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

• 0:04
  Speaker 1: Hey, and welcome to the Short Stuff. I'm Josh and
• 0:06
  Speaker 1: there's Chuck and Jerry's here too, and it's short Stuff. Uh,
• 0:11
  Speaker 1: this is a p S. A episode of Short Stuff.
• 0:15
  Speaker 1: We like to do those kinds of things where we
• 0:17
  Speaker 1: tell you to stop doing something that you're doing because
• 0:19
  Speaker 1: it's harmful and you didn't know it. So that's what
• 0:23
  Speaker 1: we're going to do here today. And also hat tip
• 0:25
  Speaker 1: to my wife Umi, who sent me an article on this.
• 0:28
  Speaker 1: Um had I had no idea about this, but um,
• 0:33
  Speaker 1: we're talking about nose picking. We have to kind of
• 0:35
  Speaker 1: start off first, Chuck, um, by establishing a link between
• 0:40
  Speaker 1: the nose and the brain. Go uh sure, um. And
• 0:45
  Speaker 1: this is going to relate to some particular brain diseases
• 0:48
  Speaker 1: like Alzheimer's and and generally dementia overall. But when those
• 0:54
  Speaker 1: things happen, it's super sad. And that's the result of
• 0:57
  Speaker 1: plaque building up and protein tangles in your brain that
• 1:01
  Speaker 1: are blocking neurological pathways and coming up the works basically,
• 1:07
  Speaker 1: and over the years, they've kind of known for a
• 1:10
  Speaker 1: while that like memory and smell or some of the
• 1:13
  Speaker 1: first early signs and that's no surprise, but the University
• 1:17
  Speaker 1: of Chicago Medicine has stumbled upon not stumbled upon, did
• 1:22
  Speaker 1: some very intentional research that found recently that if you
• 1:26
  Speaker 1: have a sudden loss of smell uh, and generally you're
• 1:30
  Speaker 1: if you're in the age range. You know, if you're
• 1:32
  Speaker 1: thirteen and you lose your smell for something, you probably
• 1:34
  Speaker 1: have COVID. So don't worry. You probably got you did
• 1:36
  Speaker 1: something wrong. You're being punished by God, that's right. But
• 1:40
  Speaker 1: if you have a sudden loss of smell, it can
• 1:43
  Speaker 1: be a very good early warning sign that you might
• 1:46
  Speaker 1: be headed down um a road for dementia or Alzheimer's. Yeah.
• 1:51
  Speaker 1: What was interesting is the link is so strong that
• 1:55
  Speaker 1: the sudden loss of smell is as big a risk
• 1:59
  Speaker 1: factor as having the literal gene that they basically say, like,
• 2:03
  Speaker 1: this is the Alzheimer's gene, the apoe E four gene,
• 2:09
  Speaker 1: Like you don't have to have that gene, and if
• 2:11
  Speaker 1: you lose your smell suddenly, you're just as likely to
• 2:14
  Speaker 1: develop Alzheimer's shortly after pretty remarkable finding, I think so too, so, Chuck,
• 2:20
  Speaker 1: that was really well done. You established a link between
• 2:23
  Speaker 1: the nose and the brain, which sets us up for
• 2:26
  Speaker 1: the next part um, which is to say there is
• 2:29
  Speaker 1: a connection between the nose and the brain physically as well,
• 2:33
  Speaker 1: not just neurologically. That is problematic because researchers from UM
• 2:38
  Speaker 1: the CLEM. Jones Center for Neurobiology and Stem Cell Research
• 2:43
  Speaker 1: in Brisbane in Australia found that UM, picking your nose
• 2:48
  Speaker 1: could actually be a risk factor for Alzheimer's as well.
• 2:52
  Speaker 1: That's right. Uh. And they cavey at it, and we
• 2:54
  Speaker 1: should cavey at it as well. That they use mouse mouses,
• 2:57
  Speaker 1: these mices, mouse models to check this out, and they
• 3:02
  Speaker 1: have definitely found that there's the introduction of a bacteria
• 3:06
  Speaker 1: called chlamydia. Uh, I don't. I never have remembered, even
• 3:11
  Speaker 1: though people wrote in how do you pronounce it when
• 3:12
  Speaker 1: it's I A E at the end um I A.
