Even if you smoke Cuban cigars three times a day, you don’t run the risk of burning your nose right away. The burning sensation in your nose isn’t caused by cigar ember and the smoke: So much depends on the degree of the burning sensation. And the causes may be unpredictable.
Common causes of burning nose sensation
For starters, let’s rule out excessive smoking and cocaine-snorting (although these two produce the same effect). You ought to know what’s going on inside your nose first.
Your nose has a sensitive inner coating that’s made up of membranes. These membranes have hair-like growths called cilia that protect them from dirt and infection. Your cilia help keep your nose clean and allergy-free. When your nasal membranes are sufficiently covered they remain moist.
The burning feeling results from:
1. Irritation. When you get that burning sensation inside your nose it means your nasal membranes have been irritated. The irritation is brought on by colds and viral allergies so you keep blowing your nose to keep the mucus out. When air gets in and rubs against your nasal membranes, you get the burning sensation.
2. Damaged nasal nerve. You might have hurt your nose accidentally when you fell over the stairs or your bicycle. This results in your nasal nerves getting pressed against each other. They swell in response. Keep in mind that your nose’s bridge is made almost entirely of cartilage and it can only hold out a certain amount of pressure and soon it might break.
3. Sunburn. In this case you may not only have a burning nose but most likely a burning body as well. Unprotected sun-bathing is dangerous to your health. You can well imagine your nasal nerves and membranes getting fried while you’re out in the sun having fun. When you’re back to the shade, that’s when it starts to hurt.
4. Chlorine in the pool. If you’ve been swimming in the pool for a long time, chlorine builds up in your nostrils. Chlorine seeps into the membranes and this causes the burning sensation in there.
5. Too much blowing of nasal fluids. Some people are genetically predisposed to having too much nasal discharge at the slightest sign of flu or colds. Instead of the average 3 or 4 days, theirs run on for a week. And they blow their nose every other minute. Naturally they get that burning feeling in their nostrils.
6. High altitude. In high places there’s thin oxygen so your lungs work double time and your air passages from the nose down must work equally hard to pump in air. This results in a burning sensation. Many of us are not used to the sudden change in oxygen density.
7. Diabetes. People suffering from diabetes complications may feel a burning sensation inside their noses– if the afflicted part happens to be their respiratory track.
Handy ways to lessen burning in the nose
In the case of a diabetes complication, there’s no easy way of handling the burning feeling. But for most common causes, you can try these:
1. Putting Vaseline. For the smooth feeling it creates inside your nose, Vaseline delivers. Plus, it has an antibacterial formula that keeps infection away.
2. Using a humidifier. When you’re fresh from sunbathing or when the place is too humid as to burn your nose, using a humidifier works wonders to keep you nose moist.
3. Stay away from nasal decongestants. They have camphor which is used only for the “cold” feeling they create, but other than that, there’s not much you can expect. In some cases, in fact, people get their noses irritated by strong camphor.
Word of caution: While blowing your nose may clean its passages, too much of it may be bad for your ears. You have a clean nose, sure, but you wouldn’t want to clean out sound from your ear.
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