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     No, I didn’t mess up in the title and yes it’s super gross, but science is now saying that eating your boogers can actually benefit your health. So a little back story, everyday I watch an online morning show called Good Mythical Morning (sounds fun I know) and on one episode they were addressing how to get someone to stop eating their boogers. The two hosts came to the conclusion that eating your boogers was actually the least bad habit to have and that it need not be stopped.

      How do boogers happen in the first place? Everyone’s nasal cavity is lined with mucus and the job of that mucus is to not only keep your nose moist and warm the air we breathe, but to collect pieces of dirt and bacteria that we breathe in daily. Before you say snot is gross, just imagine if we didn’t have it; our lungs would become full of dirt, bacteria and pollen ultimately becoming irritated and infected; so you better start thanking that snot!

     There are many mixed reviews on the “practice” of eating boogers, I for one am not about to jump on the bandwagon but find the topic very interesting and almost humorous. A post by CBS tried to rationalize the idea of eating snot by recalling a CTV News special with Scott Napper a biochemistry professor at the University of Saskatchewan in Canada. Napper asked the most important question of this issue, “By consuming those pathogens caught within the mucus, could that be a way to teach your immune system about what it’s surrounded with?” It’s almost like self immunization, when you get shots at the doctor you’re introducing your body to small amounts of whatever you’re trying to protect yourself from so your body becomes familiarized with it. Napper also recalls how as we have become a more hygienic society the amount of allergies and immune diseases have increased. So are boogers the almighty answer to protecting children from future allergies and immune diseases? It’s starting to look like it!

     The dirt contained in our boogers may be able to strengthen our immune systems. When the immune system isn’t put to use it’s unable to build a resistance to illnesses and environmental factors which is why Mercola.com claims eating boogers will keep you healthy. Parents think that stopping their children from eating their boogers is a good thing, but being introduced to bacteria in small doses works the immune system so that when it gets it with a huge amount of said bacteria it can protect itself.

“At birth, an infant’s immune system appears to rely primarily on the Th2 (lymphocytes) system, while waiting for the Th1 (lymphocytes) system to grow stronger. But the hygiene hypothesis suggests that the Th1 system can grow stronger only if it gets “exercise,” either through fighting infections or through encounters with certain harmless microbes.
Without such stimulation, the Th2 system flourishes and the immune system tends to react with allergic responses more easily.In other words, the hygiene hypothesis posits that children and adults not being exposed to viruses and other environmental factors like dirt, germs and parasites results in their not being able to build up resistance, which makes them more vulnerable to illnesses.” (Mercola.com)

Boogers contain harmless bacteria which is much better to consume than trying to fight off huge waves of potentially harmful bacteria.

    So next time you see that weird kid in the back of the class eating their boogers, just know they are protecting themselves from the bacteria around them. They will be the sole survivor of the college plague. As for me, even though chomping down on a few boogers every now and then can keep you healthy, I’ll just stock up on some DayQuil and take my chances without eating some fine nose specimens.

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