Doctor Xand Van Tulleken has issued a warning against a “dangerous” hack that people frequently use when dealing with a stuffy and blocked nose. During his appearance BBC Morning Live this week, he urged viewers to be “very careful” with their actions, suggesting that taking a shower is a safer alternative.
“I’d be very careful of putting your face over a bowl of boiling water,” he cautioned, highlighting that the NHS ;see burns in emergency departments every year from people who have done this. So a shower is a much better way of getting steamy air’.
Presenter Helen Skelton confessed she’s guilty of this practice, revealing she grew up doing the ‘head over bowl with a towel’ trick, often adding menthol drops to clear her nasal passages. However, Dr Xand warned “that’s the dangerous one”, explaining: “That’s the one where you were at risk of burns. If it’s hot enough to steam, it’s hot enough to burn so a shower is good.”
The doctor acknowledged that ‘steaminess can be good” as it “thins the mucus out, seems to help the little hair cells in your nose waft the mucus a bit better, things function well and the blood flows a bit more easily and that fights off the infection’.
Discussing the UK weather, he suggested another solution for a congested nose: simply standing outside or slightly opening a window, reports Gloucestershire Live.
He said: “You could do the opposite hack on a day like today, you’ve got cold, dry air outside. If you are stuffed up and can get a little bit of air flow in, go and breathe through your nose and that cold air will shrink the blood vessels in your nose. Hot steamy air – that can work a bit.
“Cold, dry air – that can also work a bit. So you’re just trying to juggle what’s gonna work for you. None of it will fix your cold, but you get your nose open somehow.”.
The doctor also highlighted one “amazing” remedy for a cold – chicken soup. Recalling Dr Oscar Duke’s appearance on BBC Morning Live, he mentioned: “Doctor Oscar has spoken about this on the show as well but there is some evidence that chicken soup is quite good for colds, and of course, chicken soup is generally great if you make it properly.”
Chicken soup is readily available at supermarkets, with stores like Lidl and Sainsbury’s offering cans for as low as 62p. In the same discussion, Dr Xand cautioned against the use of nasal sprays, recommending people to steer clear of them.
When discussing nasal sprays, he said ‘the stuff you can buy in the chemist is complicated to navigate’. Delving into the topic of decongestant sprays, he points out that they ‘decrease the blood flow in your nose and they’re very effective, but they do have side-effects and you can get a major rebound congestion. So when you stop using them the blood vessels in your nose have gotten used to using them so they wear off quite quickly and then you get more congestion afterwards’.
He added: “And it’s actually a very well described phenomenon and it means you can get congestion going on and on and on for ages. So personally I would steer clear of them.”
He advocates for alternative methods, suggesting that “what can work is washing your nose out, get some of that mucus out which will restore your taste and smell and it will help you breathe a bit more easily.”
The full Morning Live – Series 6: 19/11/2024 – episode is available to view on BBC iPlayer.