• 3:19
  Speaker 1: I think it's pneumonia. I mean, we've had very smart
• 3:23
  Speaker 1: scientists and doctors say, guys, and did you see that
• 3:26
  Speaker 1: it is pronounced this way? And I never can remember.
• 3:29
  Speaker 1: I think it is a A. I mean if you
• 3:31
  Speaker 1: just take the iowa A remember A on flux. That's
• 3:35
  Speaker 1: how they fell bad. So I'm guessing it's pneumonia. Okay,
• 3:40
  Speaker 1: So Clamidia pneumonia, which can be very dangerous, is very
• 3:44
  Speaker 1: dangerous for the brain. Uh. And this bacteria goes from
• 3:49
  Speaker 1: the nose to the brain and kind of kicks off
• 3:51
  Speaker 1: the production of this amm alloid plaque, which is one
• 3:55
  Speaker 1: of the plaques that can you know, kind of kick
• 3:57
  Speaker 1: off Alzheimer's and dementia. Yeah, and what's interesting about that
• 4:01
  Speaker 1: is that once this um this p pneumonia gets into
• 4:05
  Speaker 1: your brain or your central nervous system and you start
• 4:08
  Speaker 1: developing this amyloid plaque. That seems like a dumb thing
• 4:10
  Speaker 1: to do since that's going to trigger Alzheimer's. But they
• 4:13
  Speaker 1: found anti viral and anti microbial properties in amyloid plaque,
• 4:18
  Speaker 1: so they think it might be part of our immune systems. Interest.
• 4:21
  Speaker 1: You just you don't want this bug, not just for that,
• 4:24
  Speaker 1: like it's it's been linked to a lot of other
• 4:26
  Speaker 1: stuff too, because it's so effective at attacking our central
• 4:30
  Speaker 1: nervous system that, um, they think it's possible that multiple
• 4:34
  Speaker 1: sclerosis is the result of an infection of this bug.
• 4:38
  Speaker 1: That's pretty crazy. Um. It exacerbates asthma. Uh, it can
• 4:43
  Speaker 1: trigger material sclerosis, which apparently it makes us start absorbing
• 4:49
  Speaker 1: L D L cholesterol, which inflames our our blood vessels.
• 4:54
  Speaker 1: Which hardens them over time, all because this bug made
• 4:57
  Speaker 1: its way into your body. So the upshot of this
• 5:01
  Speaker 1: is that, um, these researchers in Brisbane say, don't pick
• 5:05
  Speaker 1: your nose because all you're doing is helping this bug
• 5:09
  Speaker 1: get in there in the first place. All Right, I
• 5:12
  Speaker 1: think it's a great spot for a break and we'll
• 5:14
  Speaker 1: come back and explain all that in a second. Alright,
• 5:30
  Speaker 1: So the Australians tied this to mice. Uh, they came
• 5:34
  Speaker 1: out and said, all right, we've tested the mice, now
• 5:36
  Speaker 1: we need to test this on humans. But in the meantime,
• 5:39
  Speaker 1: we are really pretty sure that it's bad for humans
• 5:45
  Speaker 1: and that you shouldn't be picking your nose because you
• 5:47
  Speaker 1: could get some of that bacteria on your finger and
• 5:51
  Speaker 1: basically stick it up onto a highway that goes to
• 5:54
  Speaker 1: your brain. Uh, it may already be on your hands,
• 5:58
  Speaker 1: it may already be in your nose, in which you'll
• 6:00
  Speaker 1: be shoving it up there further by picking your nose.
• 6:03
  Speaker 1: And now comes to the second half of this episode
• 6:06
  Speaker 1: where we're just going to talk a little more generally
• 6:08
  Speaker 1: about picking your nose. Yeah, because what the uh, the C.
• 6:13
  Speaker 1: Pneumonia um is not the only bug that you can
• 6:17
  Speaker 1: push into your um, your nose even further. The problem
• 6:21
  Speaker 1: with that one in particular is that it attacks the
• 6:23
  Speaker 1: central nervous system. Right. Um. But picking your nose, like
• 6:28
  Speaker 1: you said, is not um something you want to do
• 6:31
  Speaker 1: in the first place. First of all, it's it's gross.
