id: b372f3f2-89b5-11ee-97f7-23ea96d179ac
Cold and Nasal Congestion: Do You Really Understand Your Nose? - Huxiu.com#
Omnivore#
Highlights#
In fact, on those sleepless nights, when I turned from one side to the other, I unconsciously activated the sensors under my armpits, thus opening up the other side of my nose. This may be an ancient survival reflex: when we lie on our right side, the left nostril is further from the ground and may be less prone to blockage. ⤴️ ^8a69bffa
Amazing, I never thought there could be such a mechanism, the nose and armpits are connected.
Echols found that people who take menthol lozenges can hold their breath longer, possibly because the cooling sensation of menthol makes them think they are still breathing air. This is also why Vicks VapoRub may make the congestion feel better, even though it does not actively clear the nasal passages. ⤴️ ^ade9ae97
This may be the reason why applying a cooling oil under the nose feels comfortable, as it does not actually increase the airflow but deceives the nose's cold receptors.
Cold and Nasal Congestion: Do You Really Understand Your Nose?#
This article introduces some new knowledge about nasal congestion, including the fact that humans have two noses, the main cause of nasal congestion is swelling, and the erectile tissue inside the nasal cavity, among others. It also discusses the nasal cycle and how turning can improve nasal congestion.
• Humans have two noses, each nostril leading to its own nasal cavity, which are independent organs.
• The main cause of nasal congestion is swelling, not mucus, so clearing mucus does not completely solve the problem of nasal congestion.
• The erectile tissue inside the nasal cavity can become congested, leading to nasal congestion. Controlling the nasal cycle can improve nasal congestion to some extent.
Since my child started daycare, I have been catching colds every month. Recently, I have spent a lot of time dealing with nasal congestion. I have been blowing my nose constantly. I have also tried using a neti pot and various nasal sprays. On sleepless nights, I spent hours tossing and turning, trying to clear one nostril and then the other.
From this experience, I have learned that nasal congestion is much stranger than I imagined.
First of all, what we commonly refer to as the nose is actually two noses that work in an alternating cycle and are somehow connected to our armpits.
© Wikipedia
The argument that humans have two noses was proposed by Ronald E. Eccles, a nasal specialist at the Common Cold Centre at Cardiff University in Wales, until he retired a few years ago. I know it sounds ridiculous, but consider what your nose, or rather your two noses, look like on the inside: each nostril leads to its own nasal cavity and is not directly connected to the other nostril. They are two separate organs, just like your two eyes or two ears.
The nose is far from a passive passage; it hides a constantly changing internal structure. As Eccles put it, there is erectile tissue inside the nose that is "similar to the erectile tissue of the penis" and can become congested. Infections or allergies can exacerbate the swelling to the point where the nasal cavity becomes completely blocked.
The main cause of nasal congestion is swelling, not mucus, which is why clearing mucus does not completely solve nasal congestion.
Timothy Smith, an otolaryngologist at the Oregon Sinus Center, said, "You can blow your nose constantly, but you can't blow out the swollen tissue." He told me that gently blowing your nose is effective for any mucus that may worsen nasal congestion. However, nasal sprays containing pseudoephedrine and oxymetazoline can cause the blood vessels in the nasal cavity to contract, temporarily opening up the nasal passages for temporary relief.
In a healthy nose, the swelling and decongestion of nasal tissue usually follow a predictable pattern called the "nasal cycle". Every few hours, one side of the nose becomes partially congested while the other side opens up. They then alternate back and forth.
The exact pattern and duration vary from person to person, but we rarely notice these changes inside our noses.
Under normal circumstances, people do not notice that one nostril is always more difficult to breathe through than the other; people usually only notice this phenomenon when they have a cold, when one nostril is more congested than usual. © Wikipedia
Gilherme Garcia, a biomedical engineer at the University of Wisconsin School of Medicine and Public Health, said, "When I tell people about the nasal cycle, most people have no idea."
I certainly didn't know, as I have always breathed through my nose my whole life. But once I consciously considered this idea, it made sense: when I'm sick, the extra swelling turns partial congestion into complete congestion, and I do tend to feel more congested on one side than the other.
Once you understand the nasal cycle, you can control it to some extent.
==In fact, on those sleepless nights,====when I turned from one side to the other, I unconsciously activated the sensors under my armpits, thus opening up the other side of my nose====. This may be an ancient survival reflex: when we lie on our right side, the left nostril is further from the ground and may be less prone to blockage.==
Yoga practitioners have learned to use this by using a small stick called a yoga stick under the armpit to guide the breath from one nostril to the other. There is a method suggested online for treating nasal congestion by squeezing a bottle under the opposite arm, but the effect is not immediate. When I recently tried this, my arm got tired before my nose cleared. When I tried again, I used an old crutch I had from a previous knee injury, and it took a few minutes to work, by which time I had impatiently reached for a tissue out of habit.
Eccles said that no one knows exactly why humans have a nasal cycle, but cats, pigs, rabbits, dogs, and mice also have nasal cycles. One hypothesis is that this cycle helps defend against pathogens. When the erectile tissue contracts, plasma rich in antibodies is squeezed onto the inner walls of the nose. Each cycle can replenish the nose's defense capabilities.
Eccles also noted that upper respiratory viruses seem to prefer temperatures slightly below body temperature; when one side of the nose becomes partially congested, it may warm up enough to resist the virus. Alternatively, this cycle may allow one half of the nose to rest.
Unlike our eyes, ears, and mouth, the nose must work 24 hours a day, constantly filtering and warming the air for our delicate lung tissue. The work of the nose may not sound difficult, but consider what it has to do: the air we breathe may be 70 degrees Fahrenheit with a humidity of 35%, "by the time the air enters my nose and returns to my nasopharynx, the temperature has reached 98.7 degrees Fahrenheit with a humidity of 100%." The nose is a very powerful miniature HVAC system.
But it is also flawed. Our noses do not directly measure airflow; instead, they rely on cold receptors that are activated when cool air passes through. These cold receptors can be deceived by substances like menthol.
==Eccles found that====people who take menthol lozenges can hold their breath longer====, possibly because the cooling sensation of menthol makes them think they are still breathing air. This is also why Vicks VapoRub may make the congestion feel better, even though it does not actively clear the nasal passages.==
The opposite can occur in a perplexing condition known as "empty nose syndrome," where only a small percentage of patients who have undergone nasal decongestion surgery feel completely congested, possibly due to damage to the cold receptors and changes in other sensations. The lack of airflow sensation can be very distressing, to the point where these patients feel like they are suffocating, even though their noses are completely clear.
To some extent, we are all unreliable narrators of our own nasal congestion. When patients go for an examination, doctors may see that one side of their nose is visibly more swollen than the other, but this may not be the side the patient feels more congested on. "This still puzzles clinical doctors," Smith told me. Other factors, such as temperature, may also play a role. The internal structure of the nose is complex and mysterious. The next time I get sick and feel congested again, I will think about all these things.