Winter season or not, the color of nasal mucus can sometimes tell you a lot about your current state of health. It might not be the polite thing to do in company, but next time you blow into a tissue, take a peek. If it's:

Clear: This is normal. Untainted mucus is mostly water with proteins, antibodies and dissolved salts. It's pretty transparent.

White: This is a sign of congestion in your nasal tract, which is slowing the flow of mucus down your throat, causing it to lose moisture and become thick and cloudy.

Yellow: You may be fighting an infection, and your mucus may be filled with exhausted white blood cells, which are being carried away in mucus for disposal.

Green: You're really in the fight now. Green mucus might mean that it is thick with dead white cells and other detritus. This is the peak of battle. If it persists for more than a couple of days, you might want to see a doctor.

Pink or red: Nasal tissue in the nose has ruptured, perhaps due to dryness, irritation or another factor, and leaked blood is tinting the mucus.

Brown: This is dried blood.

Black: Unless you're a smoker or partaker of illicit drugs, black mucus could signal a serious fungal infection and requires immediate medical attention.

Double Dog Diabetes

Owners of a dog with Type 2 diabetes (yep, they get it, too) are likelier to also be diagnosed with the condition, according to a new study published in the British Medical Journal.

Not so for cat owners, say researchers who looked at more than 330,000 pet-owner pairs.

Dogs and their owners could share similar health behaviors, such as physical activity level, which could explain the findings.

Body of Knowledge

Just so you nose: The average person produces and swallows 1.5 quarts of nasal mucus daily.

Get Me That, Stat!

The pandemic has adversely affected efforts to control and reduce other diseases. The World Health Organization says gains have plateaued in fighting malaria, which still claims more than 400,000 lives a year. Progress in reducing the number of cases annually worldwide is stuck at 229 million, with health budgets slashed.

Counts

6 in 10: ratio of Americans across all 50 states who support a combination of restrictive measures to curb COVID-19, from stay-at-home orders to no in-restaurant dining to online teaching only.

Source: The COVID States Project

Stories for the Waiting Room

In his 1740 bestseller "Primitive Physick, or, An Easy and natural Method of Curing Most Diseases," British evangelist John Wesley suggested a two-week diet consisting only of boiled carrots for treating asthma.

For heart palpitations, Wesley prescribed a pint of cold water and dabbing a vinegar-soaked rag to the forehead.

For toothaches, he advised electrotherapy.

And for the prevention of nosebleeds, he recommended application of a red-hot poker beneath the nose or, barring that, burning a linen rag soaked in vinegar and inhaling the smoke through a straw.

Doc Talk

Wegener's granulomatosis: a rare disease whose symptoms include nosebleeds and a constantly runny nose with pus-filled discharge

Mania of the Week

Bruxomania: a compulsion to grind one's teeth

Observation

"The trouble with heart disease is that the first symptom is often hard to deal with: sudden death." — American swimmer Michael Phelps (1985-)

Medical History

This week in 1964, U.S. Surgeon General Luther Terry announced the results of a study on the health effects of smoking, ordered by then-President John F. Kennedy in 1962. It declared that "cigarette smoking is a health hazard of sufficient importance in the United States to warrant appropriate remedial action," concluding that smoking was a cause of lung and larynx cancer and of chronic bronchitis. One year later, Congress required printed health warnings on cigarette packages.

Perishable Publications

Many, if not most, published research papers have titles that defy comprehension. They use specialized jargon, complex words and opaque phrases such as "nonlinear dynamics." Sometimes they don't, and yet they're still hard to figure out. Here's an actual title of actual published research study: "Impact of wet underwear on thermoregulatory responses and thermal comfort in the cold."

The Norwegian and Danish authors sought to explain the significance (and discomfort) of wet underwear by monitoring skin and intestinal warmth, as well as weight loss, of eight adult male subjects wearing wet or dry underwear in controlled cold conditions.

They concluded, obviously, that the significant cooling effect was problematic to comfort, but the thickness of the undergarment played a key role, too.

Sum Body

Thirteen medical conditions named after people:

1. Crohn's disease: Three New York physicians co-authored the 1932 paper describing this inflammatory digestive disease, but Burrill Bernard Crohn's name came first, alphabetically speaking.

2. Salmonellosis: Daniel Elmer Salmon. There were no fish involved.

3. Parkinson's disease: James Parkinson

4. Huntington's disease: George Huntington

5. Alzheimer's disease: Alois Alzheimer

6. Tourette syndrome: George Gilles de la Tourette

7. Hodgkin lymphoma: Thomas Hodgkin

8. Bright's disease: Richard Bright

9. Addison's disease: Thomas Addison (who, interestingly, worked with Hodgkin and Bright)

10. Tay-Sachs disease: Warren Tay and Bernard Sachs (who didn't actually work together but described different elements of the disease years apart from different countries)

11. Turner syndrome: Henry Turner

12. Klinefelter's syndrome: Harry Klinefelter

13. Asperger's syndrome: Hans Asperger

Med School

Q: Which of these was believed to be a cure-all antidote to poison in 13th century India?

a) Powdered pearls

b) Pomegranate seeds

c) Quartz shavings

d) Crushed beetles

A: a) Powdered pearls

Curtain Calls

An 18-year-old woman named Milika Sloan was electrocuted in 1995 when, after returning to her Cincinnati hotel room, barefoot and wet from a downpour, she slid her keycard into the metal door of her room. The door was charged with electricity conducted by a faulty air conditioning unit built into the wall near the door. Sloan was killed almost instantly.

To find out more about Scott LaFee and read features by other Creators Syndicate writers and cartoonists, visit the Creators Syndicate website at www.creators.com.

Photo credit: pisauikan at Pixabay