How mucus keeps us healthy - Katharina Ribbeck
View full lesson: http://ed.ted.com/lessons/how-mucus-keeps-us-healthy-katharina-ribbeck Your body produces more than a liter of mucus every day, and when you're sick, it can be hard to...
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If you've got a cold, mucus is hard to miss. But what is it, and what does it do besides making you miserable? Your body produces more than a liter of mucus every day, and all the wet surfaces of your body that are not covered by skin, like your eyes, nose, mouth, lungs, and stomach get a liberal coating. That's why they're known as mucus membranes. Mucus plays lots of roles in your body. It keeps delicate tissues from drying out and cracking, which would expose them to infection. It lubricates your eyes so you can blink. It protects your stomach lining from acid. It neutralizes threats by removing or trapping substances that could make you sick. And finally, it houses and keeps your body's trillions of bacterial inhabitants, your mic...
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If you've got a cold, mucus is hard to miss. But what is it, and what does it do besides making you miserable? Your body produces more than a liter of mucus every day, and all the wet surfaces of your body that are not covered by skin, like your eyes, nose, mouth, lungs, and stomach get a liberal coating. That's why they're known as mucus membranes. Mucus plays lots of roles in your body. It keeps delicate tissues from drying out and cracking, which would expose them to infection. It lubricates your eyes so you can blink. It protects your stomach lining from acid. It neutralizes threats by removing or trapping substances that could make you sick. And finally, it houses and keeps your body's trillions of bacterial inhabitants, your mic...
