Why picking your nose isn’t just disgusting – it’s dangerous in COVID times

We teach children not to do this. It is unsanitary. It is simply disgusting to see.

Let’s be realistic, however. Most of us choose our noses – around 91% according to the only (small and old) study that seems to have ever been done on the subject, perhaps revealing how even scientists want to think about it. Looking around the world, however, it’s not exactly uncommon to see someone with a finger up their nose, discreetly or not so much, like Queen Elizabeth.

Jokes aside, nose plucking is deadly serious.

Not only do people spread their own bacteria and viruses on everything they touch after a period of searching for gold – but you are also transferring germs from your fingertips up your nose, which is the exact opposite of what you do. want, said an infectious disease specialist. Dr. Paul Pottinger, professor in the faculty of medicine at the University of Washington in Seattle.

This means that you can spread the coronavirus to others from your nose picking session, and that you are also more likely to bring this virus, as well as others like the flu or rhinovirus (the common cold). , directly into your body.

How the coronavirus gets into your body

The nose is one of the three main ways that viruses can enter the body – the other two are the mouth and eyes. The nose has a number of defense systems to keep pathogens out, including hairs in the front of the nostrils to block larger particles and the mucous membrane.

This moist lining of the nose “has microscopically small glands that can secrete mucus into the airways in response to foreign invaders. This includes big stuff like pollen and dirt and dust and also microscopic stuff, which would include bacteria. and viruses, ”Pottinger said.

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Some mucus is good and healthy, keeping most invaders out. But when it dries, with whatever it has caught, it turns into what most of us call boogers (scientists call them scabs). When you smell one in your nose, it’s easy to want to choose it without thinking.

What a lot of people don’t realize is how delicate that skin inside the nose can be. Picking the nose can create tiny cuts in the delicate epithelial linings of the nasal cavity, said molecular virologist Cedric Buckley, former associate professor of biology at Jackson State University in Mississippi, who now develops STEM programs.

“Once that barrier is crossed, you are directly in a capillary bed, which becomes the conduit for infection with viral particles,” explained Buckley, who is also part of the City of Jackson Covid-19 Task Force. This breach increases your chances of transmitting germs on your hands directly into your bloodstream.

Break a habit

The plucking of the nose is something that should – more than ever during a pandemic – be avoided. But habits can be hard to break, especially those you do without thinking.

Picking the nose, such as biting nails, plucking the skin, chewing lips and pulling hair, is considered by mental health professionals to be “repetitive body-centered behavior.” These are “actions that target one’s own body and often focus on grooming or removing body parts,” according to Dr. Elias Aboujaoude, clinical professor of psychiatry at Stanford University in California and director of the clinic. obsessive-compulsive disorder. The.

These behavioral habits can be a clinical disorder if they cause damage or significant alteration in a person’s personal or professional life, Aboujaoude said via email. For many of us, however, these are just bad habits, not troubles.

Habit reversal therapy, a form of cognitive behavioral therapy, is a tool that psychiatrists use to help people with repetitive body-centered behaviors. This treatment “increases awareness of the behavior and its consequences, and trains the individual to replace nose picking with a” competing response “,” Aboujaoude said. It means doing something less damaging and more socially acceptable with your hands, like making a fist and holding it, or squeezing a stress ball.

This is where wearing a mask can be particularly helpful. In addition to the masks’ effectiveness in reducing the transmission of airborne particles that may contain coronavirus, they can also help reduce nose pinching by physically blocking the usual or unconscious action of the finger to the nose.

“If they can’t wait to stop picking their noses, my boy, what a great opportunity to take advantage of this moment in human history when everyone is supposed to cover their faces,” Pottinger said.

Best nasal health practices

If you find that your nose is not so much a habit as it is a reaction to a constantly uncomfortable or blocked nose, get checked out by your doctor or at a local clinic. Your problem might have less to do with those nasal crusts and more to do with another issue that needs to be addressed:

“You could have a deviated septum, you could have nasal inflammation, you could be prone to seasonal or chronic allergies, where your nasal membranes are constantly swollen,” Buckley said.

The best way to get rid of boogers is to blow your nose in a tissue, then wash your hands, instead of picking up the scabs.

Another option is Neti pots or saline sprays. “Remember, the booger is just a piece of dried mucus. If you rehydrate the mucus, you should be able to blow it out or squeeze it out on its own,” Pottinger said.

However, he said everyone should have their own bottle – not sharing, not even with intimate partners. It should be kept clean and the mouthpiece wiped down regularly so that germs do not transfer into the nose from one use to another. And if you’re using a neti pot, Pottinger says, be sure to use sterilized water. Humidifiers to keep indoor air hydrated can also help reduce crusting.

Prevent COVID – and loss of odor

Taking care of your nasal health, which certainly means not picking your nose, will reduce your risk of catching coronavirus – and transmitting it.

Working with patients who have caught it, 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 the patients who suffer from this disease, “they are very, very depressed, disheartened and disheartened that they cannot taste their food anymore. I hope now that some of these people will regain their sense of smell, others do. , that’s a long recovery, “he said via email.” If you love to eat and want to taste good things, make sure you don’t catch COVID-19. ”