Why Your Nose Runs When It’s Cold

We’ve shovelled a lot of snow this week…and wiped our noses a lot. Why is that? It turns out it’s just your nose doing its job; trying to manage the amount of heat and moisture lost from your nose when it gets cold. The cold dry air stimulates nerves in your nose which sends a message to your brain which responds by increasing blood flow to your nose. This, in turn, warms the air passing over blood vessels there,  humidifying the air passing through. Sometimes, the mechanism it a little too overactive resulting in excess moisture which is what drips from your nose.

You’re welcome.

banner image – pexels.com