Stuff You Should Know - Short Stuff: Dangers of Nose Picking

Episode Date: January 4, 2023

You don’t have to lie - everybody picks their nose. But did you know it can be life-threatening? It’s true and you can learn how in this episode.See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

I'm Munga Shatikler and it turns out astrology is way more widespread than any of us want to believe. You can find it in Major League Baseball, International Banks, K-Pop groups, even the White House. But just when I thought I had a handle on this subject, something completely unbelievable happened to me and my whole view on astrology changed. Whether you're a skeptic or a believer, give me a few minutes because I think your ideas are about to change too.

Just a Skyline drive on the iHeartRadio app, Apple Podcast, or wherever you get your podcasts. Hey and welcome to the short stuff. I'm Josh and there's Chuck and Jerry's here too and it's short stuff. This is a PSA episode of short stuff. We like to do those kinds of things where we tell you to stop doing something that you're doing because it's harmful and you didn't know it. So that's what we're going to do here today. And also, hat tip to my wife, Yumi, who sent me an article on this.

I had no idea about this. But we're talking about nose picking. We have to kind of start off first, Chuck, by establishing a link between the nose and the brain. Go. Sure. And this is going to relate to some particular brain diseases like Alzheimer's and generally dementia overall.

But when those things happen, it's super sad and that's a result of plaque building up and protein tangles in your brain that are blocking neurological pathways and gumming up the works basically. And over the years, they've kind of known for a while that like memory and smell are some of the first early signs and that's no surprise. The University of Chicago Medicine has stumbled upon, not stumbled upon, did some very intentional research that found recently that if you have a sudden loss of smell and generally, if you're in the age range, if you're 13 and you lose your smell for something, you probably have

COVID, so don't worry. You probably got, if you did something wrong, you're being punished by God. That's right. But if you have a sudden loss of smell, it can be a very good early warning sign that you might be headed down a road for dementia or Alzheimer's. Yeah. What was interesting is the link is so strong that the sudden loss of smell is as big a risk factor as having the literal gene that they basically say like this is the Alzheimer's

gene, the APOE-E4 gene. Like you don't have to have that gene and if you lose your smell suddenly, you're just as likely to develop Alzheimer's shortly after. Pretty remarkable finding. I think so too. Chuck, that was really well done. You established a link between the nose and the brain, which sets us up for the next part, which is to say there is a connection between the nose and the brain physically as well,

not just neurologically. That is problematic because researchers from the Clem Jones Center for Neurobiology and Stem Cell Research in Brisbane in Australia found that picking your nose could actually be a risk factor for Alzheimer's as well. That's right. They caveat it, and we should caveat it as well, that they use mice, mouse models to check this out. They have definitely found that there's the introduction of a bacteria called chlamydia.

I never have remembered even though people wrote in. How do you pronounce it when it's I-A-E at the end? I-A-E. I think it's pneumoniae. I mean, we've had very smart scientists and doctors say, guys, and you see that it is pronounced this way, and I never can remember. I think it is I-A-E. I mean, if you just take the I-A-A, remember Aeon Flux?

That's how they spell that, so I'm guessing it's pneumoniae. Okay, so chlamydia pneumoniae, which can be very dangerous, is very dangerous for the brain, and this bacteria goes from the nose to the brain and kicks off the production of this amyloid plaque, which is one of the plaques that can kick off Alzheimer's and dementia. Yeah. What's interesting about that is that once this C pneumoniae gets into your brain or your central nervous system and you start developing this amyloid plaque, that seems

like a dumb thing to do since that's going to trigger Alzheimer's, but they found antiviral and antimicrobial properties in amyloid plaque, so they think it might be part of our immune system. Interesting. You don't want this bug, not just for that. It's been linked to a lot of other stuff, too, because it's so effective at attacking our central nervous system that they think it's possible that multiple sclerosis is the result of an infection of this bug.

That's pretty crazy. It exacerbates asthma. It can trigger arteriosclerosis, which apparently it makes us start absorbing LDL cholesterol, which inflames our blood vessels, which hardens them over time, all because this bug made its way into your body. The upshot of this is that these researchers in Brisbane say, don't pick your nose, because all you're doing is helping this bug get in there in the first place. All right.

