Ok, so you’re probably wondering what on earth there is to learn about nose blowing. Actually, how you blow your nose is important.

Everyone blows their noses differently. Some are honkers, some blow in short, rapid bursts, others sort of sniff – you get the picture.

Well as it turns out, how vigorously we blow our noses can determine if we end up with a sinus infection. A study done by the National Institutes of Health measured the amount of force that occurs in the nasal passages during nose blowing, coughing and sneezing.  Scientists wanted to measure how much nasal mucus was propelled into the sinus passages during the common cold. So they devised a method of actually measuring how much pressure there is in the nasal passages when you cough, sneeze and blow your nose. As it turned out, the intranasal pressure when blowing your nose is 10 times greater than when you sneeze or cough.

So why is all of this important?

Well up to 1 milliliter of mucus can be propelled into our sinus passages when we blow our nose. Considering that the average person blows her nose up to 45 times a day during the first few days of a cold, that’s a lot of bacteria-laden mucous getting into our sinuses.

The more this mucous build-up occurs, the less functional the tiny little hairs that line our sinus passages become. These mucous-ladened little hairs (“cilia”) can no longer propel the nasal debris out of the sinus cavities. Bacteria becomes trapped and multiplies until, voila! - A sinus infection is born!

What’s the take-home message?

BLOW GENTLY when you have a cold!

For more information on this study, click on this link.