# Spicy food and runny noses

**URL:** <https://boards.straightdope.com/t/spicy-food-and-runny-noses/161496>\
**Category:** Factual Questions\
**Created:** [March 15, 2003, 2:33am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/spicy-food-and-runny-noses/161496 "2003-03-15T02:33:21Z")\
**Posts on this page:** 4\
**Page:** 1

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**Author:** ![Lovely\_Chris](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/l/c77e96/32.png) [@Lovely\_Chris](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Lovely_Chris)\
**Post date:** [March 15, 2003, 2:33am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/spicy-food-and-runny-noses/161496/1 "2003-03-15T02:33:21Z")

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Whenever I eat food which is even vaguely spicy, my nose seems to run. Why is this? I know other people who say it happens to them too, so I’m not just a solitary freak or anything. I hope. Does anyone else have this problem?

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**Author:** ![ookpik](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/o/c68b51/32.png) [@ookpik](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/ookpik)\
**Post date:** [March 15, 2003, 4:45am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/spicy-food-and-runny-noses/161496/2 "2003-03-15T04:45:50Z")

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This also happens to me. Not just my nose though. Particularly when eating Indian food. Tears, and sweat at the back of my neck and forehead…Love the stuff anyway!

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**Author:** ![elfje](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/e/e19b73/32.png) [@elfje](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/elfje)\
**Post date:** [March 15, 2003, 12:31pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/spicy-food-and-runny-noses/161496/3 "2003-03-15T12:31:27Z")

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Some people suffer from excessive runny nose while eating spicy food through the mediation of vagus nerve, this is known as: gustatory rhinitis. There is no solution to this problem at present, one need not worry much about this as this lasts only for few minutes after food.  
from this site:  
[http://www.coldresearch.org/2.htm](http://www.coldresearch.org/2.htm)

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**Author:** ![Qadgop\_the\_Mercotan](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/qadgop_the_mercotan/32/83_2.png) [@Qadgop\_the\_Mercotan](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Qadgop_the_Mercotan)\
**Post date:** [March 15, 2003, 4:23pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/spicy-food-and-runny-noses/161496/4 "2003-03-15T16:23:33Z")

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The key thing to remember is that it’s not an allergic phenomenon and the incidence of it rises quite a bit after the age of 40.

[http://casestudies.hopkins-allergy.org/case\_studies/viewpoint.html?viewpointid=142&caseid=202](http://casestudies.hopkins-allergy.org/case_studies/viewpoint.html?viewpointid=142&caseid=202)