i know you pick your nose and if you
don't pick your nose even just a little
bit
i don't think i can trust you because
you're probably a robot the fact is
picking your nose is part of what it
means to be human but with that said if
you're two knuckles deep looking for
buried treasure that's definitely not a
good way to go about it and your nasal
anatomy would agree that's why in
today's video i want to talk all about
nosebleeds have you ever really thought
about this like take a moment to think
about it why is it that i can scratch or
you could scratch pretty aggressively
all over your entire body but if you
stuck your finger up your nose right now
into that same thing
we all know what would happen
that's what we're going to figure out
today what makes the nasal cavity and
the nasal anatomy inside of it so
different from other places that you can
palpate it's going to be a gross one
let's do this
let's start off by orienting you to what
we're looking at and then we can more
fully understand nosebleeds so first off
this right here is a head that has been
cut in the mid-sagittal plane or right
down the middle
this is the anterior direction
which makes this the posterior direction
you can even see the cervical spine
right there
this is going to be the tongue
and then this would also then be going
up towards the brain which we've removed
which would be sitting in here so that's
going to make this portion that i'm
outlining with my probe the nasal cavity
and this is going to be the important
area we're talking about today
now
before we get into the nasal cavity you
obviously have a nose and that's what
again this is right here
in front of the nasal cavity now i'm not
going to do this you're welcome to do
that i'm covered in preservatives but if
you're at home and you want to just
start touching and moving your nose feel
free
the nose is going to be soft flimsy but
still firm and rigid that's because it's
made of cartilage specifically what's
called hyaline cartilage hyaline
cartilage is found all over the body
it's really good at reducing friction so
you like to put it in places like joints
really good for the bones rubbing
against each other but think about when
you're breathing in and out that's a lot
of airflow so it makes perfect sense
that you'd want to have something that's
really good at reducing friction in that
area but the main reason it's made of
cartilage and not entirely bone
is because you want it to be able to
deform under pressure
and think about it
you you got punched in the face which
your nose is a huge liability it's just
sticking out there imagine it's all made
of bone and you just get popped
right you can just completely break your
nose
but also laying on a pillow or anything
like that just pushing it it makes sense
to have it be soft and flimsy right but
still be able to retain its shape more
most of the time
but that actually begs the question
if the nose is made of cartilage
what are you actually breaking when you
break your nose
and i this is actually i actually broke
my nose if you look at my nose you're
going to see i forget which direction it
is but it's skewing to one side of the
other
when i was 16 goofing off with one of my
friends was kind of like play fighting
and then he just
pops me in the face and breaks my nose i
never really got it and taken care of i
mean i'm 16 and irresponsible
but the real question is what did i
break and so if we come over here
so if the nose is made of cartilage
there's another structure here i want to
point out to you this is
part of what's called the nasal septum
but this is the cartilaginous portion
of the nasal septum
we've cut a window here
but what we removed in order to see
these structures there is the rest of
the nasal septum and this was made of
bony tissue
so you've probably heard of a deviated
septum the septum is a divider divides
the nasal cavity into left and right
sides
part of its cartilage
part of it's actually going to be made
of bony tissue it's possible when you
get hit in the nose or whatever happens
that you could break that bony portion
and that could be part of your broken
nose another thing it could be is up
here
this is called the nasal bone there's
gonna be two nasal bones one on either
side and they're coming off of the
frontal bone here
and what happens is the cartilage just
comes off of it to form that
cartilaginous flimsy part of your nose
as does this cartilaginous portion of
the nasal septum
so you could either break the nasal
bones or the septum and that would make
sense to be breaking your nose so again
appreciate the fact that your nose is
primarily made of cartilage because that
would be that'd be such a rough injury
if your whole nose just
shattered be a rough day at the office
but going back here so again we removed
the nasal septum
so we could see these deeper structures
here
these are what are called conchas or
conchi so we have an inferior nasal
concha so i'm kind of outlining the best
i can with a probe
and then we have a middle nasal concha
and then we have a superior nasal concha
so a conch these are also called
turbinates so some of you probably heard
of them be called turbinates these are
bone bony structures that are actually
like they come down and then they
actually like they curve around and what
that that curving does is it actually
increases the surface area
inside of the nasal cavity so more air
so air can actually come into contact
with more of this tissue that's on top
of it because you can see it doesn't
really look like bone even though there
is some bone i don't know if you're
gonna be able to hear it but there is
some these are bony structures that are
wrapped in mucosal membranes connective
tissue epithelial tissue
and
the reason that's gonna be very
important for the function of your
actual mucosal membranes but
just understand these conchs
are going to
just come down and circle around
dramatically improve and increasing the
surface area in that space but there's
also passageways
between them so you'll probably not be
able to see this all that much but my
probe is actually going underneath this
inferior nasal concha
this is called the inferior meatus
and then right here you can definitely
see this one this is the middle meatus
and then there's a superior metis these
are the passageways meters just
essentially means passageway this is the
passageway the air will take as you're
breathing it in and then it'll go to
your nasopharynx and then we'll go down
your pharynx and then we'll go down to
your respiratory tract
so
to really understand nosebleeds we need
to understand the mucosal tissue these
mucosal membranes because these are
highly highly vascularized tissues and
that's on purpose
because
think about it like this when you take a
bite of something that's too hot what
