Fun Medical Facts II: The Nose

Today I learned some interesting things about the nose.

• Crying: pathetic vs disgusting
• When you cry, you notice the tears flowing down the outside of your face. However, there is a connection between your eyes and the inside of your nose called the nasolacrimal duct. This duct exists because a gland in your eye, the lacrimal gland, is always producing moisturizing fluid. Moisturizing fluid is a good thing, but constantly having fluid running down your face is socially awkward, so the nasolacrimal duct solves this problem. Tears are simply an excess of this fluid. So, when you cry, you also have an excess of fluid going into your nose. As Greg, our anatomy professor put it, this leaves you with a choice to either be pathetic or disgusting when you cry. I made an outstanding diagram of the situation below.
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The lacrimal duct connects the eye to the inside of the nose

• A clogged nostril
• Your nose is divided into 2 parts. Each part has 3 different conchae, which are small curly bones lined with mucosal tissue. They function to moisturize the air and get it ready for your lungs. It turns out these conchae actually need breaks and cycle through periods of inactivity. One half will take a rest while the other works. The resting half actually enlarges and experiences increased blood flow, leading to increased mucus production to aid in recovery. This can go overboard, however, and is how you end up with one nostril completely clogged up while the other one is clear.

I am a medical student at BCM and all thoughts are my own. I am not a doctor. Please read the disclaimer.
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