• 6:34
  Speaker 1: It's I mean, you just know it's gross. But it
• 6:38
  Speaker 1: can be dangerous too. But it also seems to be
• 6:41
  Speaker 1: really really widespread chuck. Yeah, And I do want to
• 6:45
  Speaker 1: point out really quickly, like the whole thing with COVID
• 6:47
  Speaker 1: and masks, one of the reasons that they were telling
• 6:50
  Speaker 1: people to wear masks was not just to keep from
• 6:53
  Speaker 1: inhaling particles into your nose, but it was to keep
• 6:57
  Speaker 1: your fingies away from your mouth and nose so you
• 7:01
  Speaker 1: don't just like scratch your nose with a little COVID
• 7:03
  Speaker 1: on it because it could be a carrier. So that's
• 7:05
  Speaker 1: another reason people are saying to keep those masks on,
• 7:08
  Speaker 1: because they found that picking your nose is literally shoving
• 7:12
  Speaker 1: whatever bacteria you have on that index finger or thumb
• 7:16
  Speaker 1: sometimes or pinky if it's in the little corner, and
• 7:20
  Speaker 1: getting it closer to your brain. Right. So, there was
• 7:24
  Speaker 1: this um study from out of Madison Wisconsin, and these
• 7:30
  Speaker 1: researchers sent a thousand questionnaires out to people, and the
• 7:34
  Speaker 1: questionnaires basically said, hey, we have a bunch of questions
• 7:38
  Speaker 1: about um, picking your nose. You want to answer these?
• 7:41
  Speaker 1: And two hundred and fifty four people responded that, and
• 7:46
  Speaker 1: the response that they got was we all do all
• 7:50
  Speaker 1: of us pick our noses? Of the people in the
• 7:54
  Speaker 1: survey reported picking their nose said that they think everybody
• 7:59
  Speaker 1: picks their nose. I thought everyone kind of pick their
• 8:02
  Speaker 1: nose occasionally. I think they do. This study is criticized because, um,
• 8:07
  Speaker 1: it could. It could very easily suffer from response bias.
• 8:11
  Speaker 1: If you remember from our Scientific Biases episode that was
• 8:14
  Speaker 1: one of them where only people who are actually interested
• 8:18
  Speaker 1: in talking about nose picking and who are likely to
• 8:22
  Speaker 1: pick their noses then would have been the ones who responded.
• 8:25
  Speaker 1: So that would skew the results, but still is pretty significant. Yeah,
• 8:32
  Speaker 1: I'll go ahead and say it. I picked my nose
• 8:33
  Speaker 1: here and there if I'm in a situation where it
• 8:36
  Speaker 1: calls for it. Sure, if I if I got a
• 8:39
  Speaker 1: boogie up there and there's no tissue at hand, just
• 8:43
  Speaker 1: get that thing out of there. I don't think it's
• 8:44
  Speaker 1: that gross. I mean, boogers are kind of gross looking,
• 8:46
  Speaker 1: but it's not you know, it's not like picking poop
• 8:50
  Speaker 1: out of your butt. No, no, it's not at all.
• 8:55
  Speaker 1: Did I just say that you did? Okay? Uh? For
• 8:58
  Speaker 1: these respondents, I guess on one of the two fifty four,
• 9:02
  Speaker 1: they were like you, I'll fill this thing out right,
• 9:05
  Speaker 1: I'm a proud nose picker. Uh. For two percent of
• 9:08
  Speaker 1: the subjects in this survey, which is not many, UM,
• 9:13
  Speaker 1: it actually like and I think these are people who
• 9:15
  Speaker 1: sort of obsessively pick. It actually interfered with their daily functioning. Uh.
• 9:21
  Speaker 1: And people responded with how much time? Some people responded
• 9:24
  Speaker 1: fifteen thirty minutes. There was one person that said they
• 9:27
  Speaker 1: spend over two hours a day picking their nose and
• 9:30
  Speaker 1: it caused various medical problems from uh, perforation of the
• 9:35
  Speaker 1: septum um to this one lady. I think it was
• 9:39
  Speaker 1: a different case study, but um, she perforated her septum
• 9:43
  Speaker 1: and carved a hole in her sinuses from obsessively nose picking. Yeah,
• 9:48
  Speaker 1: can you imagine. No. So, the these researchers UM concluded
• 9:54
  Speaker 1: that nose picking is probably universal among adults at least,
• 9:59
  Speaker 1: so it should not be con sidered a mental disorder
• 10:01
  Speaker 1: alongside something like a trick to lamannia, where you pull
• 10:05
  Speaker 1: your hair out. Um. And there's actually a name like
• 10:10
  Speaker 1: that for nose picking, or at least compulsive nose picking,
• 10:13
  Speaker 1: rhino to lexomania. Um. And they said we should get
• 10:17
  Speaker 1: rid of rhino to lexo mania. It's ruined enough lives
• 10:20
  Speaker 1: as a label. So let's just say everybody picks their
• 10:23
  Speaker 1: nose instead rhino. How did you pronounce that, rhino to lexomnia?
