Dr Sarah Brewer
Dr Sarah Brewer qualified from Cambridge University with degrees in Natural Sciences, Medicine and Surgery.
After working in general practice and sexual health, she now specialises in health communication and nutritional medicine.
She writes regularly for a variety of newspapers and magazines, taking an holistic approach that includes complementary medicine and nutritional medicine.
She is the author of over 50 popular self-help books, including the Natural Health Guru series www.naturalhealthguru.co.uk
As a hospital doctor, as a GP and as a mum of three, I've often wished I had a simple product to help remove dried secretions from the noses of infants and children. Nasal congestion can cause distress for both little ones and their parents.
Dried bogies can make breathing through the nose difficult and noisy, as well as looking unsightly. I have vivid memories of trying to hook out long, green bogies from the noses of my own wriggling babies using the nail of my little finger, which I kept specially long for that use!
Developed in conjunction with a paediatrician, Cleebo is a nose cleaning device that is hygienic and safe to use. The ‘tweezers’ and silicone nozzles have been designed with safety, easy of use and effectiveness in mind. They allow mum (or dad) to grip hold of rattling dried secretions more safely than the other options to which parents often resort. They are certainly preferable to the cotton buds, paper clips, metal tweezers and long fingernails that parents often use!
Dr Sarah Brewer MSc, MA (Cantab), MB Bchir
NB Keep out of the reach of small children.
Bogie Facts
Why do we produce bogies?
Bogies are an important part of the defence system in your nose. They help to trap dust, bacteria and other air-born particles as you inhale. As you breathe in over 23,000 times a day, a lot of muck would pass down into your lungs unless it was filtered out by bogies and nasal hairs.
What are bogies made from?
Bogies contain a mixture of nasal mucus, sinus secretions, tears, dead cells, bacteria, dust and other airborne particles that are filtered out from the nose as you breath in.
Why do we produce more bogies when we have a cold or allergy?
Infections and allergens cause inflammation of the nose lining. As the mucus membranes swell, the tiny blood vessels (capillaries) they contain become more ‘leaky’. This allows more fluid to seep through from the blood stream into the nasal tissues and nasal cavity. More white blood cells flood into the area, too. As a result, your production of bogies increases.
Why are bogies sometimes moist and sometimes dry?
The amount of moisture in your bogies depends on the amount of fluid passing into your nose from your blood vessels. When you produce little fluid, the mucus secretions quickly dry out as air whistles past during breathing. When you produce lots of fluid, your bogies will be moist and juicy - or even very fluid.
Why do you sometimes lose your sense of smell when you have a cold?
When you breath in, aromatic chemicals dissolve in mucus overlying the smell receptors in your upper nose. Sniffing helps take the smelly chemicals up to this area, which is called the olfactory epithelium. The aromatic molecules are detected by tiny, hair-like sensory nerve endings (cilia) that project into the overlying mucus. When you have a cold and produce lots of bogies, the bogies cover the olfactory epithelium with a layer of snot. This stops the smelly chemicals from coming into contact with the sensory nerve endings that detect smells. As a result, you lose your sense of smell. You usually also lose your sense of taste as 80% of the flavour of food is contributed by your sense of smell. Not being able to smell is called anosmia.