You may have heard the old joke: If your nose is running and
your feet smell, you must be upside down! But why does your nose
run? Read on to find out the whole story. To understand why your
nose runs, you need to know what mucus (say: myoo-kus) is. This
is the gooey, sticky, slimy material that's made inside your
nose (also known as snot). Believe it or not, your nose and
sinuses make about a quart of snot every day! For something kind
of gross, mucus does a lot of good. It keeps germs, dirt,
pollen, and bacteria from getting into your lungs by stopping
them in your nose. But sometimes mucus doesn't stay put. Reasons
for Running If your nose is running, there are several possible
explanations: You have acoldor theflu: When you have either one
of these, your nose goes into mucus-making overdrive to keep the
germ invaders out of your lungs and the rest of your body, where
they might make you even sicker than you already are. You know
what happens then: The mucus runs down your throat, out your
nose, or into a