What Really Happens When You’re Sick

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When you’re suffering from a cold, the situation might seem perfectly clear—your nose is stuffed. But the truth about what’s happening to you is a little more complicated. For starters, the nose is actually two noses, which work in an alternating cycle that is connected to the armpits.

In a new article, our Science writer Sarah Zhang explains what’s really going on in your body when you’re congested. There’s something oddly empowering in understanding how colds work, even if the knowledge won’t cure you. Today’s newsletter will help you get to know the inner workings of your body when it’s not at its best.

On Colds

Everything I Thought I Knew About Nasal Congestion Is Wrong

By Sarah Zhang

Start with this: You really have two noses.

Why Has a Useless Cold Medication Been Allowed on Shelves for Years?

By Sarah Zhang

Studies prove that popular decongestants just don’t work.

No One Wants Your Cold

By Caroline Mimbs Nyce

How to know if you’re too sick to hang

Still Curious?

• An adorable way to study how kids get each other sick: Behold, the ferret day care.
• The glory of feeling fine: People seem cursed to take being well for granted. Can we change?

Other Diversions

• Three paths toward the meaning of life
• The new meaning of tattoos
• Whatever happened to carpal tunnel syndrome?

P.S.

I’ll leave you with a beautiful essay by my colleague Elizabeth Bruenig from last spring, about the power we lose and the understanding we gain after a season of illness. “There is a profound helplessness to falling ill, even in cases of ultimately mild and transient illness,” she writes. “If the pandemic ought to have given us anything, it should have been a more universal empathy toward the condition of illness, of being susceptible to getting sick.”

— Isabel