Two questions about my stupid cold.

Factual Questions
1

Hello Everyone,

I’m currently down with a cold and I’m curious about a couple of things.

  1. Snot. I blow my nose and enough mucus is blown out to just about fill a tissue. Yet, almost instantly my nose fills back up with more snot. Is the mucus created on the fly, more being produced after the nasal passages are emptied, or is there a cavity in the skull holding already produced mucus?

  2. How does asprin/Tylenol /ibprophin work to reduce fever? By what mechanism does it regulate body temperature?

2

  1. There are cavities. The sinuses. Theses are cavities within the skeleton of the face and head that are lined with mucus producing cells. When people talk about post nasal drip and sinus congestion and so forth, that’s what they’re getting at. Some people swear by the so called netty pot where you basically pour hot salty water into your sinuses and flush them out. Never tried it myself.

  2. It gets kind of complicated but basically there are chemical signals that get sent out by inflammatory cells that act on different areas of the body to meditate other responses. Some of those mediators circulate in the blood, make their way to the brain, to the hypothalamus, which regulates body temp, and initiate a series of responses that together act to raise body temp. That’s a fever. Those drugs you mention inhibit the production of those mediators.

3

  1. Netty pots will work, as long as you are using clean, purified water. Otherwise there is a risk of amoebic, bacterial or chemical additions that can make the situation worse. I am hesitant to use them because I don’t like the experience though.I recommend eating lots of spicy foods if the other orifice can handle it. It’ll all ooze out. and fresh mucus can take its place, keep cycling it and it’ll clear out nicely. I know other people will say otherwise, but it works. If its bad enough, antibiotics are the way to go, something along the lines of Minocycline (IANAD) will work really well.

  2. Oly nailed it. More explanation here; Why does your body temperature rise when you have a virus such as the flu? | HowStuffWorks Nevermind the guy in the picture on that website looks like he has jaundice or was from an 80’s movie, played too much tennis and got a bad tan.