When you're sick, it's hard to know if you should spit out excess mucus

Real Talk: Is It Better to Spit Out Mucus When You're Sick? Here's what four doctors say

• Extra mucus in your throat and chest is a common symptom of respiratory viruses, such as the flu and COVID-19.
• Mucus is a substance that lines the moist surfaces of your body, like your lungs and sinuses, and helps your body fight illness.
• Experts say it’s better to spit out excess mucus when you’re sick, but there’s no harm in swallowing it.

Respiratory viruses are spreading across the United States, and the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention predicts that COVID-19, the flu, and RSV cases will jump up over the next few weeks. While some of the symptoms of each virus vary, there’s at least one they all have in common: extra mucus in your throat and chest.

Getting sick with a respiratory virus usually means facing a conundrum over what to do when you have excess mucus production. Should you spit out mucus, or is it better to swallow it? Does either method have any impact on your recovery? 

Here’s what ear, nose, and throat specialists had to say.

10 Home Remedies To Get Rid of Chest Mucus

What Is Mucus, Anyway?

Mucus is a substance that lines the moist surfaces of your body, including the lungs, sinuses, mouth, stomach, intestines, and eyes.

“It is mainly a combination of water and large molecules called glycoproteins, which are a sort of hybrid between sugars and proteins that make the mucus [thick] and a bit sticky,” Rakesh Chandra, MD, a professor of otolaryngology-head and neck surgery at Vanderbilt University Medical Center, told Health. “There are other components, like salts, as well as molecules comprising aspects of our immune defense system.”

The substance has a few functions in the body. “It is a lubricant and also provides a barrier between you and the outside world as a first line of defense by filtering what you breathe in,” Linda Dahl, MD, an otolaryngologist at Northwell Lenox Hill Hospital, told Health.

Mucus traps debris, allergens, viruses, and bacteria that go into your airways, Kanwar Kelley, MD, an otolaryngologist and CEO of Side Health in California, told Health. “It immobilizes those things and helps to prevent you from getting infected,” he said.  

Why You Get More Mucus When You’re Sick

Extra mucus is a major sign that you’re sick and that your immune system is kicking into high gear. Mucus contains some antibodies, which help fight foreign substances, and lysozyme, an enzyme that combats bacteria.

“Your body’s response during an illness is to produce more mucus as a manner of defending itself,” Andrey Filimonov, MD, an assistant professor of otolaryngology at Rutgers New Jersey Medical School, told Health. “It’s trying to increase that protective barrier.”

Not only that, the extra mucus production also creates a flow to help wash the pathogens away, Chandra said.

Should You Spit Out Mucus When You’re Sick?

Excess mucus, whether in the back of your throat or lungs, isn’t a good time, and you may have heard that spitting it out will help you feel better. Most doctors agree that this is the case. 

“You should spit it out to clear out the thicker mucus and open up the drainage pathways of your nose and sinuses,” Ramsadeen said.

Chandra also recommends spitting mucus out. “The mucus that is coughed up contains irritants, allergens, and/or infectious organisms that need to be cleared from the body,” he said. 

But he also stressed that there is no evidence that swallowing mucus you cough up harms your stomach or intestines. If you go this route, “it will be eliminated through the gastrointestinal tract,” he said. Meaning your GI tract will break the mucus down, and you’ll eventually poop it out.

There’s also this to consider, per Kelley: “Sometimes spitting it out can make you feel better in the moment.”

But he also stressed that you swallow mucus all day anyway. “During the course of a day, you’re swallowing plenty of mucus,” he said.

10 Home Remedies To Get Rid of Chest Mucus

The Best Way to Get Rid of Mucus

Doctors generally agree there’s no “right” way to spit out mucus. Whether you prefer to delicately spit it into a tissue or hock a loogie, both methods achieve the same thing.

However, you can do a few other things to clear out mucus when you’re sick.  

• Stay hydrated. “Being dehydrated can make the mucus more thick, and difficult to clear,” Filimonov said.
• Use nasal irrigation. A nasal irrigation tool like a neti pot can help wash out mucus that has bacteria and viruses trapped in it, Kelley said.
• Try saline spray. Saline sprays can also help loosen mucus and move it out of your sinuses, per Kelley.
• Take a steamy shower. This can help to loosen mucus and get it flowing out of your body, according to Filimonov.
• Take OTC medications. Over-the-counter medications like antihistamines and pseudoephedrine can reduce the amount of mucus you’re producing, Filimonov said.

While extra mucus is a normal reaction to a respiratory infection, Filimonov recommends contacting a doctor if you’ve been struggling for more than a week or if you seem to be continuously producing more mucus.

Edited by Health with a background in health, science, and investigative reporting. Previously, she wrote full time about parenting issues for the app Parent Lab. Before that, she worked as a reporter for National Geographic covering wildlife crime and exploitation." tabindex="0" data-inline-tooltip="true"> Jani Hall Jani Hall Jani Hall is a news editor for Health with a background in health, science, and investigative reporting. Previously, she wrote full time about parenting issues for the app Parent Lab. Before that, she worked as a reporter for National Geographic covering wildlife crime and exploitation. learn more

This story originally appeared on: Health News - Author:Korin Miller