Top doc backs picking your nose and eating it
Picking your nose and eating it is one of the best ways to stay healthy, according to a top Austrian doctor.
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Innsbruck-based lung specialist Prof Dr Friedrich Bischinger said people who pick their noses with their fingers were healthy, happier and probably better in tune with their bodies. He says society should adopt a new approach to nose-picking and encourage children to take it up.
Dr Bischinger said: "With the finger you can get to places you just can't reach with a handkerchief, keeping your nose far cleaner.
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"And eating the dry remains of what you pull out is a great way of strengthening the body's immune system.
"Medically it makes great sense and is a perfectly natural thing to do. In terms of the immune system the nose is a filter in which a great deal of bacteria are collected, and when this mixture arrives in the intestines it works just like a medicine.
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Her Majesty the Queen |
"Modern medicine is constantly trying to do the same thing through far more complicated methods, people who pick their nose and eat it get a natural boost to their immune system for free."
He pointed out that children happily pick their noses, yet by the time they have become adults they have stopped under pressure from a society that has branded it disgusting and anti social.
He said: "I would recommend a new approach where children are encouraged to pick their nose. It is a completely natural response and medically a good idea as well."
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And he pointed out that if anyone was really worried about what their neighbour was thinking, they could still enjoy picking their nose in private if they still wanted to get the benefits it offered.
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How about a second opinion?
Dear Alice,
I am an avid nose-picker. Is this bad for my nose?
-- Nosepicker
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Dear Nosepicker,
Thanks for sharing. Sure, some will say, "Alice, must you post and respond to such an obscure and disgusting question?" Alice says yes, because like many other touchy topics and matters that are close to home, nose picking is a more common pastime than most folks, big and small, would like to admit. Alice bets some of you are picking and clicking right now! Besides, this act, however revolting it may seem, carries health risks that compel Alice to take a swipe at your inquiry.
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Because the nose, mouth, throat, and sinuses are fertile territory for the development of infections, your picking finger can act like the Space Shuttle, delivering bacteria from a door knob or public telephone, let's say, directly into your body. (Of course, this route of transit works in the reverse direction, too.) Cuts in the nasal passage are another hazard that can result from your fingernails, whether they're well-clipped or not. Even microscopic lacerations that draw no visible blood, can open the door even wider to bacteria and infections. Avid nose-pickers, such as yourself, may see more pimples in and around the nose due to increased oil deposits from the fingers. For a very small minority of the nostril-inclined, the consequences of their behavior have been nothing to sneeze at. Alice knows of one vigorous young nose-picker who broke a blood vessel that required cauterization (a burning process that deadens tissue) to halt the bleeding that resulted. And she never picked again. |
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So far, Alice has focused on possible self-inflicted nose-picking consequences, but what about secondhand effects? Alice would bet that most people, even closeted nose-pickers, would not relish watching others picking, or, God forbid, dipping, sticking, or flicking. Public pickers everywhere (as well as belchers and spitters too, for that matter), keep this in mind.
As always, safer nose-picking is best done with a tissue. But if you must pick without protection: wash up, go easy, and keep it to yourself.