I think it's a great spot for a break. We'll come back and explain all that in a second. I'm Mangesh Chitikler. To be honest, I don't believe in astrology, but from the moment I was born, it's been a part of my life. In India, it's like smoking. You might not smoke, but you're going to get secondhand astrology. And lately, I've been wondering if the universe has been trying to tell me to stop running

and pay attention, because maybe there is magic in the stars, if you're willing to look for it. So I rounded up some friends and we dove in and let me tell you, it got weird fast. Tantric curses, Major League Baseball teams, canceled marriages, K-pop. But just when I thought I had to handle on this sweet and curious show about astrology, my whole world came crashing down. Situation doesn't look good. There is risk to father.

And my whole view on astrology, it changed. Whether you're a skeptic or a believer, I think your ideas are going to change too. The Skyline Drive and the I Heart Radio App, Apple Podcast, or wherever you get your podcasts. All right, so the Australians tied this to mice. They came out and said, all right, we've tested the mice, now we need to test this on humans. But in the meantime, we are really pretty sure that it's bad for humans and that you shouldn't be picking your nose because you could get some of that bacteria on your finger and basically stick it up onto a highway that goes to your brain.

It may already be on your hands. It may already be in your nose, in which case you'd be shoving it up there further by picking your nose. And now comes the second half of this episode where we're just going to talk a little more generally about picking your nose. Yeah, because the C pneumonia is not the only bug that you can push into your nose even further. The problem with that one in particular is that it attacks the central nervous system.

But picking your nose, like you said, is not something you want to do in the first place. First of all, it's gross. I mean, you just know it's gross. But it can be dangerous too, but it also seems to be really, really widespread, Chuck. Yeah, and I do want to point out really quickly, like the whole thing with COVID and masks. One of the reasons that they were telling people to wear masks was not just to keep from inhaling particles into your nose, but it was to keep your fingies away from your mouth and nose. So you don't just like scratch your nose with a little COVID on it because it could be a

carrier. And another reason people were saying to keep those masks on because they found that picking your nose is literally shoving whatever bacteria you have on that index finger or thumb sometimes or pinky if it's in the little corner and getting it closer to your brain. So there was this study from 1995 out of Madison, Wisconsin, and these researchers sent a thousand questionnaires out to people, and the questionnaires basically said, hey, we have a bunch of questions about picking your nose. You want to answer these?

And 254 people responded, and the response that they got was, we all do, all of us, pick our noses. 91% of the people in the survey reported picking their nose, 75% said that they think everybody picks their nose. I thought everyone kind of picked their nose occasionally. I think they do. This study is criticized because it could very easily suffer from response bias. If you'll remember from our scientific biases episode, that was one of them, where only

people who are actually interested in talking about nose picking and who are likely to pick their noses then would have been the ones who responded, so that would skew the results. But still, 91% is pretty significant. Yeah. I'll go ahead and say it. I picked my nose here and there if I'm in a situation where it calls for it. Oh, yeah? Sure.

If I've got a boogie up there and there's no tissue at hand, just get that thing out of there. I don't think it's that gross. I mean, boogers are kind of gross looking, but it's not like picking poop out of your butt. No. No, it's not at all. Did I just say that?

You did. Yeah. For these respondents, I guess I'm one of the 254 that were like, yeah, I'll fill this thing out. Right. I'm a proud nose picker. For 2% of the subjects in the survey, which is not many, it actually, and I think these are people who sort of obsessively pick, it actually interfered with their daily functioning.

People responded with how much time. Some people responded 15, 30 minutes, there was one person that said they spend over two hours a day picking their nose and it caused various medical problems from perforation of the septum to this one lady. I think it was a different case study, but she perforated her septum and carved a hole in her sinuses from obsessively nose picking. Yeah. Can you imagine?

No. I think these researchers concluded that nose picking is probably universal among adults at least, so it should not be considered a mental disorder alongside something like a tryctolomania, where you pull your hair out. There's actually a name like that for nose picking or at least compulsive nose picking, Rhino-tolexomania, and they said we should get rid of Rhino-tolexomania. That's ruined enough lives as a label, so let's just say everybody picks their nose instead.

Rhino? How did you pronounce that? Rhino-tolexomania. I don't think that's right. Rhino-till-ex-oh, yeah, it's 100% right. Oh, well, what am I looking at then? What is Rhino-trictolomania? Oh, so there was a documented case of somebody who compulsively picked their nose and pulled

their hair, so they dubbed it that. I didn't know if it was nose hair, because getting after that nose hair can be a problem, too. Man, that stuff. Do you ever do that, pull out your nose hair? I do. It's very painful, but what I try to do is get in there with my... I've got some really nice haircutting scissors, which is just to say they cut very well and very precisely.

