Why does it hurt when water flows through your nose?
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Your nose contains extremely sensitive scent receptors, which are able to detect extremely small pieces of matter (molecules basically). These scent receptors get irritated when water flows through/over them. This is because the water that goes through your nose is never pure water. For example, pool water may contain chemicals like Chlorine which tend to irritate human cells. Even tap water or bottled water contain chemicals and minerals which can cause irritation of scent receptors.
Your body actually consists of 60% water. So, water isn’t necessarily a strange chemical to your body. But, the water in your body also isn’t pure water. It’s actually saline. More specifically it is a mixture of water (H2O) and exactly 0,9% salt.
Should you buy 0.9% saline water at the pharmacy and push this through your nose, it won’t hurt that much. Unless you apply too much pressure of course, but then it’s the force of the water that hurts, not the water itself. 😉 Saline water is even used to clean the nose of babies, as they have not yet learned to blow their nose in a tissue.
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It hurts almost entirely because the water isn’t at the same salt level as your body. The relatively pure water causes the cells in contact to swell up with water so that the concentration gradient across the cell membrane is less. This swelling causes pain. I’ve done the nasal rinse with salty water many times and there’s no pain.
Fun fact: I have a hidden cleft palate, so not only does water pass through my nose very time i drink it too quickly, it also frequently happens with alcoholic drinks (hurts like hell), I also vomit through my nose (hurts the most out of everything)
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Neti pot is OK, but instead you can get a nasal irrigation thingy like a giant syringe but with a nice soft rubber tip. Allows you to use gravity to help let the water flow out. Use boiled or distilled water at body temperature, suck some into the syringe thing, bend over the sink a little, shoot water up one nostril, and it falls out the other nostril. Do not forget the water temp, and add a little salt — most kits come with packets of salt to use. If it’s saline solution at your temperature, it doesn’t sting at all.
So yeah it’s mostly that your mucus membranes in your nose have a very specific balance of chemicals going on (in order to make sure your smell receptors are in good working conditions), and a lot of nerve sensors to tell you if anything is wrong.
Well water, or anything that isn’t mucus/snot is gonna want to suck away some of the balanced chemicals and replace them with water. The scientific term for this is “osmotic pressure” but it’s basically just the “salt water and fresh water REALLY wanna balance out and become brackish water” thing, but for cells and bodily fluids.
Well your body really doesn’t want that to happen because it’s really happy with it’s normal balance, and yells at you if anything disturbs it.
Also water can be a mild abrasive when pushed through tight spaces and the inside of your nose is extremely soft.
It doesn’t? I sometimes snort water from the tap if I’ve had a sneezing fit.
It’s because the ph/mineral content of your nasal fluid is not the same as that of tap water — feels weird because it’s more acidic/basic(?)
personally it doesn’t for me, but I’ve had to do nasal irrigations since I was 4-5 due to severe sinus problems and have needed many nose/sinus surgeries so if there is any pain it’s nothing in comparison.
if you use salt (which you almost definitely will and should since it really helps with the clearing out), it irritates the mucus membranes and dries them out. I suggest starting with a small amount and gradually working your way up.
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