Breathing with one nostril : why the heck ?

[McCrunchy]

Put your hand under your nostrils. Breathe. Notice the air coming out of that one nostril and not out of the other ? I, while writing this email, am breathing mainly through my left nostril. In some couple hours (the cycle is a 6 hour one) time, my right one will take up the shift.

 

But why was the nose thus designed ? Does one nostril repair itself, or get rid of unwanted particles while the other breathes ? Or does this provide any advantage with regard to smelling ? Or is it to avoir turbulence that would occur from the encounter of two air jets (provided we want to avoid turbulence - which isn't exactly self-explanatory) ?

 

Any help in solving this mystery would be appreciated.

 

 

McCrunchy

[CaptainPanic]

My guess is that mucus (wikipedia) is blocking your nose. Why the mucus is moving around is a mystery to me.

 

In my personal case, one nostril is always used more than the other.

[Mr Skeptic]

Yes, I understand that everyone has the same thing. I think that it is part of the cleaning cycle.

[John Cuthber]

NO doubt there are lots of factors but I read somewher that it improves the sense of smell. Partly because olfaction seems to "get tired"; after a while you stop noticing a smell I guess if you change nostrils the newly exposed on can detect the odour again.

There’s another aspect to it. I can’t remember the details but it was something like the ability to distinguish molecules that don’t bind well to the receptors, but when they do they give a large signal from molecules that bind well but which don’t give as big a signal.

One nostril gets a biger dose than the other and it sees the lots of molecules even though, individually they don't give a strong signal. The other nostil sees a smaller dose so it only sees the molecules that give a strong signal.

[Leison]

hey john

smell detection do not take place in nostrils.nostrils are simply 2 tunnels.2 tunnels lead to big nasal cavity inside.on the roof where there is olfactory mucous membrane.particles dissolves in mucus and are detectd by receptor cells.

i dont think changing nostril makes smeeling better.