Friday, December 31, 2010

How to Beat a Cold This Winter

I thought this article from the Daily Beast about avoiding colds was mostly the same old stuff, except this:

If you do get sick, don’t blow your nose too hard. Nose blowing doesn’t relieve stuffiness. A stuffy nose doesn’t result from too much mucus but rather, from the swelling of blood vessels in your turbinates—the spongy shelves lining the sidewalls of your nasal passages—which you don’t particularly want to expel. Also, forceful nose-blowing can drive nasal secretions into your sinuses, where they can cause secondary infections. - Jennifer Ackerman, The Daily Beast
Say whaaaaaaat? I don't think I understand what she's saying. Does she mean a stuffy nose or a runny nose? Because something definitely comes out when I have a runny nose and I much prefer it in the Kleenex Brand Tissue rather than in my lungs/throat/sinuses/etc.

Here's my real question, though, are you supposed to blow out of one nostril or both at the same time? I've heard, from two separate NY Times articles, that each one is worse, so which one really is? I prefer blowing one nostril then the next, but am I setting my sinuses up for failure?

Then again, I guess the point is pretty moot since I already had my winter cold. Fortunately, I got over it quickly and was back in Dallas at the time, so got to enjoy all the pampering and souping of being sick at home. The best!

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