What the Color of Your Snot Really Means

What the Color of Your Snot Really Means

It cannot be denied that we are annoyed by nasal mucus. It is irritating to have to blow it occasionally using a tissue or handkerchief. However, keep in mind that nasal mucus has its purpose. While medical professionals do not base their diagnoses on the disease on the nasal mucus alone, it does play a major role in identifying what’s happening in your nasal passages.

Now, let’s take a look at the interpretation of the color of your mucus and what it means.

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When you have clear nasal mucus, this means that you are healthy. Your nasal tissues produce straight mucus round-the-clock. It’s composed of protein, water, dissolved salts, and antibodies. A huge amount of this flows to the back of the throat and gets dissolved in the stomach.

On the other hand, white nasal mucus means you are congested. This can be considered as a sign of having a cold or perhaps a nasal infection. The flow of your mucus will become slow because of the inflamed and swollen tissues in your nose, which results in thicker and cloudy mucus because of the moisture that has been lost.

You might have a cold that is progressing or infection when you have yellow mucus. White blood cells, which are considered as infection-fighting cells, are rushing to the site of the microbial infection. Usually, you will experience colds from 10-14 days when you have this color of mucus.

Green mucus means your immune system is fighting back and your mucus will be thick with dead white cells. You should set up an appointment with your doctor if you are still sick after 12 days or if you are nauseated or feverish. This might be a bacterial infection or sinusitis.

When you have pink or red mucus, then this most likely means blood. This means that you might have a broken nasal tissue in your nose which is attributed to dryness or irritation.

Now, brown mucus also means blood. It is due to the dirt you inhaled. On the other hand, black mucus means serious fungal infection especially for those who are non-smokers and non-users of illegal drugs. It usually happens to people with weak immune system. So, if you consider yourself one, go and talk to your doctor today.

You have already learned the different colors of snot and its meanings. This can be a great help to take good care of our health even more.

We learned about this neat piece of information here: Cleveland Clinic