Excess Mucus: Spiritual Meaning and the Healing Power of Excess Mucus is a factual book based on the author’s personal experiences, observations and research. In Excess Mucus: Spiritual Meaning and the Healing Power of Excess Mucus, you will discover an expansive look at healing power of illness as well as true cause of many common symptoms.
Excess mucus from either the nasal or bronchial airways can be both annoying and discomforting. Your nose is constantly running and you struggle to breathe with your chest feeling heavy and tight. It is more than just a nuisance to you; it can actually have spiritual meaning. Toxins get stuck in the excess mucus, which can prevent you from achieving enlightenment.
Spiritual Meaning of Excess Mucus
The spiritual meaning of excess mucus is often overlooked, but it can have a profound effect on your health and well-being.
The body produces mucus, which is a useful substance that helps to protect our respiratory system. However, if there is too much mucus in your system, it can cause problems. The excess mucus may even lead to chronic obstructive pulmonary disease (COPD).
If you find yourself producing more than usual amounts of mucus, it’s important to take action immediately. You can begin by trying some natural methods at home first before contacting a medical professional. There are many things you can do to help clear up the excess mucus in your body naturally:
- Drink plenty of water
- Eat foods high in fiber
- Get plenty of rest
The meaning behind excess mucus is that you are blocking yourself from receiving the messages that your body is trying to send you.
Your body is an incredible machine, and it’s constantly communicating with you. When something isn’t working right, or if you’re in pain, your body will communicate with you by sending signals through different parts of your body. The most common way this happens is through mucus—the thicker the mucus, the more serious the message being conveyed.
If you’re experiencing excess mucus, it could mean that there’s an issue with one or more of your organs or systems. It could also mean that something is making its way into your body and needs to be expelled before it causes harm. Or maybe it means that there’s a blockage between where something enters your body and where it needs to go out (like if food isn’t being digested properly).
If you’re experiencing excess mucus, it’s important to pay attention to what’s happening inside of you—your body is trying to tell you something!
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Spiritual Meaning of Coughing Up Mucus
With winter soon coming to an end (hopefully), many of us have been plagued by seemingly endless hacking that’s accompanied by phlegm, a type of mucus produced by the respiratory tract. The body starts feeling better after a week of sickness, but even after that “hell-week,” one final foe has to be dealt with: the phlegm. It’s such a nuisance that we probably just wish that all of our mucus would go away, but this overlooks the fact that the creation and coughing up of phlegm is a way for our lungs to get rid of infectious microbes. If we manage to think beyond that disgusting phlegm lodged in our throats, we can start to appreciate that our bodies constantly produce mucus to help keep us healthy. In particular, mucus can assist our immune systems by acting as a natural filter for the bacteria we interact with constantly.
So, what is mucus?
Mucus is a protective substance that’s excreted from multiple areas of the body, such as the mouth, sinuses, throat, lungs, stomach, and intestines (Figure 1). Mucus itself consists of multiple constituents, but its major component is a substance called mucin. The mucins in mucus can work as a selective barrier, lubricant, or viscous material, depending on their structure. When mucin structure and production is normal, mucus protects surfaces all over our body, which helps us live alongside many different microbes. However, disease can ensue when mucin structure and production are abnormal.
How can mucus prevent disease?
Professor Katharina Ribbeck’s research group at MIT wants to understand the benefits of mucus, and it has uncovered interesting properties of mucins as a result. Ribbeck’s group has purified natural mucus from a pig stomach to obtain a mucin known as MUC5AC. This pig-derived mucin is related to the MUC5AC found in multiple parts of the human body, such as the respiratory tract, stomach, gallbladder, and female reproductive organs. Since pigs and humans are closely related, the function of their respective MUC5ACs should be similar. Using liquids containing MUC5AC, they investigated the interaction between mucin and microbes in our lungs and guts and whether the mucins might be preventing some of these microbes from causing disease.
One such microbe is a bacterium called Pseudomonas aeruginosa, which lives in our lungs and is often harmless when found in healthy individuals. However, it can lead to lung infections in people who have cystic fibrosis, a condition that is characterized by abnormal mucus production. These infections are exacerbated when P. aeruginosa starts forming sticky groups of bacteria known as biofilms on the surfaces of the lungs. Biofilm formation is often associated with increased virulence (i.e. the ability of a microbe to cause disease), and groups of bacteria in biofilms are more resistant to antibiotics. Therefore, biofilms cause infections to be more aggressive and more difficult to treat. Can we find a way to prevent biofilm formation in order to help these patients?
Voila! Ribbeck’s group found that MUC5AC can possibly prevent lung infections by making surface attachment more challenging, which can prevent P. aeruginosa biofilm formation. Conventional wisdom would lead us to believe that mucus suppresses biofilm formation by trapping bacteria, rendering them immobile, and preventing aggregation. On the contrary, Ribbeck’s group determined that the true mechanism may be the opposite of this intuitive thought. In the more viscous MUC5AC solution, they saw that bacteria actually moved faster. This increased motility (ability to move) decreases biofilm formation because moving cells are less likely to stick together (Figure 2), which renders the bacteria less dangerous. We are lucky to have mucus protecting us from potentially nasty bacteria.
