How to deal with winter nosebleeds
Posted January 7, 2011 10:58 am.
This article is more than 5 years old.
VANCOUVER (NEWS1130) – Nose bleeds can become more troublesome this time of year.
Humidity changes can affect your nasal passages in almost the same way chapped lips can become a problem. Of course, with lips you can grab some lip balm, but you can’t really put that on your nose.
Dr Arif Janjua tells us, “The reason why nose bleeds seem to be persistent and troublesome is that, the same way cracked lips bleed, you can get some bleeding that can happen at the very front of your nose. Then it seals up, just to bleed again the next day. [It’s] sort of a vicious cycle.”
He suggests you try using Vaseline. “It’s a very good barrier for dry air attacking that same cracked area over and over, and it moisturizes at the same time.”
If you do have a nose bleed, and you want it to stop quickly, he tells us you should pinch it, “But you need to do that for a prolonged period of time, at least five minutes so that you prevent the blood flow from going to that area. You get a little clot that happens and it stays.”
Janjua says you should be squeezing the nasal septum. “That’s the part in the middle. Squeeze on the outside of your nostrils. You need to squeeze low down on your nose, not high up where the bony bridge is, because you can’t move the bridge of your nose; that’s not helping you squeeze that area.”
