Mild Nosebleeds, Should We Be Concerned? Causes and Prevention of Nosebleeds

 

Nosebleeds are a symbol of fatigue and hard work. Is it really because you are tired that it bleeds?
I think everyone has experienced a nosebleed when they are young. More than 90% of the population seems to have experienced nosebleeds, but there are few people who go to the hospital just because they have a little nosebleed, so there are no accurate statistics. According to overseas studies, more than 60% of the population in the United States is known to have experienced nosebleeds at least once while living, and about 10% of them are serious nosebleeds that require medical individuals. [1]

 

Current status of nosebleed

If you go to the hospital, you don't have a nosebleed once or twice, and you think it's serious, but 10% of them are serious, so most people may think it's a mild runny nose.
Nonetheless, nosebleeds are a phenomenon that bothers me a lot, unlike runny noses. Today, I'm going to talk about mild, mild, mild, mild nosebleeds that most people are experiencing. Please remember that if you have a nosebleed that lasts more than a few minutes, you can't stop bleeding, and you have a nosebleed every day, you should go to the hospital immediately rather than go online. The statistics from the United States show that as of 2021, four of the 2.4 million deaths in the United States are due to nosebleeds, so this is not to be taken lightly. [1]
It is said that nosebleeds are common mainly in children between the ages of 2 and 10 and in the elderly between the ages of 50 and 80. One study found that more than half of children between the ages of 6 and 15 have nosebleeds on a regular basis. [2] Many reports have shown that they are relatively more common in men than in women, are more likely to occur in the morning or late evening, and occur more often in the winter than in the summer.

 

Nasal Structure

First, if you look at the structure of the nose from the side of the face, the passage is divided into structures called the superior nasal concha, middle nasal concha, and inferior nasal concha. It is known that when we breathe, we mainly breathe through the passage below the inferior nasal concha. While passing through the passage from the nose to the trachea, cold, dry, and dirty air moves to the lungs warmly, moistly, and cleanly, and this passage can be seen as a kind of filter.

That is why many people are experiencing issues in this area. Since it acts as a filter for dirty air, if pollutants come into contact and cause inflammation, it becomes rhinitis. There are many blood vessels in the nasal cavity for various reasons, and since it is inside the human body, it is made of a thin membrane (mucosa) like the inside of the mouth. The reason why many studies cite a dry environment as the cause of mild nosebleeds is because they assume that the nasal mucosa becomes thin and tears as the air moves frequently in a dry state, causing nosebleeds.

The area where nosebleeds occur can be largely divided into the anterior and posterior parts of the nasal cavity. Most minor nosebleeds are said to occur in the anterior region, especially in the area called “Kiesselbach's plexus (Little's area)” where many tiny blood vessels are gathered. About 10% of nosebleeds occur in the posterior region, and in these cases, it is not easy to stop bleeding, and there may be serious pathological causes, so you should seek help from a specialist at a hospital.

 

Main causes of mild nosebleeds

l   Dry nasal environment: When the nasal mucosa becomes dry due to the air flowing in and out, the tiny blood vessels burst, causing nosebleeds

l   External stimuli: Since many blood vessels are gathered in places that can be reached by hand, nosebleeds occur when the nasal mucosa is injured.

 

How to prevent nosebleeds

l   In the East, burdock, lotus root, and mugwort have been used in traditional medicine since ancient times to help prevent nosebleeds. It is true that these ingredients contain ingredients that help stop bleeding and strengthen blood vessels, but it does not seem to have been studied medically.

l   It is not easy to confirm the behavior of not touching the inside of the nose, so you should keep your fingernails short instead.

l   Another way to prevent your nose from drying out is to apply ointments such as Vaseline or Bactroban inside the nose. If the nosebleed is not due to infection, it is recommended to consult a specialist about ointments such as Bactroban, and children tend to be reluctant to use Vaseline because it feels like a foreign body. However, I think that protecting the mucous membrane with an oil film can reduce nosebleeds.

l   Lastly, there is a way to maintain the surrounding humidity, such as using a humidifier. There are methods to directly moisten the nasal passages, such as nasal irrigation with saline solution or regular nasal spraying with saline solution.

 

Study of nosebleed prevention with nasal spray

A 2016 US study found that simply spraying the nose with saline solution twice a day, rather than using medications to treat it, was effective in preventing nosebleeds. [3] The study targeted patients with “hereditary hemorrhagic telangiectasia” (HHT), but it also showed that nosebleeds caused by this condition were significantly prevented by simply moistening the nose, rather than by any specific medication.

l   Subjects: 121 patients with HTT (Hereditary Tumorigenic Telangiectasia)

l   Conditions: Spraying 3 types of drug sprays and 1 type of saline solution into the nose for 12 weeks

l   Results: All 4 types showed significant improvement in nosebleeds

*Progressing research institutes: 6 major HTT centers in North America (University of Utah HTT Center, Oregon Sinus Center, UCLA HTT Center, Johns Hopkins University School of Medicine, etc.)

 

Since we launched LUCA V-Defense Nasal Spray in Korea, we initially developed and sold the product for the purpose of preventing viruses from adhering to the nasal mucosa. However, as we sold the product, we came across reviews saying that our product sprayed on the nasal mucosa protects the mucosa and prevents bleeding and nosebleeds from the mucosa to some extent. The first reason we analyzed is that the moisture content of our product increases the humidity in the nasal cavity, reducing bleeding caused by cracked mucosa, and the second reason is that our product protects the mucosa by coating the mucosa with a thin film of a phospholipid bilayer.

 

References

[1]https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/books/NBK435997/

[2]https://www.entuk.org/patients/conditions/42/nosebleeds_epistaxis_update/

[3]https://jamanetwork.com/journals/jama/fullarticle/2547755