La Voz

1. What are boogers made of?

Boogers are mucus (myoo-kuss). Mucus is the thin, slippery material that is found inside your nose. Many people call mucus "snot." Your nose makes nearly a cupful of snot every day. Snot is produced by the mucous membranes in the nose, which it moistens and protects.

When you inhale air through your nose, it contains lots of tiny particles like dust, dirt, germs, and pollen. If these particles made it all the way to the lungs, the lungs could get damaged and it would be difficult to breathe. Snot works by trapping the particles and keeping them in the nose.

After these particles get stuck inside the nose, the mucus surrounds them with the help of the tiny hairs inside the nose called cilia. The mucus dries around the particles. When the particles and dried-out mucus clump together, you're left with a booger!

2. What should a person do if he wants to quit smoking and the patch doesn't help?

There are numerous techniques that can help. Counseling, acupuncture and hypnotherapy are possibilities, but a person first and foremost has to want to quit. There is no magic wand that is the cure-all.

3. What is worse, skipping breakfast or eating a donut?

Starting the day with a doughnut or sweetened cereal and orange juice or other refined carbohydrates can activate your appetite instead of controlling it, says Dr. Walter Futterweit, a specialist in diabetes and other endocrine disorders at the Mt.

Sinai School of Medicine in New York City. "You're getting a sudden burst of pure sugar, which causes an immediate release of insulin," Futterweit says. "An hour or two later, you may start feeling edgy, irritable, have difficulty concentrating and you're driven to eat again."

Licia Johnson is a health educator at De Anza. If you would like your health question answered in Licia's Health Corner, e-mail features@lavozdeanza. com. La Voz cannot guarantee that every question will be answered or printed. Licia can be reached confidentially at 408-864-8732.

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