What Snot Says About Your Health | Deep Dives | Health

have you ever looked at your tissue after blowing your nose and noticed it's looking a little off whether you call it mucus snot or boogers turns out there's a lot of things your mucus can reveal about your health first why do i have snot anyway so a snot is a type of mucus and your body produces mucus all on the inside so whether it be your sinuses or your nose or your gut and you actually produce up to a liter worth of mucus every day it's a healthy thing and that helps lubricate the inside of your body which keeps it from getting any infections whether it be viruses or bacteria or any other invade foreign invaders so while that occasional feeling of mucus running down your nose or in your throat may be a little annoying it turns out it's actually a good thing i have a lot of patients who come in and complain they have too much mucus when in fact that's generally not the case mucus is generally a good thing it helps lubricate and protect your body from infections and from foreign invaders as well as inflammation as long as the mucus is not overwhelming your respiration or getting particularly worse then it's actually a good thing for your body so that feeling of congestion is actually your body trying to protect you but if that's the case should you keep blowing your nose to get rid of it sometimes your body gets overwhelmed with so much mucus and congestion so it is definitely okay to blow now obviously if you blow too much you may cause more irritation so you have to have some some balance in that your body is trying to fight off whatever's causing the inflammation or infection but it's okay to blow and sometimes you can use some other remedies to try and help decrease the congestion as well just remember to flow into a tissue if you need to cough cough into your arm and make sure you wash your hands because the the basics of a cold is not trying to spread it to anyone else or to reinfect yourself if you don't wash your hands and you're not doing good hand hygiene you know and you have any mucus on your hands because it has the viral particles in it if you touch yourself or touch anyone else you may actually infect yourself or infect someone else and make them sick as well okay so we all know what mucus feels like but what's that actually made of mucus is mainly made out of water and this is why a lot of doctors insist on you trying to drink and stay hydrated when especially when you're feeling a little bit under the weather mucus is also made of a thicker substance that are made from mucin cells that in combination with some enzymes and some infection cells help protect your body and keep your body lubricated okay great but as colder weather months arrive what brings on that nose dripping sensation what's up with that when the colder weather comes in your nose tends to get dry from this and your nose is a natural humidifier so when you when you have drier air your body wants to humidify and that's when it creates a little bit more mucus to coat and lubricate so what happens in the cold weather is your body will naturally make a little bit more mucus and you tend to have more of a drip to try and protect yourself that's not necessarily a bad thing it's actually a good thing as long as you're not catching infection so this is this mucus is trying to protect you from having further infection in the cold got it but what about that feeling when you sense real stifling congestion coming on and you begin to blow your nose more often uh-oh how can you tell if it's just allergies or a cold or could it be the flu it's sometimes hard to know which way it's going so what we end up doing is we try and figure out some subtle hints that might clue you into what's happening if it's allergies you may have some other allergic symptoms so you may get a little bit of swelling in the eyes or itchy eyes that might go along with it typically this tends to have clear mucus not necessarily anything beyond that if it's a cold remember cold's a virus so viruses tend to cause some more congestion you might have slightly more systemic symptoms so you might have some fever you might have some muscle aches but probably pretty subtle in that if it goes on for more than a week you might worry that there might be some bacteria involved so that's not just a virus but a bacterial infection and at that point you probably want to see a doctor now the flu is a little bit different again flu is a type of virus but a lot a little more serious and it gets is a little more systemic so you tend to have more muscle aches you might have a higher fever and if you feel this whole body ache then you'd be suspicious that that might be it and that would be a good reason also to see your doctor okay so let's talk color as mucus begins to change its attractive hue this can mean changes are afoot in your body's health so what color should your snot be so when you have clear mucus clear mucus is the natural lubricant of your body and that's what keeps your nose healthy and clear when it becomes white what ends up happening is that's a little bit of inflammatory cells that come in to try and help protect your body that sometimes makes the mucus a little bit thicker and has this whitish color this might be the first sign that you may be having an infection or some process going on that's causing inflammation so when your mucus turns yellow or green that's usually the sign that your infection is progressing and that's chemicals that are coming from those inflammatory cells that are changing the color of the mucus yellow or green might not necessarily mean that it's purely a bacterial infection it might still be a viral infection evolving but if your body has had you know congestion and mucus going on for more than a week then we worry that this is becoming a bacterial infection so if your mucus is evolving in color or it's been going on for more than a week then we really do feel that you should go to the doctor to make sure that there's not an ongoing bacterial infection going on and the doctor can come in and they'll take a swab and a culture of what's going on in your nose and send it off to the lab to see if we can figure out what type of bacteria is causing the problem so we can give you the right antibiotic as needed there are also two other colors that are very important to pay attention to if you see red this may mean your nasal tissue is inflamed and causing some bleeding that's turning the mucus red red mucus is a sign that there's inflammation and dryness inside the nose and that's usually a little bit of blood that's combined with your mucus if you have brown mucus that's mucus with dried blood that's dried up so it becomes a little more brown in color you shouldn't worry too much about those but if you've had mucus that's been bloody or dry for more than a couple days that's really the sign you should come and see a doctor and while very rare there is one more color on the mucous rainbow that could occur black mucus which could be a sign of a serious fungal infection wait black mucus when we see black mucus we always are worried that there could be a serious fungal infection going on if you see anything that looks like black mucus this is a real emergency that you should go see your doctor right away to examine it make sure it's not truly black mucus or a fungus infection there are treatments available to take care of a serious fungal infection in the nose but you need to see a doctor to get it treated right away so bottom line if your congestion continues to get worse when should you seek medical care if the nasal congestion is not getting better after a week or you feel like the congestion is progressing in other words the color is changing those are good signs to see a doctor you can also have other symptoms that might make you want to see a doctor as well so whether the cold has gone to some chest congestion you feel like you have fevers you're having muscle aches those are all signs that something systemically is going on and it's not just in your nose that's a really good sign to go and see your doctor check out what might be going on and get some good treatment if you just have nasal congestion and and you're frustrated by what you can do i think one of the biggest things you can do is just simple nasal saline sprays salt water sprays they help irrigate the nose keep it moist keep it healthy if you feel like that's not quite enough i will usually use oral decongestant or a nasal decongestant those can work wonders to help dry out some of that congestion but you need to remember that you need to keep your body moist to help it heal because we live in dry you know apartments and houses having a humidifier in your house is really important to try and help keep humidity in there and help everything heal up well and then on top of that you really need to think about how to best hydrate yourself hydrating yourself is really important i personally like a matzo ball soup or chicken noodle soup that helps keep me hydrated and you may have heard of a neti pot neti pot is a wonderful thing it's basically sterile water where you pour into the nose and it gets all that mucus that's trapped in there out some people hate it some people like it i personally don't find it that enjoyable but it's very very effective and if you find that you're really congested it's definitely worth trying to see if you can get that congestion out and most importantly it's important to get your rest your rest helps you recharge it helps recharge your immune system helps you fight off the infection the best way possible [Music]

Channel: Health

Views: 1,157,195

Keywords: health, health magazine, medical advice, wellness, deep dives, mucus, snot, boogers, congestion, allergies, cold, flu, virus, mucus color, clear mucus, white mucus, yellow mucus, green mucus, red mucus, brown mucus, black mucus, when to see a doctor, phlegm, sinus infection, how to avoid getting sick, mucus color meaning, snot color meaning, phlegm color meaning, what is mucus, what is snot, healthy living

Id: _U1HI3wfI6c

Length: 8min 59sec (539 seconds)

Published: Tue Nov 23 2021