When I was younger, my mom would always tell me to “cough and spit out that phlegm so that you won’t keep the bacteria in your system” or something along those lines. But wouldn’t your stomach acid kill the bacteria anyways if you do swallow it?
In: 0
It does, and it actually weakens the pathogen so the immune system gets a chance to learn how to kill it faster. Your mom was wrong.
We don’t have to, it’s not harmful to swallow it, and in some cases can be beneficial in that your intestines can produce antibodies in response to some viruses. I’m not sure exactly why the belief that you need to expel it and not swallow it became so common, but I think I can safely assume it has something to do with the old belief in “humours” in the body that would cause illness if they weren’t maintained at proper volumes or were contaminated, like what lead to bloodletting treatments, and also probably involves “ew boogers”. Nobody wants to eat boogers (not most people anyway). On the surface, it makes sense that you would want to get the “bad” out of your body and that allowing it to remain would let it spread or prolong it, but it just doesn’t work out that way in actuality.
Latest Answers