Ever been outside in the winter when it’s really cold and
then your nose just starts to run like someone turned on the faucet?
What is it with cold air making us go through the tissues?
According to Dr. Lane at John Hopkins Sinus Center, it is a
combination of two things. One biology and one physics.
One of the main functions of the nose is to warm and
humidify the air that we breathe so that when it reaches your lungs, it's warm
and moisturized.
In order to do this the nose adds moisture to the air. If it
has to make a lot of moisture due to the very cold and dry air, then the excess will run
out of your nose.
When it's very cold out, the air is usually very dry as
well, so the nose really works hard to add fluid.
That is the respiratory biology part. The other part is
physics or thermodynamics.
When you are out in cold air and you exhale you can see your
breath. What you are seeing is the warm air you are exhaling is condensing in
the cold air as little drops of water because cold air can't hold as much
moisture as warm air.
When you breathe that air out, it comes to the very tip of your nose where the nose is cold and that fluid is going to re-condense onto the surface of the nose.
So you have two forces coming into play – one, the extra
moisture your nose makes to moisturize the air before it gets to your lungs and
two, the simple cause of exhaling warm air into the surrounding cold air causes
water droplets to form on your nose.
Now you know why our noses run so much when we go outside
in the cold air.
So pack the extra tissues and enjoy being outside!
Be well my friends,
Julie
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Info gathered from multiple sources including NPR.
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