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in collaboration with
Dr Gérald Kierzek (Medical Director of Doctissimo)
Avoiding a loud sneeze in public, we’ve all done it. But is this still a recommended action? Not for our medical director, Dr Gérald Kierzek who explains to us what the risks are.
You know it, that sensation that tickles your nostrils and announces a proper sneeze in the next few seconds? Yes, but here you are, you don’t want to be noticed, so you try everything to repress your “hatch” and make as little noise as possible. A practice which, certainly, is more discreet, but is not without risk.
You can’t stop a sneeze
The first thing to know, according to Dr. Gérald Kierzek, emergency physician, is that it is not possible to prevent a sneeze. “Sneezing is a neurological reflex and a contraction of the diaphragm muscle. When you feel it coming, you can in fact try to put your finger under your nose to block the air flow and avoid stimulating the receptors, but when the sneeze is triggered, you cannot prevent it, it must occur”.
What needs to happen will happen whether you are in public or not, and to everyone.
Holding back a sneeze poses health risks
The second thing to know is that sneezing, or rather holding back from sneezing, is not without risk.
“On the one hand, it’s the emergency doctor who’s talking here, but when you sneeze, you have to be careful not to hurt yourself with what’s in front of you. Yes, it is possible to open your eyebrow, or even suffer a head trauma or put out your eye, with a hard or sharp surface in front of you!” he teaches us.
The second risk is the one you expose your body to when you repress a sneeze, much more serious than you think:
“The thing you absolutely should not do is hold your nose! Because sneezing is excess pressure that must be evacuated outside. If it is not, this suppression will remain inside the body and can potentially reach pressurized cavities, such as the eardrum (and cause a ruptured eardrum), the lung (and cause a pneumothorax) and if we have a cerebral aneurysm, this pressure will dilate the aneurysm even more” explains our expert.
So much reason to give free rein to your sneezing, without complexes, if it starts to tickle you. “I Besides, say that sneezing is a cerebral orgasm, so let’s make the most of it!” concludes Dr. Kierzek.
Slide: Strange noises of the human body