dear asking for a friend,my husband loves to pick his nose — in the car, at home and sometimes, even in public. i am assuming nose-picking is a pretty harmless habit, but it’s gross and i worry about him catching covid-19. maybe i’m being overly dramatic, but can my husband’s habit make him sick?signed, worrieddear worried,many people poke around in their nostrils — roughly four times a day, according to a study
published for the national centre for biotechnology medicine. nose-picking, also known as rhinotillexomania, may seem harmless, and although
science suggests that it’s probably okay to pick occasionally, if it’s a chronic habit, digging for the proverbial gold is neither safe nor healthy. in fact, it can make you sick and — in extreme cases — damage the nasal septum. and given that we are in the middle of a global pandemic in which we are warned daily about the dangers of touching our faces and potentially exposing ourselves to the covid-19 virus — it seems that putting fingers deep inside a nose should be avoided at all costs.“in the era of covid, you are told not to touch your face because if you touch any kind of virus or any kind of bacteria and you stick it in your nose — that’s directly on the respiratory epithelium, that will get into your system and that’s how you can get sick,” says dr. yvonne chan, associate professor in the department of otolaryngology-head & neck surgery at the
university of toronto and division chief for otolaryngology at
trillium health partners.chan also explains that the skin on the inside of the nose is sensitive and delicate, and may be more susceptible to damage. fingernails can scratch or scrape the nasal lining and cause an infection. young kids can also tear the nasal lining and trigger nose bleeds, she says. it can usually take a few weeks to heal scrapes or cuts inside the nostril, but because it can feel bothersome, a person may pick at it again and again and cause more scabbing.and it’s not just fingers that can do damage. in a
study of 200 adolescents, done by researchers from the national institute of mental health and neurosciences in bangalore, india, researchers found that teens also used tweezers and pencils to get the job done.picking your nose can also cause inflammation, swelling and damage the
nasal septum — usually when nose-picking is done out of compulsion. one
woman with a history of compulsive nose -picking even went so far as to carve out a hole in her sinus.although researchers from india
reported that for most teens, picking of the nose is done out of habit, nearly eight per cent revealed that they do it out of compulsion, more than 20 times a day and usually because of stress or anxiety. most kids in the study said they picked their nose to relieve an itch or because it felt good.and if damaging your schnoz isn’t worrying enough, what about nasty bacteria like
staphylococcus aureus — one of the most dangerous of all the staph bacteria — which
causes skin infections, but also pneumonia and bone and heart valve infections. a
study by dutch researchers found that frequent nose-pickers were more likely to harbour the dangerous bacteria in their nasal cultures than the non-pickers.
what about eating it?friedrich bischinger, an austrian lung specialist encouraged picking our nose and eating it too to help “boost the immune system.” similarly, a 2015
study suggested that nose-picking may be more beneficial than we think — boogers contain salivary mucins, which can help protect teeth against cavities and decay.while research and studies might offer some insight into your husband’s habits, whether it’s for momentary pleasure or because of boredom, it’s important to let him know where you stand on nasal mining. after all, if a deadly virus isn’t enough to get him to rethink how he spends his spare time, it sounds like he’s going to be difficult to convince. then again, it could be worse. at least he isn’t picking and flicking.
maja begovic is a writer with healthing.ca.is there something about health that you (or a friend, wink, wink) have always wondered about, but are too embarrassed to ask? send a note to info@healthing.ca. we promise your ‘friend’s’ secret – and identity – is safe with us.don’t miss the latest on covid-19, reopening and life. subscribe to healthing’s daily newsletter covid life.
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