| Show MK let our motto be GOOD HEALTH BY DR LLOYD ARNOLD professor nor of bacteriology and nd preventive medicine university of 0 illinois 11 ollege ot of medicine medicine WHAT HAPPENS TO YOUR NOSE IN A HEAD COLD our noses have a pretty important part to play in the proper functioning of 0 our bodies besides being the seat 7 of the sense of smell and providing the two normal major passages for or air to come into the body thie the mouth Is an emergency or spare inlet our noses als aso 0 act as a heater and bun ildi ller fier for the air we breathe and if some something thing breaks down the proper functioning of this heating and humidifying property then presto we have a cot cold tills this Is how it works beneath the moist membrane lining of the nose are highly specialized threadlike thread like masses of blood channels the volume of blood flowing through those these Is constantly changing according to the needs of the nose now when a healthy person leaves the warmth of the house on a cold winter day this vascular network of capil laries in the nose instantaneously contracts to prevent too much warm blood getting too close to the skin surface it if you notice the membrane of the nose looks pale nt at this moment but the body needs to have the cold air warmed before it reaches the lungs and obviously this cant happen if the decrease in the amount of blood near the surface continues so there is an almost immediate reaction and within a few seconds the volume of blood flowing cowing through the capillary network increases the temperature p pera grature ture goes up for for a few seconds and then quickly becomes normal again this wal warms ms the incoming cold air and while the warming Is going on the glands of the nose or the humidifying machinery also get into instant action they secrete a watery mucous to moisten the air properly before it reaches the lungs and tor for the first half hour that we are outdoors until the nose has worked out the proper adjustment between cold air and warm blood and moisture the glands usually secrete too much mucous that Is why we have to blow our noses to get rid of the excess 1 but 3 ut the point Is that in the healthy person the nose does work out the a adjustment there Is at first the momentary drop in temperature indicated by the blanching of the nose then in about half a minute the upturn to higher than han normal and then a quick return to normal the adjusting of the secretory glands takes longer this drop in temperature and return to normal Is not guess work in the medical laboratory of the university ity of illinois where here much research has been done on colds we have used three methods to determine these facts and we have checked the methods against each other first we had a special microscope that showed the capillaries capil laries changing in size second we made examinations laminations ami nations of the blood lowing flowing through the capillary beds of the nose in animals and third we had a special type of thermometer that recorded both the temper temperature of the lining of the nose and of the skin of the face at the same time this last was the most us useful e method now when a person has a history of several colds each winter we se found that mille the lie temper temperature of the lining cells of h his is nose decreased on coin coming in contact with cold air I 1 it did not rise again im immediately as it does doe a in the healthy p person erson the nose stayed blanched and cen consequently the blood in the nose could not warm the nir air he breathed to the degree that it should be warmed before it passed on to his lungs indeed these chronic cold people ale seem to have lost the power of coordinating co their noses with the rest of their bodies they can be likened to the loss of control of volume in a radio combined with plenty of static so far we do not know of any medicine or vaccine that will help these chronic cold sufferers the only way they can be helped is for them to train their nose machinery together with their whole outer skin machinery so that its reaction will be the same as in a healthy person and the way to do this is by a hardening process of hot and cold baths the patient should take a good long hot bath first thing in the morning and this should be fol followed loed by a cold shower or a plunge in a tub of coo cool water the patient however should lead up to the cold shower gradually ile he should begin by dipping his hands bands and face in cold water unter when he reacts favorably to tins this lie he should dip his feet in cold water then sprinkle cold water over his bis chest and back in a month lie he will think the world right of a morning unless he be has this hot and cold therapy then after breakfast he should walk ten to twenty minutes in the open air tie he should do this again at noun noon and at night tie lie should be out at least art an hour a day no matter what the weather the whole purpose Is to train the skin so that it can take it we ve all know that if we e want to make any set of muscles in our body especially useful we have to excie lse them and if we u ant our skin to react in a healthy way y to changes we must give ive it exercise erl se in reacting S Q western newspaper union |
