Your Stuffy Nose:Humidity and Temperature

Can taking a walk in the cool dry fall and winter air relieve your stuffy nose? A stuffy nose afflicts about 33 million people annually and accounts for an estimated 5.8 billion in healthcare costs each year. A recent study by the Monell Center sheds light on the role of temperature and humidity as it relates to the feeling of a stuffy nose. Scientists at the leading smell and taste research center showed that a stuffy nose is not just a resultt of allergies or physical obstruction.(like a deviated septum or turbinate enlargement) Researchers found that decreased temperature and lower humidity in the air were both correlated with a decreased sense of nasal blockage. This result should open up new lines of research and treatment; and provides some common sense approaches to relieve a stuffy nose.