Why the mucus?

January 4, 2006 2:33 PM

Sick Filter- So, I got a cold a few days ago. I'm mostly better now, but I still have gobs and gobs of mucus being produced. My question is, why? What function does it serve if I'm past the incubation period for the virus? It's disgusting, and I'd like to understand why it's happening.
posted by geekhorde to health & fitness (9 comments total)

Just a guess but I've always thought it was a combo of white blood cells and mucous that is busy cleansing your lungs and passages. Yea, it's disgusting but watch and see if you don't feel kind of refreshed when it's over.
posted by snsranch at 2:53 PM on January 4, 2006

Mechanical protective barrier against virions (possibly opportunistic - while you're body's fighting one "enemy" it doesn't really want to deal with another front - like attacking France/Britain and Russia at the same time) getting a good grip on one of your cells and entering it.
posted by PurplePorpoise at 3:17 PM on January 4, 2006

While you're contagious, the mucus (and the couscous, if there's no sneeze guard) helps the virus spread itself to the next host. Afterward, your body may just take a while to turn off the taps.
posted by pracowity at 3:33 PM on January 4, 2006

I'm not sure about that - you get the same symptoms with allergies, where no viruses are involved, just an immune system reaction...
posted by Jon Mitchell at 6:14 PM on January 4, 2006

It's not unknown for a virus to alter host cell behavior to make itself more easily transmissible so pracowity might have a point - I'm too tired to look up actual references.

I can't recall of a virus specifically increasing the production of mucus, though (iirc, some viruses encourage the production of large pustules), but I wouldn't put it below (above?) a virus to have developed such a behavior. Wait... tuberculosis (a mycobacterium - not a virus) is primarily transmitted through sputum (mucous); it dries out and becomes easily aerosolized. Not sure if TB specifically induces increased sputum or if it's just a byproduct of being a respiratory disease.

Come to think of it, mucus traps all kinds of nasty stuff and then you end up swallowing it which opens the possibility (wild speculation here) that microbial danger signals as well as microbial antigens could be presented to immune cells. Say, if you got infected, there's the chance that there are other pathogens flying around so it'd be a good idea to increase immune surveillance as well as the capacity to mount a response.
posted by PurplePorpoise at 7:27 PM on January 4, 2006

The virus isn't increasing the amount of mucus, it's your immune system.
posted by zardoz at 8:22 PM on January 4, 2006

This year the flu seems to feel like a bad head cold for a few days, then you feel better, then you get really ill. This is the A strain in California. Of course it can present differently in everyone, but the progression I described is common. So take good care, and consider yourself contagious just to be on the safe side.
posted by shifafa at 8:24 PM on January 4, 2006

Thanks everyone.
posted by geekhorde at 10:06 PM on January 4, 2006

The virus isn't increasing the amount of mucus, it's your immune system.

Yes, sure, the virus isn't inside your body manufacturing mucus, but it certainly is manipulating your body to create it.

In general, the Lots o' Snot (LoS) trick is a tool used by respiratory diseases to get themselves from one respiratory system to another. Strains that don't cause LoS at the right time don't spread as well, while strains that do cause LoS (and sneezing and coughing and spitting as a snot propellant, though snot wiped on hands and spread on public surfaces usually can do the job) have an evolutionary advantage.
posted by pracowity at 3:53 AM on January 5, 2006