Press play on asad movieand you might find your face turning into a drench wet great deal . It ’s not just the teardrop ( and any constitution said tears have displaced)—it ’s also all the snob .

While the evolutionary logical thinking behindhuman tearsremains unclear , how thosetearshappen is less murky . Emotional arousal causes your psyche to station content to your tear duct learn them to raise tears .

But those content do n’t go to your nose . So why has it apparently kicked mucus output into high gear ? Actually , it has n’t .

Blame your tear ducts.

When you blazon out , some tears exit your eye merely by rolling down the duration of your expression . Others , however , drain through your tear channel and into your pinched caries . There , they combine with mucus , bring forth a excess of fluid that spill from your olfactory organ .

“ You ’re not making more mucous secretion , it ’s just the tear draining and fuse with the mucus [ that ’s already there],”Dr . Erich Voigt , M.D. , director of NYU Langone Medical Center ’s department of general and sleep otolaryngology , toldSELF .

The same is n’t true of certain other circumstances that cause a fluid nozzle . When youeat something spicy , for example , your mucous membranesdomake more mucus — it ’s their way of sample to scour out the“spicy ” chemicalsbefore they can interfere with your respiratory system . Your mucous membranes wild leek up outputin the stale , too , in ordination to warm up up and moisten that dry , parky air before it attain your lungs .

One muscular shock into a tissue may seem like the best way to net out all that excess mucous secretion — but too much force can cause other issues . Here’show ( and how not ) to blow your nozzle .

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