The med school ewwwww! moment of the day is brought to you by histology.
The mucociliary escalator is the name for the upward movement of debris which is caught in mucous by motile cilia in the respiratory mucosa. Pretty much, the little nose hairs play hand off with dirty boogers. My histo teacher reminds us, “This is an up escalator.”
This escalator stalls out in smokers.
One more final to go. Wheeeee.
First!
Ha ha.
Did you get my email?
Yet another reason not to smoke, as if another one were needed.
Yup, Stacie, that was actually one of my main reasons for quitting. One of the many. But, at the time, I did not realize it was called a mucociliary escalator.