Word: mucus
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...says that nose blowing may prolong and even worsen a cold. Researchers at the University of Virginia had healthy volunteers blow their noses and measured the pressure inside the subjects? sinus cavities. They found that nose blowing creates an enormous amount of internal pressure - a force that can drive mucus streaming with bacteria and viruses back into the sinuses, possibly making a cold worse...
What?s a sniffler to do this cold season? Muzzle the mucus before it gets bad. And that means one of those decongestant/antihistamine combos you may already be using (like Triaminic, Contac or Drixoral). Of course, you're then faced with cracked lips, a scratchy throat and stinging eyes, but it's good to know that apart from drying up the offending effluent they are probably helping to shorten the disease cycle. So stock up on those pills and syrups, and just think - this winter, you could be spared one of the annoyances of the season: the inevitable balls...
...chain of events that led Alexander Fleming to discover penicillin in 1928 is the stuff of which scientific myths are made. Fleming, a young Scottish research scientist with a profitable side practice treating the syphilis infections of prominent London artists, was pursuing his pet theory--that his own nasal mucus had antibacterial effects--when he left a culture plate smeared with Staphylococcus bacteria on his lab bench while he went on a two-week holiday...
...Frequent upper-respiratory infections--colds, strep throat, middle-ear and sinus infections--may be a sign of undiagnosed allergy. One of the ways the body responds to the tiny particles that trigger allergies is by producing mucus, which turns out to be a terrific medium for trapping and growing viruses and bacteria. Getting rid of the mucus, which means identifying and treating the allergy, makes it much less likely that you will catch those germs in the first place. As a general rule, infants who suffer more than six upper-respiratory infections a year, and school-age children and adults...
...drugs work pretty much the way the old ones do. Aspirin and other NSAIDs block production of substances called prostaglandins, which are among the most versatile molecules in the body. Among other things, prostaglandins trigger uterine contractions during birth; generate a layer of mucus that protects the stomach from its acids; and cause blood particles called platelets to form clots--a mixed blessing, since the clots that help a wound heal can also lead to a heart attack...