HOME HEALTH GUIDE

Bay of Plenty Beacon, Volume 9, Issue 3, 4 September 1945, Page 6

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, ijrojections or cilia. These free ends move the nasal secretions along, but only one way ; backwards 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. swal-t lowed. 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 net a cold, the nose gets full ol' germ laden secretions. We try to hasten clearance by using a handkerchief and forcibly J J lowing the discharges forward and out. This is the reverse of nature's way and we lose the protective semiclosure 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 suddenly ])]owing hard does clear the nose t but germ laden material may also be forced up the Eustachian tube, to start middle car disease with its acute earache and possible burst eardrum. Or agaiii ( th'is wrong way of nose blowing may force septic materials, up other openings in the nose—the openings, from the nasal air cells or sinuses—to give us sinus trouble, j Neither ear nor sinus troubles are 1 pleasant visitors; they're best avoid- j qd. !

So don't push germs into the ear or into the nasal sinuses. Blow the nose corrects. One way is to place the handkerchief over,.the nose without squeezing the nostrils, 'keep the -mouth open and blow gently. Another way is to grip the nose on the hard bridge so that the nostrils stay open using the handkerchief only as a receptacle and for wiping when the blowing is over