Pacific Business News: Kaiser Permanente reports on wasabi
Anyone with a nose for news will tell you that it's news when something doesn't turn out to be the way you expected. It's news, by this yardstick, that wasabi does not in fact clear your sinuses.
Kaiser Permanente, the largest health-maintenance organization in Hawaii, says it knows many people think a snootful of wasabi will clear nasal passages, but a research test suggests that if anything it can cause a little bit of congestion.
"It's certainly appropriate," Kaiser Hawaii spokeswoman Alison Russell said of the report, "for all of us who in desperation poked some wasabi up our noses in hopes it'd clear up a stuffy schnoz."
So if wasabi clogs your nose, why does it feel like it clears it?
Cameron and Cruz have two theories. The first is that it stimulates a nerve that sends the brain a signal of open nasal passages. The second is that it might dilate a muscle that opens nasal passages wider.
If that's true, wasabi might improve breathing even as it increases mucous.
Sushi Condiment Wasabi Doesn't Clear Noses
The doctors, who work in Kaiser Permanente's department of head and neck surgery in Oakland, Calif., recruited 22 adult volunteers to test wasabi's decongestant powers.
First, participants rated their level of congestion, nasal comfort, and related factors. After blowing their noses, participants had their nasal cavity volume measured with noninvasive equipment.
That was the easy part.
Next, participants put one-tenth of a milliliter of wasabi paste on their tongues, letting it dissolve in their mouths while breathing through their noses and mouths.
They repeated the test three times at one-minute intervals.
It was not a pretty picture.