• 10:30
  Speaker 1: I don't think that's right. Are rhino till x? Oh? Yeah,
• 10:34
  Speaker 1: it's a right. Oh well what am I looking at? Then?
• 10:38
  Speaker 1: What is rhino trick to lemnia? Oh? So there's a one.
• 10:41
  Speaker 1: There was a documented case of somebody who compulsively picked
• 10:45
  Speaker 1: their nose and pulled their hair. So they've dubbed it
• 10:49
  Speaker 1: that I didn't know if those nose here, because because
• 10:51
  Speaker 1: getting after that nose here can be a problem too, man,
• 10:54
  Speaker 1: that's stuff. Do you ever do that, pull out your
• 10:57
  Speaker 1: nose hair? I do? Uh, it's very painful. But what
• 11:02
  Speaker 1: I try to do is get in there with my Um.
• 11:05
  Speaker 1: I've got I've got some really nice hair cutting scissors,
• 11:09
  Speaker 1: which is just to say they cut very well and
• 11:11
  Speaker 1: very precisely. So I try to because you know you
• 11:14
  Speaker 1: can older, you get hair in your nose and your
• 11:16
  Speaker 1: ears like you never had before. And you don't want
• 11:18
  Speaker 1: to be that guy with like the crazy eyebrows and
• 11:21
  Speaker 1: nose hair everywhere. It just busts out all over. You
• 11:23
  Speaker 1: turn into like a cheea pet basically. So I try
• 11:27
  Speaker 1: to take care of this stuff. So I get in
• 11:29
  Speaker 1: there with the scissors. Um, when I'm thinking about it now,
• 11:32
  Speaker 1: I'll trim the eyebrows, and I'll trim up the nose
• 11:35
  Speaker 1: hair and then the ear hair. I don't want to
• 11:38
  Speaker 1: stick scissors in there, so I'll just feel around in
• 11:40
  Speaker 1: there and I'll pluck those and those are pretty painful
• 11:43
  Speaker 1: to you should just get one of those little buzzer
• 11:45
  Speaker 1: things do work really well for nose hair, and you're here.
• 11:48
  Speaker 1: I used to have one of those. Oh I went analog?
• 11:52
  Speaker 1: That was fine. Are you like analog, you hipster? No?
• 11:55
  Speaker 1: I mean I literally just kind of lost it over
• 11:58
  Speaker 1: the years and then never placed it. But a dynamic
• 12:01
  Speaker 1: against it it was fine. So there are some other
• 12:04
  Speaker 1: researchers to that did a follow up study in two
• 12:06
  Speaker 1: thousand in Bangalore, India. Um, I remember our friend Van
• 12:10
  Speaker 1: Nostrian's band was named the Bangalore's That's right. Yeah, I
• 12:16
  Speaker 1: just wanted to mention that. And their their hypothesis was that,
• 12:20
  Speaker 1: um uh, something like nose picking, that kind of habit
• 12:25
  Speaker 1: finds its like origin in childhood and it just carries
• 12:29
  Speaker 1: over into adulthood. That does not seem to be the case.
• 12:32
  Speaker 1: Apparently nose picking becomes much more um appealing to you
• 12:37
  Speaker 1: as you age. Because only seven point six percent of respondents,
• 12:41
  Speaker 1: and of these teenagers who were surveyed said that they
• 12:44
  Speaker 1: picked their nose. I'm guessing that they were given anonymity
• 12:49
  Speaker 1: because it's a pretty self conscious question for a teenager. Um,
• 12:54
  Speaker 1: but apparently it's it's an adult phenomenon more than a
• 12:58
  Speaker 1: childhood phenomena. Yeah, I'm glad to know it was anonymous,
• 13:02
  Speaker 1: because at first I was like, come on, I'm sure
• 13:05
  Speaker 1: these teenagers were just like, well, I don't pick my nose.
