Frequent nosebleeds? It may be the "gentle killer" in the tumor family! Experts remind: Don't do this little action!

Early this morning, a hot search made many people unable to sit still!

In autumn and winter, the air is dry, and the nasal cavity begins to dry and itchy. Many people can't help but "pick their noses". But picking your nose is not a "pleasant experience" and may cause considerable harm to your health. Hangzhou boy Xiao Li "dug" himself into the hospital.

Do you like picking your nose and “dig” out a tumor?

Xiao Li is 25 years old, a handsome guy, with a regular work and life. The only bad thing is that he has the habit of picking his nose frequently. In the past few years, every autumn and winter when the weather is dry, his left nostril will bleed "for no reason", but the amount of bleeding was not large each time before, and he could stop it by plugging his nostril with a towel at home for a period of time. Xiao Li did not take it seriously and attributed it all to "dry weather".

Until one day, Xiao Li had a nosebleed again, but this time was different. He had been pressing the pressure at home for almost half an hour, but the blood still kept flowing. This scared him, and he hurried to the ENT department of Hangzhou Traditional Chinese Medicine Hospital for treatment.

After an examination, Chen Zhiling, director of the Department of Otolaryngology, found that Xiao Li's left nasal cavity was no longer just "bleeding", but had formed a hemangioma. The only way to stop the nosebleed was surgery. Without further ado, Director Chen arranged for surgery to remove the hemangioma for him that day.

After the operation, Xiao Li's nosebleed finally stopped, but Director Chen seriously warned Xiao Li that he had to correct the bad habit of picking his nose by himself, otherwise the hemangioma would most likely "come back."

Is picking your nose really fun? Beware of the hidden dangers

In addition to inducing nose bleeding and hemangioma, according to Chen Zhiling, director of the Department of Otolaryngology, the harm of picking your nose is actually far more than that:

1. Causes nasal vestibulitis

The nose is actually a natural protective barrier in the human body, which can prevent some bacteria and harmful substances in the air from entering the human body. If you like to pick your nose, it will damage the normal mucous membrane and cause the nose hair to fall off, which will easily lead to vestibulitis. Vestibulitis can be divided into two types: acute and chronic:

Acute phase: slight pain in the nostrils, local skin redness and swelling, erosion of the nose skin, and thin scabs on the surface. In severe cases, it may extend to the skin of the upper lip.

Chronic stage: The skin of the nasal vestibule becomes itchy, dry, and has a foreign body sensation, accompanied by burning and tenderness. The local skin becomes thickened, and the nasal hair becomes sparse due to shedding.

Acute examination shows redness, swelling, cracking and superficial erosion of the skin in the nasal vestibule and at the junction of the nasal vestibule and the upper lip, with pus attached to the nasal hairs. The patient feels pain and discomfort in the nostrils, which is more obvious when blowing the nose.

In fact, nasal vestibulitis itself is not a very serious disease. The "fatal" thing about it is that it transforms relatively quickly. If a serious infection is not treated in time, it may cause cavernous sinus thrombosis and surrounding cellulitis. Because the nose is located in the "danger triangle" of the face, if the inflammation is not well controlled, it may invade the skull and endanger life.

2. Induce upper respiratory tract infection

Some people say, "Just be gentle when picking your nose. It's okay as long as you don't get hurt." This idea is also wrong. Director Chen said that our fingers and nails often harbor a large number of bacteria or other pathogens, which can easily enter the human body through the action of picking the nose.

Especially for children, due to their young age and weak body resistance, bacteria will multiply in large numbers inside the nasal cavity, leading to upper respiratory tract infection. Picking the nose is actually the "culprit" for many children suffering from rhinitis and allergic asthma.

3. Increased risk of dementia

A new Australian study has found that picking your nose can increase your risk of Alzheimer's disease and dementia.

Researchers at Griffith University in Australia published a paper stating that Chlamydia pneumoniae, which is closely related to Alzheimer's disease, uses the nerves between the nasal cavity and the brain as an invasion route to invade the central nervous system. Professor James St John, co-author of the paper, also said that this is the first time that Chlamydia pneumoniae has been proven to enter the brain directly through the nose and cause Alzheimer's disease-like lesions in the brain, which has been observed in mouse models.

If you have nasal discomfort, how can you clean your nasal cavity correctly?

Picking your nose has so many harmful effects. How can we overcome the bad habit of picking our nose? In life, most people pick their noses because they feel itchy. What should we do if our noses itch even if we don't pick them? Here is a "little trick" to relieve the itching by gently rubbing the sides of the nose.

Secondly, different cleaning methods should be used to deal with different nasal conditions: if there is sticky secretion in the nasal cavity, you can choose appropriate sea salt water for cleaning; if the nasal congestion is obvious and the secretion is more, you can choose hypertonic saline for cleaning; if it is a regular nasal cleaning, choose isotonic saline. In addition, experts emphasize that you should not use salt to prepare salt water yourself, because too high a salt concentration can cause adverse reactions such as nasal pain and discomfort, nose bleeding, etc.

Correspondent Xu Youjia

Orange Persimmon Interactive Reporter Yu Xixi Lin Lin