But let’s be real. Most of us pick our noses – about 91% according to the only (small and old) study ever done on this topic, which perhaps reveals how few scientists even want to think about it. However, looking around the world, it’s not exactly uncommon to see someone with a finger in the nose, discreet or not so much like Queen Elizabeth.
Jokes aside, nose picking is deadly serious.
People not only spread their own bacteria and viruses on everything they touch after an attack on gold, but you also transfer “ germs from your fingertips to the nose, which is the exact opposite of what you want, ” said infectious disease specialist Dr. . Paul Pottinger, a professor at the University of Washington School of Medicine in Seattle.
That means that you can spread the coronavirus to others from your nose plucking session, and that you, along with others such as flu or rhinovirus (colds), also get that virus into your body more quickly.
How the coronavirus enters your body
The nose is one of the three main ways viruses can enter the body – the other two are the mouth and the eyes. The nose has a number of defense systems to keep out pathogens, including hair on the front of the nostrils to block larger particles and the mucous membrane.
That moist mucous membrane of the nose “has microscopic glands that can secrete mucus into the airways in response to foreign invaders. That includes big things like pollen and dirt and dust as well as microscopic things, including bacteria and viruses,” said Pottinger.
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Some slime is a good and healthy thing and will keep out most intruders. But when it dries up, along with what it’s caught, it turns into what most of us call boogers (scientists call them crusts). When you feel one in your nose, it’s easy to figure it out without thinking.
What many people don’t realize is how delicate that skin in the nose can be. Nasal picking can cause tiny cuts in the delicate epithelial linings in the nasal cavity, said molecular virologist Cedric Buckley, formerly an associate professor of biology at Jackson State University in Mississippi, who now does STEM curriculum development.
“Once that barrier is broken, you are in the middle of a capillary bed that becomes the channel for virus particle infection,” explains Buckley, who is also a member of the City of Jackson Covid-19 Task Force. This fracture increases your chances of passing the germs you have on your hands directly into your bloodstream.
Break a habit
Nose picking is something that should be avoided more than ever during a pandemic. But habits can be hard to break, especially those you don’t think about.
Nose picking, such as nail biting, skin picking, lip chewing, and hair pulling, is considered by mental health professionals to be a “body-focused repetitive behavior.” These are “actions directed at the body and often aimed at caring for or removing body parts,” said Dr. Elias Aboujaoude, clinical professor of psychiatry at Stanford University in California and director of the Obsessive-Compulsive Disorder Clinic. There.
These behavioral habits can be a clinical condition if they cause harm or significant impairment to a person’s personal or professional life, Aboujaoude said via email. However, for many of us, they are just bad habits, not disorders.
Habit reversal therapy, a form of cognitive behavioral therapy, is a tool that psychiatrists use to help people with body-focused repetitive behaviors. This treatment “increases awareness of the behavior and its consequences, and trains the individual to replace nose picks with a ‘competitive response,'” said Aboujaoude. That means doing something less harmful and more socially acceptable with the hands, such as making a fist and holding it, or squeezing a stress ball.
This is where wearing a mask can be particularly helpful. In addition to being effective in reducing the transfer of airborne particles that may contain coronavirus, masks can also help reduce nasal picking by physically blocking the usual or unconscious finger-to-nose action.
“If they are eager to stop picking their noses, boy, what a great opportunity to take advantage of this moment in human history where everyone should be covering their faces,” said Pottinger.
Nasal health best practices
If you notice that your nose picking is not a habit, but a reaction to a constantly uncomfortable or stuffy nose, have it checked by your doctor or a local clinic. Your problem may be less related to those nasal crusts and more to do with some other problem to address:
“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 and then wash your hands, instead of ripping out the crusts.
Neti pots or saline sprays are another option. “Remember, the booger is just a dried-out piece of mucus. If you rehydrate the mucus, you should be able to blow it out or let it come out on its own,” said Pottinger.
However, he said that everyone should get their own bottle – not share, even with intimate partners. It should be kept clean and the tip wiped regularly so that germs don’t get into the nose when used. And if you’re using a neti pot, Pottinger said, make 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 definitely means not picking your nose, will reduce the risk of contracting – and passing on – coronavirus.
When working with patients who have contracted it, Pottinger said that a sometimes long-lasting side effect of the viral infection is anosmia, or the loss of the sense of smell, which also affects taste.
For patients who experience this condition, “They are very, very depressed, discouraged and discouraged that they cannot taste their food anymore. Now I hope some of those people will regain their sense of smell, others do. Some, it’s a long recovery, ”he said via email. “If you like food and want to taste good things, make sure you don’t catch COVID-19.”