I try to... because as you get older, you get hair in your nose and your ears like you never had before. Yeah. And you don't want to be that guy with crazy eyebrows and nose hair everywhere. It just busts out all over, and you turn into a chia pet. Basically, so I try to take care of this stuff. So I get in there with the scissors when I'm thinking about it, and I'll trim the eyebrows and I'll trim up the nose hair, and then the ear hair, I don't want to stick at scissors

in there, so I'll just feel around in there and I'll pluck those, and those are pretty painful too. You should just get one of those little buzzer things. Those work really well for nose hair and ear hair. I used to have one of those... Oh, I went analog, and it was fine. Oh, you like analog? You hipster. No.

I mean, I literally just kind of lost it over the years and then never replaced it, but editing everything against it, it was fine. So there are some other researchers too that did a follow-up study in 2000 in Bangalore, India. I remember our friend Van Nostrand's band was named the Bangalores. That's right. Yeah, just wanted to mention that. And their hypothesis was that something like nose picking, that kind of habit, finds its

like origin in childhood and it just carries over into adulthood. That does not seem to be the case. Apparently nose picking becomes much more appealing to you as you age because only 7.6% of respondents of these teenagers who were surveyed said that they picked their nose. I'm guessing that they were given anonymity because it's a pretty self-conscious question for a teenager, but apparently it's an adult phenomenon more than a childhood phenomenon. Yeah, I'm glad to know it was anonymous because at first I was like, come on, I'm sure these teenagers were just like, well, I don't pick my nose.

Oh yeah, I'm guessing it was anonymous because that would have been a terrible study design if it wasn't. Oh, okay. I got you. You know what I'm saying? Sure. I'm curious about all these numbers. So this is just a tough thing to really quantify any survey where you're asking people to admit

doing something that may not be socially acceptable is pretty tough. Totally. But socially acceptable is right because depending on where you are in the world, it may or may not be frowned upon. Yeah. I think in the US, if you're not egregiously just digging in there, going for gold, as I say, then you can get away with a quick little nose pick and just sort of do one of those and people won't think you're like a monster.

No, they'll look the other way. Yeah. In the cars, when you always see people in traffic, I always say, pick a winner, buddy. Well, you're honking. I don't yell at that, and I just say it to myself. In Japan, actually, they don't really celebrate public nose picking, but by comparison, blowing your nose in public is way worse of a social faux pas, for sure, which makes sense. It makes sense, though, because they're very germ conscious in Japan.

I mean, they've been wearing masks since way before the pandemic. They're old school with that stuff, so I could totally see that being a big social taboo there. Yeah. Blowing your nose in public. In public is one thing, but in a restaurant, I'm always like, what do I do? I always feel like I should get up and excuse myself to blow my nose, and I try to unless it's kind of a, you know what I'm saying, I don't want to get too gross here, but if

it's like a quick little thing, it's not that big of a deal, but if it's something that sounds gross. Sure. If you're really releasing a lot of snot and you can hear that, then I think you should probably excuse yourself. That's for the bathroom. Yeah. And then China, apparently, I saw, there's a Wall Street Journal article where the author

moved to China and started picking their nose because they said that nose picking in China is, quote, a way of life. Yeah, interesting. But you're like, okay, that's weird, China, but apparently the author kind of chalked it up to all of the soot that's in the air and some of the major cities there that you just have to. It's like every time we go to New York, at the end of the day, I pick my nose because I'm just getting all the crud out of there.

I can only imagine visiting Beijing and of course you're going to pick your nose. Of course. You got anything else? Nope. It's a way of life. It is, Chuck. I hats off to you for admitting you pick your nose. I'll admit it to you.

See, everyone picks their nose a little bit. It's no big deal. It feels good, man. It feels good to say, I mean. Yeah. Also, it can feel good to pick your nose, too. Oh, yeah. That first nose blow the morning, too, is very rewarding.

Yeah. So I think short stuff is out, don't you? It's got to be. Stuff You Should Know is a production of iHeartRadio. For more podcasts to my heart radio, visit the iHeartRadio app. All podcasts are wherever you listen to your favorite shows.