Estimated read time: 3-4 minutes
- Blowing your nose forcefully can worsen cold symptoms and cause complications.
- Experts recommend gentle blowing or using nasal saline to manage mucus.
- Proper cold management includes rest, hydration and hygiene to prevent spreading.
CHICAGO — Bet you didn't know there's a right way and a wrong way to blow your nose.
Do the latter and you could make your cold symptoms even worse. You could even cause some damage.
A couple of decades ago, researchers at the University of Virginia Health Sciences Center put dye in people's noses to see where mucus goes when they blow their nose with gusto.
Instead of flowing outward to a tissue, a good portion blows back into the sinuses, leading to the possibility of worsening infection, as Dr. Peter Filip, a surgeon and board-certified ear, nose and throat specialist at Rush University Medical Center in Chicago recently told CNN. That study was published in the journal Clinical Infectious Diseases.
Sneezing and coughing didn't propel the mucus in the same way that forceful nose blowing did. Blowing with force can make an infection worse.
Among other problems forceful blowing can create, per CNN: ear pain, nose bleeds, nasal vestibulitis — a fancy way to say pimples and boils near the nostrils — headaches and even an orbital fracture.
"In extreme cases, there have been reports of people blowing their noses so hard that they caused an orbital fracture, resulting in eye swelling and possible vision loss in the affected eye. In those situations, the high intranasal pressure fractured one of the bones of the eye socket. Rest assured, Filip said these are exceedingly rare cases of forceful nose blowing, and people were able to recover once they stopped blowing their noses," the article said.
The University of Queensland's Health Check reports that it's even possible to rupture the esophagus, though that's also rare.
The right way to blow
Health Check maintains that there's a correct way to blow your nose and that done well, it can prevent mucus building up to create a runny nose. It's harder to clear when mucus thickens.
People with chronic sinusitis, which is inflammation and infection of the sinuses, tend to blow harder than do others. It's also the case that blocking both nostrils creates much more pressure than blowing with one nostril open.
Gentle blowing can help keep the mucus under control. But many experts say it's much better to use nasal saline in a neti pot, rather than honking like a goose into a tissue.
Wikihow.com actually offers an 11-step, illustrated guide to blowing your nose gently. Or you can check out the minute-long YouTube video from Rush University, which has been viewed more than 206,000 times.
Managing the cold
Healthline reports that most colds last a week, though the cough can linger far longer. If symptoms last longer than that, the article says to see a doctor.
Treating a cold is pretty basic: plenty of rest, over-the-counter medicine to help with symptoms, use of heat and steam to soothe the throat and nasal passages.
And don't forget to drink plenty of fluids so you don't become dehydrated, as well as being sure to stay away from others when you're sick and wash your hands and contaminated surfaces often with soap and water.
