When You Have a Cold

[Guest guest]

The Claim: Never Blow Your Nose When You Have a Cold

Blowing your nose to alleviate stuffiness may be second nature, but

some people argue it does no good, reversing the flow of mucus into

the sinuses and slowing the drainage.

Counterintuitive, perhaps, but research shows it to be true.

To test the notion, Dr. J. Owen Hendley and other pediatric

infectious disease researchers at the University of Virginia

conducted CT scans and other measurements as subjects coughed,

sneezed and blew their noses.

In some cases, the subjects had an opaque dye dripped into their

rear nasal cavities.

Coughing and sneezing generated little if any pressure in the nasal

cavities.

But nose blowing generated enormous pressure — " equivalent to a

person's diastolic blood pressure reading, " Dr. Hendley said — and

propelled mucus into the sinuses every time.

Dr. Hendley said it was unclear whether this was harmful, but added

that during sickness it could shoot viruses or bacteria into the

sinuses, and possibly cause further infection.

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Alana