Function Of Mucus In The Airway; Stop Clearing Your Airways Of Mucus

To most Nigerians, mucus in the nose or throat is a sign of infection. They try every trick they know to get this stuff out of their airways. There was a man who told me about his friend who left Nigeria for Europe. He claimed that immediately he got there, his airways became very clear. No wonder I noticed he always fight hard to get those stuff off his airways. Some of his solution may be doing more harm than good.
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The way humans are made, almost every part of the body have it. This is because the mucus producing tissues are found almost in every part of the body. They are also found in the airways such as nose, lungs, mouth, throat and the gastrointestinal tract.
Since we all have this mucus, why the complain. It is simple. Perception matters. Some consider the little as a sign of disease while for some others it means nothing.

Mucus in lungs

How Mucus Works

The mucus at each part of the body have specific duty although they are almost similar. The mucus in the nose help to prevent entry of foreign matters. They trap bacterias from entering the body and expose them to antibodies found within the mucus. This way, the body is protected. Also, each of the two nose have more mucus than the other at any point in time. This enhance the sense of smell. Air pass through the nose with less mucus faster than the nose with mucus. This way the first nose send a signal to the brain the nature of smell and the second takes time to process the smell. It is also believe that all smell have different motion hence each nose can perceive vast arrays of smell at a time with this different setting. Each time, the nose swap activity with the one with extra amount of mucus having less mucus while the other picks up more mucus to reduce stress for the other one. The mucus is always moist thereby protecting the area under it from drying out and also keep inhaled air moist.
With a situation like this, taking decongestants or antihistamines can create an enabling environment for disease to thrive and also discomfort for the user. Some of these medications work by drying up the mucus. This is not healthy. Also, using heat like menthol will encourage mucus to move out of the airways thereby exposing the airways to disease.

When To Treat

Even when there is excess mucus secretion, it is not right to jump into treatment immediately. The body may be reacting to an allergy. For example, my neighbour was frying stew with lots of pepper. Within seconds, the mast cell in my body produced histamines. To clear the airways from further allergic smell, I sneeze involuntarily. As that did not work, within minutes my whole nose was clog with large amount of mucus. I could hardly breadth but that save me from inhaling further allergen.
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At times like this, it is not still proper to stop the mucus because it will clear up once the body detects the allergen causing it is gone. The rest of the mucus is swallowed involuntarily. The only time to treat yourself when there is much mucus is when the symptoms shows that it is an infection whereby cold may accompany it.
But that does not mean large mucus cause by cold should be treated. Cold air normally slows down ciliary movement. This leads to escape of mucus to the nose and makes one feel like having a clog nose. Also, cold causes the lungs to swell with blood. The blood flow to the area with the believe that an infection is imminent. So the inflame lungs is due to white blood cells ready to fight infection. Along the line, the inflamed lungs reduce the size of the airways thereby making it difficult to breath. At this stage, small mucus found on the airways may seems like large amount of mucus.
So the only time it is good to treat nasal congestion is when a disease is involve. We need to protect the mucus in out system for better health.
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