Last year’s flu season, the 2024–2025 winter season, was the most severe flu season in over a decade. Due to it being flu season again, and due to indoor allergies rising in prominence in the cold winter months when more people are staying inside, you might be suffering from a runny nose. Grab a box of tissues and read on to learn the proper way to blow your nose.
Is There a Wrong Way to Blow Your Nose?
Believe it or not, you can blow your nose incorrectly. Your nose is part of a sensitive network that includes the ears, nose and throat. These elements are intimately connected, which is why we have ENT specialists! Your ears, nose and throat, along with the tubes and passageways that connect them, are susceptible to pressure.
Blowing your nose too hard puts immense pressure on the nostrils, nasal passageways, sinuses and Eustachian tubes, which connect the nose to the ears. You may really increase the pressure in your nasal passageways if you blow your nose when heavily congested. In the case of congestion, your nasal passageways are inflamed, perhaps even swollen shut, so blowing your nose forcefully through the constricted passageways can cause ruptures and other complications.
The Correct Way to Blow Your Nose
The key to blowing your nose correctly is to blow gently and to clear one nostril at a time. Press one nostril shut with your finger, then blow out softly into the tissue, using as little pressure as possible. Switch to the other nostril. If you blow and nothing comes out, do not try again. After you’re finished, you should always wash your hands with soap and water.
Alternatively, you can squeeze the mucus out of your nose into the tissue by pressing your fingers onto the bridge of your nose and massaging your nostrils downward. Sniffling is also an effective way to deal with excess mucus; while many people find the noise unpleasant, mucus sniffed back upward will fall down into the throat and to the stomach, where the mucus is neutralized by stomach acid. This is natural.
When to Seek Help
Congestion and a runny nose are natural, if annoying, symptoms of many viral infections and allergies, and they usually clear up when the illness, infection or reaction subsides. However, if you have chronic congestion even when not sick or in the middle of an allergic reaction, it could indicate a structural sinus issue. Call ENT & Allergy Specialists – Ear Nose and Throat Physicians and Surgeons and explain your symptoms. We’d be happy to make you an appointment.