HOME HEALTH GUIDE

Te Awamutu Courier, Volume 71, Issue 6139, 21 September 1945, Page 5

HOME HEALTH GUIDE

BLOW YOUR NOSE THE SAFE WAY (By the Department of Health) Normally the nose clears itself of secretions. The upper part has the task of helping us to smell, and the lower and larger part is for breathing. This lower part is lined with special surface cells, cells ending in minute projections, or cilia. These free ends move the nasal secretions along, but only one way—backward to the throat. In health there are the secretions of mucus and fluid from the nasal lining and from the tear duct to be moved along, past the openings of the Eustachian tube that connects with the middle ear, back to the throat, to be swallowed. The act of swallowing brings the soft palate and Eustachian tube area together, guarding the entrance while the suction of swallowing takes the secretions away. That’s the way the nose clears itself naturally.

When we get a cold the nose gets full of germ-laden secretions. We try to hasten clearance by using a handkerchief and forcibly blowing the discharges forward and out. This is the reverse of nature’s way, and we lose the protective sem’i-closure of the Eustachian tube opening. The old-fashioned way of pressing fingers tightly on both nostrils, pinching them together, getting up as much pressure as possible, and then sudednly blowing hard, does clear the nose, but germ-laden material may also be forced up the Eustachian tube, to start middle-ear disease with its aeute earache and possible burst eardrum. Or, again, this wrong Way of nose blowing may force septic material up other openings in the nose—the openings from the nasal air cells or < sinuses—to give us sinus trouble. Neither ear nor sinus troubles are pleasant visitors: they’re best avoided. So don’t push germs into the ear or into the nasal sinuses. Blow the nose correctly. One way is to place the handkerchief over the nose without squeeing the nostrils; keep the mouth open, too, and blow gently. Another way is to grip the nose on the hard bridge so that the nostrils stay lopen, using the handkerchief only as a receptacle and for wiping when the blowing is over.