens when I don't want it to,' one wrote.  

'Not me spraining my tongue trying to do this,' another wrote.

One user even detailed how their sibling often using their ability to gleek to torment them. 

'My brother does it always when I'm in a serious situation,' they said.