Another microbe made less dangerous by mucus is a yeast called Candida albicans, which can live in places like the gut, mouth, and vagina. C. albicans can cause an infection called candidiasis (a.k.a. thrush or yeast infection when in the mouth or vagina, respectively), but it is found in the gut or mouth of 80% of adults without causing any harm. However, if a healthy person contracts another sickness that weakens the immune system or changes mucus production, C. albicans can either aggregate in biofilms or form hyphae, which allow the yeast to invade human cells (damaging the cells and providing the yeast access to the bloodstream). When C. albicans is allowed to overgrow in these forms, the result can be fatal. C. albicans’ virulence is tied to its ability to invade cells through hyphae and biofilm formation, so Ribbeck’s group tested the effect of multiple mucins (including MUC5AC) on C. albicans behavior. Much like for P. aeruginosa, they determined that mucin exposure decreases virulence by mitigating biofilm formation. They also observed that it prevents hyphae formation, which further diminishes virulence.
Diagnostic Potential
We have seen that mucus is highly beneficial to our health when its structure and production are normal. However, there are times when people get sick and mucin production becomes abnormal. A sick person may be producing atypical mucus, which may manifest as changes in either the amount or structure of its constituent mucins. The strength (defined by viscosity and fibrosity) of the mucus itself can change when mucin’s structure changes, which can also weaken its ability to dampen the virulence of pathogens. In these cases, even though mucin may not be protecting us as effectively, it may be used as an indicator of an illness or increased susceptibility to disease. One example of using mucus as a diagnostic tool is the analysis (also done by Ribbeck’s group) of the structural properties of cervical mucus to assess the risk of pre-term birth. If cervical mucus is structurally weaker (thinner and more stretchy) and more permeable—which would allow more bacteria to travel through the mucus—then pregnant women have a higher risk of pre-term birth; stronger mucus, on the other hand, indicates a lower risk of pre-term birth. Just by observing mucus, doctors can more accurately predict which pregnant women should be watched for pre-term birth.
The future
This article about mucus is just the tip of the iceberg; both the lessons we can learn from mucus and its potential uses seem unlimited. Maybe one day we will be able to explore the uncharted territory of healthy donors providing mucus to help prevent P. aeruginosa biofilm formation in cystic fibrosis patients who produce abnormal mucus. This could potentially go a long way in making antibiotic treatments more effective and reducing the chance of infection in the first place.
Excess Mucus In Nose
Catarrh is a buildup of mucus in an airway or cavity of the body.
It usually affects the back of the nose, the throat or the sinuses (air-filled cavities in the bones of the face).
It’s often temporary, but some people experience it for months or years. This is known as chronic catarrh.
Catarrh can be a nuisance and may be difficult to get rid of, but it’s not harmful and there are treatments available.
Symptoms associated with catarrh
Catarrh can lead to:
- constant need to clear your throat
- feeling that your throat is blocked
- blocked or stuffy nose that you cannot clear
- runny nose
- feeling of mucus running down the back of your throat
- persistent cough
- headache or facial pain
- reduced sense of smell and taste
- crackling sensation in your ear and some temporary hearing loss
These problems can be frustrating to live with and may affect your sleep, making you feel tired.
Treatments for Catarrh
Catarrh will often pass in a few days or weeks as the condition that causes it improves.
There are things you can try at home to relieve your symptoms, such as:
- Avoiding things that trigger your symptoms, such as allergens or smoky places
- Taking sips of cold water when you feel the need to clear your throat constantly clearing your throat may make things worse
- Using a saline nasal rinse several times a day—these can be bought from a pharmacy or made at home with half a teaspoon of salt in a pint of boiled water that’s been left to cool
- Avoiding warm, dry atmospheres, such as places with air conditioning and car heating systems, and placing plants or bowls of water in a room may help to keep the air humid
- Staying well-hydrated
- Talking to a pharmacist about suitable over-the-counter medicines – including decongestants, antihistamines or steroid nasal sprays
There are also several remedies, such as herbal medicines, available from health shops and pharmacies that claim to treat catarrh.
Some people find these helpful, but there’s generally little scientific evidence to suggest they work.
If you have a high temperature or you do not feel well enough to do your normal activities, try to stay at home and avoid contact with other people until you feel better.
When to see a GP
- Speak to a GP if your catarrh persists and is becoming difficult to live with.
- They may want to rule out conditions that could be causing it, such as nasal polyps or allergies.
- This may mean you need to be referred to a specialist for tests.
- If you’re diagnosed with a specific underlying condition, treating it may help relieve your catarrh.
- For example, nasal polyps may be treated with a steroid nasal spray, or in some cases surgery.
- Find out more about treating nasal polyps
- If a cause for your catarrh cannot be found, the self-help techniques above may be recommended.
- Unfortunately, however, chronic catarrh can be hard to treat and may last for a long time.
What Causes Catarrh?
The most common cause of catarrh is the immune system’s response to an infection or irritation, which results in swollen and mucus-producing nasal and throat linings.
This may happen as a result of:
- a cold or other infections
- hay fever or other types of allergic rhinitis
- non-allergic rhinitis
- nasal polyps
It’s unclear what causes chronic catarrh, but it’s not thought to be the result of an allergy or infection.
It may be related to an abnormality in the way mucus travels within the nose or an increased sensitivity to mucus in the back of the nose and throat.
Mucus In Throat
Postnasal drip refers to excess mucus that someone may feel in the back of the nose and throat, causing a constant need to clear the throat. It may lead to symptoms such as a sore throat and trouble swallowing. Environmental triggers, such as allergies, cold weather, or dry air, may cause postnasal drip.
