January 30, 2005
hey! no running!
I went for a walk today with Brigham (a four-legged minion of TheLion's), BrilliantEditor, Florette, Tex, and TheLion. It was beautiful and it was snowy and I watched people ice fishing!
There is another point of interest though. It was cold. It was runny-nose cold. I hate that my nose runs when it's cold outside. Or when I eat spicy food. Or when it's least convenient. Today I took an antihistimine before I went out in the vain hope that my nose would behave itself.
Nope. It didn't. But it did bother me enough to actually look up the cause.
The answer I found uses words like these: mucus, capillaries, vasomotor rhinitis, sneezy. Yeah. Look out!
Here's an abridged version of this article To Your Health : Runny nose may be more than allergy or a cold .
The role of the nose is partly to detect smells, and partly to warm, humidify and filter the air before it enters the lungs. In order to accomplish this, the nose must keep itself moist and keep itself from drying out. The moisturizing mucus is fluid that is filtered from the serum of our blood by capillaries which supply certain cells and glands in the lining of the nose and sinuses. The small amount of discharge which is usually produced is 90 to 95 percent salty water, and 2 to 3 percent a viscous chemical called mucin.
Temporary runny nose may be caused by changes in humidity or temperature. Coming inside from the cold outdoors to a warm room, or having the heater on at night which dries the nose may cause the nose to temporarily go into overdrive in an attempt to flush and remoisturize itself. The capillaries which bring blood to the inner surface of the nose temporarily open up their tiny pores, and the result is the sudden leak of clear serum-like fluid through the nasal opening.
Yeah. Noses and their gooey occupants.
Gross.
But THIS isn't gross at all. You can choose your own clown nose. And a plethora of other fantastic items!"/>
