(CNN) – We teach children not to do this. It is unhygienic. It’s just disgusting to see.
Let’s be realistic, however. Most of us nudge our noses – about 91% according to the only (small and old) study that appears to have been done on the subject, perhaps revealing how little even scientists want to think about it. Looking around the world, however, it is not exactly uncommon to see someone with a finger in their nose, whether discreetly or not so much, as Queen Elizabeth.
Jokes aside, picking your nose is deadly serious.
Not only are people spreading their own bacteria and viruses to everything they touch after a search for gold – you are also “transferring germs from your fingertips to your nose, which is the exact opposite of what you want,” infectious disease specialist Dr. Paul Pottinger, professor at the University of Washington School of Medicine in Seattle.
This means that you can spread the coronavirus to other people from your nose-picking session, and you are also more likely to carry this virus, along with others like influenza or rhinovirus (the common cold), directly to your body.
How the coronavirus enters your body
The nose is one of the three main ways that viruses can enter the body – the other two are the mouth and the eyes. The nose has several defense systems to keep pathogens at bay, including hair in front of the nostrils to block larger particles and the mucous membrane.
This wet nose lining “has microscopically small glands that can secrete mucus into the airways in response to foreign invaders. This includes big things like pollen, dirt and dust and also microscopic things, which would include bacteria and viruses, ”said Pottinger.
A little mucus is a good and healthy thing, keeping most invaders out. But when it dries, along with whatever it has caught, it turns into what most of us call snot (scientists call it scabs). When you feel one in your nose, it’s easy to want to pick it up without thinking.
What many people don’t realize is how delicate this skin inside the nose can be. Choosing the nose can create small cuts in the delicate epithelial lining of the nasal cavity, said molecular virologist Cedric Buckley, a former associate professor of biology at Jackson State University in Mississippi who is now developing the STEM curriculum.
“Once this barrier is breached, you are inside a capillary bed, which becomes the conduit for the infection of viral particles,” explained Buckley, who also works on the City of Jackson’s Covid-19 Task Force. This breach increases your chances of passing any germs in your hands straight into the bloodstream.
Breaking a habit
Choosing a nose is something to avoid – more than ever during a pandemic. But habits can be difficult to break, especially those you make without thinking.
Choosing your nose, such as biting your nails, plucking your skin, chewing your lips and pulling your hair, is considered by mental health professionals to be a “repetitive behavior focused on the body”. These are “actions directed at the body itself and that often focus on caring for or removing parts of the body,” according to Dr. Elias Aboujaoude, clinical professor of psychiatry at Stanford University in California and director of the Obsessive Disorder Clinic – Compulsive there is.
These behavioral habits can be a clinical disorder if they result in significant damage or impairment to someone’s personal or professional life, Aboujaoude said by email. For many of us, however, these are just bad habits, not disturbances.
Habit reversal therapy, a form of cognitive-behavioral therapy, is a tool that psychiatrists use to help people with repetitive body-focused behaviors. This treatment “raises awareness of the behavior and its consequences and trains the individual to replace the poking of the nose with a ‘competitive response’,” said Aboujaoude. This means doing something less harmful and more socially acceptable with your own hands, such as closing your fist and holding it, or squeezing an anti-stress ball.
This is where wearing a mask can be especially useful. In addition to the effectiveness of the masks in reducing the transmission of airborne particles that may contain the coronavirus, they can also help to reduce the sting in the nose, physically blocking the usual or unconscious finger action on the nose.
“If they are eager to stop poking their nose, boy, what a great opportunity to enjoy this moment in human history when everyone should be covering their faces,” said Pottinger.
Best nasal health practices
If you find that poking your nose is not so much a habit as a reaction to a constantly uncomfortable or stuffy nose, consult your doctor or a local clinic. Your problem may have less to do with those nose scabs and more to do with another problem that needs to be solved.
“You may have a deviated septum, you may have nasal inflammation, you may be subject to seasonal or chronic allergies, where the nasal membranes are constantly swollen,” said Buckley.
The best way to get rid of snot is to blow your nose in a tissue and then wash your hands instead of removing the scabs.
Neti pots or saline sprays are another option. “Remember that the snot is just a piece of dried mucus. If you rehydrate the mucus, you can blow it out or get it out on its own, ”said Pottinger.
However, he said that everyone should have their own bottle – without sharing, not even with intimate partners. It must be kept clean and the tip clean regularly so that germs are not transferred to the nose after use. And if you use a neti pot, said Pottinger, use sterile water. Humidifiers to keep indoor air hydrated can also help reduce the formation of scabs.
Prevent Covid – and smell loss
Taking care of nasal health, which definitely includes not picking your nose, will reduce your risk of getting the coronavirus – and spread it.
When working with patients who contracted the disease, Pottinger said that a sometimes lasting side effect of viral infection is anosmia, or loss of smell, which also affects the ability to taste.
For patients who experience this condition, “they are very, very depressed, discouraged and discouraged because they are no longer able to taste their food. Now I am hopeful that some of these people will regain their sense of smell, others will. For some, it is a long recovery, ”he said by email. “If you like to eat and would like to taste good things, be sure to avoid getting COVID-19.”
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