Throughout time it has been said that when sneezing, several of our organs stop working for a few milliseconds, including our heart. This theory has intrigued me for a long time, for which I have given myself the task of investigating it to share it with you.

When sneezing our body produces a strong inhalation of air, which passes through the lungs, during this process, the abdominal muscles cause the diaphragm to rise suddenly, which makes the pulmonary pressure does not rise and the pharynx opens, causing that the air goes off with a maximum speed of 150Km/H. Not crazy, the speed of a sneeze can vary, normally it is between 60Km/H up to the aforementioned 150Km/H.

All this process although it seems very simple, involves several organs of our body, but... the heart is paralyzed in the process?, the answer is NO, the heart does not stop beating during a sneeze, what happens is a small change in heart rate, because due to the rapid expulsion of air, the rate of blood pumping is affected for a few seconds. When inhaled before sneezing the pressure in the chest increases, then exhale vigorously during sneezing, causing the pressure to decrease.

What is the function of a sneeze?

Mainly to defend our body from external factors that may cause us some damage, sometimes can be potentially toxic substances such as hairs, dust, pollen, smoke, polluted air or any other chemical element that exists in the environment. All these are lodged in the cilio of our nose causing sneezing.

When we have the flu or a cold, it is very common to have a lot of allergy, since there are many microorganisms living in our nostrils, throat and lungs. When this happens we will be sneezing at every moment, which can cause us to infect the people around us, this happens because in doing so we spread a large gaseous layer of microorganisms in the air, very easily infecting people close to diseases such as: flu, cold, pulmonary tuberculosis, influenza, pulmonary microsis, bronchiolitis, hepatitis A, infectious diarrhea, among others.

The best way to avoid the contagion of any of these diseases, is covering our mouth with our arm or a cloth at the time of sneezing, then clean our noses and wash both hands, as the part of the clothes in which we sneeze, to avoid contagion to the maximum.

Is it a good idea to suppress sneezing?

The truth is that this is the worst decision we can make, because when we "sneeze inward", what we achieve is to make the pathogens or irritants go to the inner area of our nose, middle ear, paranasal sinuses , among others. Thus causing them to colonize, increasing their population and causing more infection. Another serious problem with this is that we can cause internal injuries in the nasal veins, causing vascular ruptures, nosebleeds, hemorrhages in the eardrums or eye conjunctiva, all due to the great force of the air we exert when sneezing.

Normally doing this causes headaches and hearing, hearing problems, dizziness, inflammation of the nostrils and eardrums.

Sneezing can happen for different reasons, sometimes not only it is microorganisms or some disease, since in some people it can happen due to allergies to medicines, spicy foods, talcum powder, sprays, strong emotions, having a very full stomach and even abstinence. the drugs. Although of all the cases the most curious is, sneezing to have contact with some bright light, such as the sun.

Do you sneeze when looking at a bright light?

Many people suffer from the so-called "phthic sneeze", which causes people to sneeze when they see a very bright light, this is not usually consistent, that is, it does not happen every time, but it does happen often enough. Some researchers speculate that this is because light triggers the nerves involved in the sneezing process by stimulating the pupil or retina.

Has it happened to you?

Curiosities of sneezing

• These almost never come alone, we usually sneeze more than once followed. This happens because at the first sneeze we can not get all the contaminated air out of our organism.

• He began to say "health" when sneezing, from the sixth century, this because at that time the black plague killed half of Europe, so sneezing was a sign of death, so people said that word to hope that that person would not die of the infection.

• It is almost impossible to sneeze without moving your head.

• When we sneeze we close our eyes due to a reflex action of our eyelids, to avoid that our eyeballs get damaged with the germs of the saliva. Even though many people in the world manage to keep their eyes open, in the meantime.

Do keeping your eyes open during a sneeze make your eyes pop out?

Fuente

That is totally false, since there is no physical mechanism involved in a sneeze that can cause the eyes to come out, which increases slightly is the blood pressure behind the eyes during sneezing, but this slight pressure is not enough to take them out of their cavities. If the eyes could actually come out when sneezing, the eyelids would be able to hold them inside, so they would still come out even closing their eyes.

People who manage to sneeze with open eyes in the world, have not presented any problems with their health, as it is sometimes said that this can cause tearing of blood vessels in the neck and head, or brain damage.

Sources consulted

• Que pasa en tu cuerpo cuando estornudas
• Sabias que el corazón se detiene al estornudar
• El estornudo detiene el corazón
• El corazon se detiene durante el estornudo mito o realidad
• Se dice que al estornudar todas las funciones del cuerpo humano se detienen
• Verdadero o falso que al estornudar tu corazón se paraliza por una milésima de segundo
• Que ocurre si estornudo para adentro
• Que pasa en el cuerpo cuando estornudamos

Until the next Steemians!