Microscopic cilia flap back and forth continuously to push mucus to the back of your throat. American Rhinologic Society. Whether you're aware of it or not, you're constantly swallowing all this mucus, and it harmlessly ends up in your stomach. Ellis says that, on average, a person produces about 1. But that mucus gets diluted by a separate, watery secretion called serous fluid , which can vary widely based on your health. Mucus has two main functions: it keeps the nasal cavity and the other airways inside your body moist, preventing them from drying out due to all the air that flows over them.
Relatedly, the serous fluid that mucus is mixed with also moistens the air itself before it enters the lungs. Mucus' other function, though, might surprise you. Mucus, in other words, is nature's filter for your delicate lungs. The bacteria, dust and other tiny particles that you breathe in get stuck in mucus and pulled down into your stomach, where they're destroyed by enzymes.
When a cold or allergies cause your nose to run, it's because they're triggering an inflammatory response in your nasal cavity and airways. Even though you always produce roughly the same amount of mucus, this dramatically increases the amount of the serous fluid it's diluted in.
We tend to experience this as an excess of watery, runny mucus, and it can be treate by taking an anti-histamine, which reduces the amount of water — leading to thicker, drier mucus. Cold weather causes a runny nose in an entirely different way. In cold temperatures, your cilia the microscopic hairs that sweep mucus to the back of your throat stop sweeping back and forth as quickly, causing some of the mucus to drip down through your nose instead.
The nose is mostly filled by conchae. Bruce Blaus. The inside of your nose is filled with structures called conchae , or turbinates. Their primary function is to warm the air you inhale to body temperature and add moisture until it's very humid — so that the air can enter your lungs without causing problems. Stuffy noses occur when the conchae rapidly swell in size in response to cold, dry conditions, so there's more surface area for the air to flow over.
Additionally, if you're fighting an infection, the conchae can swell further with blood, in order to bring more white blood cells to the site of the infection.
Another misconception is that green mucus indicates bacterial infection and thus requires antibiotic treatment. A number of research studies have shown poor correlation between mucus colour and significant infection. So morning sputum may be more coloured than later in the day. The diagnosis of a bacterial infection is made when a combination of symptoms and findings exists, with mucus colour not being the most important of these. Unfortunately this misconception extends to some GPs.
Patients with green sputum are prescribed antibiotics three times more often than patients coughing clear sputum. However, for patients with a bad cough, this prescription did not improve their recovery. Mucus can be colourful stuff, extending from clear to yellowy-green, but also orange, brown and grey. Orange and brown comes from the presence of blood in mucus, of variable concentrations and ages.
This blood commonly comes from the nose, due to inflammation, infection or side effects of nasal medication, without an obvious nose bleed. Many people believe milk and dairy products stimulate the production of extra mucus, so should be avoided in those with hay fever and asthma.
Your goal is to use your nose to pull excess phlegm down into your throat, where your tongue and throat muscles can get a good grip on it. Form a U-shape with your tongue while forcing air and saliva forward using the muscles at the back of your throat.
When you have the phlegm in your mouth, hock it into your bathroom sink. The color could provide important clues about your health:. This hue is caused by an enzyme produced by your white blood cells that are fighting off the infection.
If the thick phlegm persists more than a week, it may indicate that the viral infection has progressed to a bacterial infection, says Erin K. Health , Medical Tips. Boogers get a bad rap. It serves an important role in keeping those parts of your body hydrated and protected. Mucus can vary slightly depending on what part of the body produces it, but typically it is made up of 98 percent water, 1 percent salt and 1 percent biopolymers—very long molecules that interact with one another and give mucus that gel-like quality.
Boucher, a James C. Moeser eminent distinguished professor of medicine. The biopolymers in mucus have bristles that stick out from a central protein thread, like a bottle brush. Those bristles are responsible for trapping potentially harmful things we breathe in. The mucus is then cleared by leaving through the nose or mouth or by being swallowed into the stomach, where digestive acids kill most anything that could make us sick.
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