How trying to be polite can land you in the ER

You know that tickly feeling that starts in your nose and quickly morphs into a loud “achoo“?

To you and me, it’s just a sneeze, but to scientists it’s known as “airflow dynamics.” And when your dynamics start flowing in a public place (like onto your dinner companion’s plate or in the middle of a movie!) you may be inclined to try and stifle it.

But don’t!

If you feel a sneeze coming on and interfere with it, a new study is telling us that the consequences might just land you in the ER with a serious injury.

Here’s what you need to know about how a sneeze can become so dangerous!

Nothing to sneeze at
When a 34-year-old man in Leicester, England, showed up at his local ER in extreme pain — his neck so swollen that he was barely able to swallow or talk — doctors could have been dealing with a medical mystery.

But he managed to communicate what had happened: He’d tried to stop a sneeze by pinching his nose shut and closing his mouth.

That’s when he heard a “popping sensation in his neck.”

A subsequent CT scan showed that the explosive force of the sneeze he attempted to suppress had actually ruptured his throat!

This sneeze-stifling scenario was just documented in the journal BMJ Case Reports along with warnings from the docs about how dangerous that habit can be.

And once you realize that sneezes can be measured in miles per hour, with some findings saying air is being projected out of your nose at speeds of around 150 mph, it makes sense that resisting one can cause so much damage to your body.

While the man in England did recover — although he ended up spending a week in the hospital (where he was given IV antibiotics and fed through a tube) — his case isn’t the worst that can happen.

As the doctors who chronicled the man’s case noted, trying to stop a sneeze has been known to result in air getting trapped between the lungs… and even the rupture of a cerebral aneurysm in the brain.

This jibes with previous research that found that restraining the impulse to sneeze can result in a sudden elevation in blood pressure –and even rupture a blood vessel in the brain.

And by keeping that sneeze repressed, you could also:

• rupture your eardrum and experience hearing loss,
• suffer a collapsed lung,
• injure your diaphragm (the muscle stretching across the bottom of your rib cage),
• throw your neck out of joint, and
• rupture the blood vessels in your eyes.

Dr. Anthony Aymat at London’s University Hospital ENT department puts it this way: “If you retain all that pressure (by not sneezing), it could do a lot of damage,” and you could wind up with air trapped in your body.

Plus that, sneezing has its own benefits! It clears your nose of dust, allergens, viruses, and germs.

The safest thing to do, “although it’s not socially acceptable,” Dr. Aymat said, “is just to sneeze loud.”

While that might seem downright rude if you’re at the theater or in church, it is possible to make the best of a sneeze when out in public.

If you’re a frequent sneezer, carry some disposable tissues with you — but make sure they’re sturdy full-sized ones that are big enough to completely cover your nose. If that’s not available, you’ll need to turn your face into the crook of your arm so all those germs don’t go flying out into the air.

And as someone nearby is sure to say, bless you!

“Man ruptured throat while suppressing sneeze, doctors’ report in case study” Associated Press, January 16, 2018, abc7.com