are you what are you going to do
immediately you're going to take a bite
right or you spit it out but let's say
you breathe in really quickly when
you're doing that you're cooling it down
when you're breathing in through your
nose what's happening is you're also
cooling down the air
and that's not a good thing for your
respiratory tract
so what exists inside of these mucosal
membranes is a bunch of superficial
blood vessels that are there to warm up
the air so you don't freeze out your
lungs and respiratory tract
now these don't just exist here on the
conches they're also going to line
that nasal septum as well
and in fact the most vascularized area
of it is right here what i'm tracing
with the probe this is called little's
area or the kieselbach kieselbach plexus
and this is an area where several blood
vessels are all converging and it's so
superficial
90
of nosebleeds happen
right here in what's called an anterior
nose bleed or the real name is epistaxis
that's the fancy name for nosebleed is
epistaxis so you can have an anterior
epistaxis or you could also have a
posterior epistaxis so if you have a
bleed back here pretty much anywhere
other than
little's area
that's defined as a posterior nose bleed
and this one is far more rare and it's
actually more dangerous because if you
notice again we go back the nasal the
nasal pharynx is right here
blood can start pouring down the back of
the throat and you can start swallowing
it
so if you it's that same thing can
happen if you're bleeding in this area
and you leaned your head back then the
blood could pour down and pull and go
down here which is why as most of you
will probably intuitively understand if
you have a nose bleed you want to lean
forward by leaning forward the blood is
actually going to come out the nostrils
right it's not going to go down your
throat and then you're not tasting the
blood and
all that nastiness but
let's let's talk about how to stop that
nosebleed if it's an anterior nose bleed
well what they recommend is you actually
pinch it right so you actually on like
you're going to because you want to
compress little's area and those blood
vessels so again i'm not going to do
this but if you squeeze your nostrils
together you're going to lean forward
squeeze those nostrils together by
compressing it what you're hoping will
happen very quickly is a coagulation of
the blood and it'll then stop
the the blood loss right so you just
kind of lean forward pinch it and wait
that's literally the best thing you can
do for an anterior nose bleed
a posterior nose blade is going to be
more difficult because obviously when
you're picking your nose are you really
going to be able to get all the way back
here can you stick your fingers
all the way back here
you can't that just doesn't really make
much sense so you can't really compress
anything so they still recommend you
lean forward but then you're going to
kind of have to wait for this to try and
resolve on its own that the body can
take care of it the blood can coagulate
on its own
if it doesn't resolve in about a half an
hour or so
that's when it's a wreck it's
recommended that you go seek medical
attention they have a series of things
that they can do to try and stop that
bleeding but you can actu this is
actually can be pretty serious because
if you
you can lose a lot of blood from a
posterior nose bleed and then you can
bleed out essentially not bleed out and
die maybe that might be too aggressive
but it can
have some severe consequences because
maybe you get light-headed maybe you
pass out or something along those lines
but i want you to think about this okay
bring it all back together
so when you're picking your nose
right you're coming in here
well what's happening is you may be
trying to go for boogers and by the way
those boogers are a product of the
mucosal membranes because what will
happen is they also secrete mucus
that mucus
is going to be there to help catch
pathogens
and then hopefully you will blow it out
or pick it out right it actually makes
sense to pick your nose to pick the
boogers out those dried out crusted
pieces of mucus that are containing dirt
and all sorts of stuff
inside of it all right so you go in
there you're picking your nose but you
want to be careful because if you pick
too aggressively
and you scratch say again 90
of nosebleeds are going to happen in
little's area if you scratch that too
much you can rupture those blood vessels
and then it starts to bleed
but it also could be a product of just
being dry
i know we live here i live here in salt
lake city utah we're a desert as it is
and then in winter it seems to get even
drier
there's plenty of times that i'll be
just i remember as a kid i'd be outside
you know just having snowball fights and
all that fun stuff and my nose would
just bleed maybe i bumped it or did
something like that and i cracked the
mucosal membrane
that is also another possibility to get
a nosebleed but i mean it could be
trauma it could be a whole bunch of
different things even medications have
been known to dry out those mucosal
membranes which makes them more
susceptible to cracking which then
ruptures the blood vessels and you have
a nose bleed
but one thing i do also want to add real
quick as a function of those the mucus
in there is also going to help to
provide humidity to the air as you are
breathing in and so that's the thing you
also don't want to just freeze out your
lungs and your respiratory tract you
don't want to dry them out either so
that's why it's important to actually
have snot the mucus it's important to
have all of these things in there but
just because you do doesn't mean you
have to just let it sit there right
blowing your nose is a good thing
picking your nose a little bit might
also be a good thing
but just don't blow your nose too hard
don't scratch and pick your nose too
hard because you will
eventually rupture some of those
superficial blood vessels and that's
when you have a nosebleed thanks for
watching everybody i hope you enjoyed
this gross topic of nosebleeds and nose
picking if you did be sure to like and
comment on this video those little types
of things actually help the video
perform well in the algorithm so that
more people can see the grossness of
nosebleeds and nose picking
also if you want to look awesome like me
and jonathan and wear some legitimate
institute of human anatomy merchandise
there'll be links down in the
description below again that goes to
support the channel so we can continue
making these awesome videos but
i guess i just want to leave you with
this if you're going to pick your nose
just be soft be like a soft little ninja
you know just kind of go in and out in
and out don't don't be going two
knuckles deep because
as you just saw
that's not going to work out too well
for you
[Music]
you