Runny Nose? Check the Color of Your Snot, Doctors Say. Here's What to Look For, and What it Could Tell You

Ahh-choo! It’s the height of spring allergy season, and you just sneezed. But before you throw away that tissue, check the color of your snot first, doctors say. It could hold the answer to questions about your health — especially as you wonder whether or not your scratchy throat and runny nose is due to COVID, allergies or the common cold.

“You’d be surprised what your snot could tell you,” Dr. Rama Wahood, a family medicine physician with American Family Care told NBC 5 Thursday. “So definitely a good idea that if you are producing snot or coughing up phlegm or mucus from the throat, it’s something it’s a good idea to, you know, look at it and actually, you know, examine it, you know, and and it could tell us a lot of things.”

According to Wahood, all three suburban locations of American Family Care urgent care centers have been busy. Before noon, she had already treated three patients with stuffy noses. And between a warm winter and more pollen-producing trees, cold and allergy symptoms are appearing more similar in nature, she says.

“We’re having lots of patients come in asking those questions, coming in with different symptoms that could really present similarly,” Wahood said. “And so lots of patients are coming in not knowing what’s going on, if, you know, they’re having infections, allergies or anything else or COVID that’s still, you know, going around.”

That’s where snot color comes in.

According to Wahood, the color, smell and frequency of snot can all help determine whether symptoms are allergy-related, or due to an infection.

“If it’s clear or white, then more likely it’s related to your allergies,” Wahood says. “If it’s darker colors, then can indicate a worsening infection. If it’s green or yellow could be just a mild infection. And if it gets darker, it could indicate or smellier, it could indicate a worsening infection.”

According to allergists with the American Lung Association, climate change is impacting pollen counts across the country. On top of that, air pollution and temperature changes are also affecting patients young and old, including first-time allergy sufferers.

And although some symptoms may begin as seasonal allergies, they could worsen over time, Wahood says.

“Anytime there’s a change in season, we see at least, you know, a handful of patients coming in, not knowing if it’s allergies or infection or, you know, if it’s becoming an infection,” Wahood goes on to say. “And there’s a lot of things that it could be as well. It could also be other things like pneumonia, not just sinus infections.”

But health experts say snot isn’t the only helpful indicator to help determine what you’re suffering from. There are different kinds of coughs, too.

“There’s the whistling cough that could sometimes indicate that a person’s wheezing — asthma sufferers or COPD sufferers usually have that. And then there is a more like the rattly cough, that could be like a bronchitis or could also be your allergies.”

“And then, of course, a big thing too, is if you feel hot, if you’re having fevers, if it’s your allergies, you are more likely not going to have fevers associated with that,” Wahood cautions.

from NBC Chicago https://ift.tt/g2szy5U