• 13:07
  Speaker 1: Oh yeah, I'm guessing it was anonymous, because that would
• 13:10
  Speaker 1: have been a terrible study design if it wasn't. Okay,
• 13:14
  Speaker 1: I got you, you know what I'm saying. Sure, I'm
• 13:16
  Speaker 1: curious about all these numbers, so any this is just
• 13:18
  Speaker 1: a tough thing to really quantify any survey, where you're
• 13:21
  Speaker 1: asking people to admit doing something that may not be
• 13:24
  Speaker 1: socially acceptable is pretty tough, totally. And socially acceptable is
• 13:28
  Speaker 1: right because depending on where you are in the world, uh,
• 13:31
  Speaker 1: it may or may not be frowned upon. Yeah. I
• 13:35
  Speaker 1: think in the US, Uh, if you're not egregiously just
• 13:38
  Speaker 1: digging in there going for gold, as I say, then
• 13:44
  Speaker 1: you can get away with a quick little nose pick
• 13:46
  Speaker 1: and you know, just sort of do one of those
• 13:48
  Speaker 1: and people won't be think you're like a monster. No,
• 13:50
  Speaker 1: they'll look the other way. Yeah. In the cars when
• 13:53
  Speaker 1: you always see people in traffic, I always say, pick
• 13:55
  Speaker 1: a winner, buddy, Well you're honking. I don't yell that
• 14:00
  Speaker 1: that might just say it to myself. Um, in Japan,
• 14:03
  Speaker 1: actually it's not. They don't really celebrate public nose picking,
• 14:10
  Speaker 1: but um, by comparison, blowing your nose in public is
• 14:13
  Speaker 1: way worse of a social faux pa for sure, which
• 14:17
  Speaker 1: makes tough. It makes sense though, because um, they're very
• 14:21
  Speaker 1: germ conscious in Japan. I mean they've they've been wearing
• 14:24
  Speaker 1: masks since way before the pandemic. They're old school with
• 14:28
  Speaker 1: that stuff. So I could totally see that being a
• 14:30
  Speaker 1: big social taboo there. Yeah, blowing your nose in public.
• 14:33
  Speaker 1: In public is one thing, but like in a restaurant,
• 14:35
  Speaker 1: I'm always like, what do I do? I always feel
• 14:37
  Speaker 1: like I should get up and excuse myself to blow
• 14:39
  Speaker 1: my nose, and I try to unless it's kind of
• 14:43
  Speaker 1: a you know what I'm saying, I want to get
• 14:45
  Speaker 1: too gross here. But if it's like a quick little thing,
• 14:46
  Speaker 1: it's not that big of a deal. But if it's
• 14:49
  Speaker 1: something that sounds gross, like if you're really like releasing
• 14:53
  Speaker 1: a lot of snot and you can hear that, then
• 14:56
  Speaker 1: I think you should probably like excuse yourself. That's for
• 14:58
  Speaker 1: the bathroom. And then China, apparently I saw there's a
• 15:03
  Speaker 1: Wall Street Journal article where, um, the author moved to
• 15:06
  Speaker 1: China and started picking their nose because they said that, um,
• 15:10
  Speaker 1: nose picking in China is quote a way of life.
• 15:14
  Speaker 1: Interesting but you're like, Okay, that's weird China. But apparently
• 15:19
  Speaker 1: the author kind of choked it up to all of
• 15:22
  Speaker 1: the soot that's in the air and some some of
• 15:24
  Speaker 1: the major cities there that you just have to It's
• 15:27
  Speaker 1: like every time we go to New York. At the
• 15:29
  Speaker 1: end of the day, I picked my nose because I'm
• 15:32
  Speaker 1: just getting all the crowd out of there. I can
• 15:34
  Speaker 1: only imagine, you know, visiting Beijing, and of course you're
• 15:38
  Speaker 1: going to pick your nose. Of course you got anything else. Nope,
• 15:43
  Speaker 1: it's away life. It is chuck. Hats off to you
• 15:47
  Speaker 1: for admitting you pick your nose. I'll admit it to see.
• 15:51
  Speaker 1: Everyone picks her nose a little bit. It's a big deal.
• 15:53
  Speaker 1: It feels good, man. Uh, it feels good to say.
• 15:56
  Speaker 1: I mean also it can feel good to pick your
• 15:58
  Speaker 1: nose too. That first nose blow the morning, too, is
• 16:01
  Speaker 1: very rewarding. So I think short stuff is out, don't you.
• 16:06
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• 16:11
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