No matter your age, we’ve all picked our noses before. As kids, you didn’t think much of it, picking noses everywhere we go, hoping your mom wouldn’t notice, hiding the slimy boogers under their pillows, but you should think twice before you put your finger in your nose again. 

     Recent studies have shown that picking your nose may lead to inflammation in the brain that eventually leads to Alzheimer’s disease. Scientists believe that Alzheimer’s disease is caused by genetic, lifestyle, and environmental factors that affect the brain over time. 

     Alzheimer’s disease is the most common type of dementia. It is a progressive disease that begins with mild memory loss and it could possibly lead to loss of the ability to carry on a conversation and to respond to the environment. 

     A type of protein called beta-amyloid is the main cause of the progressive dementia. Many scientists believe that picking your nose can damage the lining of your nose, allowing bacteria and viruses to the brain. Plucking and picking your nose is an easy way of damaging your lining.

     Age also plays a big role. The older you are the more at risk you are to the disease. Once you reach 65 years of age, your risk factor increases though scientists say it’s not just age, but environmental exposure as well.

     Some symptoms of the disease are not being able to communicate, weight loss or not being able to eat, seizures, no awareness of surroundings, difficulty swallowing, groaning, moaning, grunting, increase in sleeping, etc.

     While this disease is very dangerous and scary, teenagers and kids shouldn’t worry about Alzheimer’s disease as it’s most common for people between their 30s-60s, but people should be spreading awareness to lower the rate of nose picking.