Health risks of stifling sneezing

Weather of Arabia - The body resorts to sneezing when it feels something strange that irritates the nose, including bacteria, dirt, dust, mold particles, pollen, and smoke. You may feel tickled or uncomfortable in your nose, and soon after you sneeze (may God have mercy on you)!

Sneezing helps prevent you from getting sick due to the various particles that may get into your nose. Scientists say that sneezing helps "reset" the settings of your nose to normal.

But some tend to suppress sneezing in crowded places, or when talking to another person, in a desire not to transmit the infection to others, or because sneezing is a source of embarrassment for them, although sneezing is a natural reaction of the body and does not cause embarrassment, and suppressing sneezing may It is harmful to health, and sometimes causes serious complications.

Why does suppressing sneezing cause health risks?

A sneeze can push mucus droplets out of your nose at a rate of up to 45 meters per second! And when you sneeze, your body creates great pressure in your respiratory system. This includes your sinuses, nasal cavity, down your throat, and down to your lungs.

Holding a sneeze causes the pressure within the respiratory system to increase dramatically to a level of 5 to 24 times. This extra pressure inside your body can cause potentially serious damage.

Dangers of holding a sneeze

Here are some of the health damages that may result from suppressing a sneeze:

1. ruptured eardrum

When pressure builds up in your respiratory system while you're suppressing a sneeze, some air may move toward your ears. This compressed air passes into a duct called the eustachian tube that connects to the middle ear and eardrum, and the pressure can cause the eardrum to rupture, causing hearing loss.

Most eardrum ruptures heal without treatment within a few weeks, although surgery is needed in some cases.

2. Otitis media

Sneezing helps clear your nose of foreign objects that might harm you, such as bacteria. Redirecting air into your ears from your nasal passages can move bacteria, or mucus that contains bacteria, into the middle ear, causing an infection.

These infections are often very painful. Sometimes middle ear infections go away without treatment, but in other cases antibiotics are needed.

3. Damage to the blood vessels in the eyes, nose or eardrum

While it's rare, the blood vessels in your eyes, nose, or eardrums can be damaged when you sneeze. The increased pressure from sneezing can cause the blood vessels in the nasal passages to compress and burst.

This injury usually causes superficial damage to your appearance, such as redness in your eyes or nose.

4. Diaphragm injury

The diaphragm is the muscular part of your chest that is located above the abdomen. Doctors have sometimes noticed cases of compressed air being trapped in the diaphragm, which may make you feel pain in your chest after sneezing due to the additional air pressure, and in rare cases, the compressed air trapped in the diaphragm leads to a collapse The lungs in people who try to catch or suppress a sneeze. This is a life-threatening injury that requires immediate hospitalization.

5. Aneurysm

According to experts, the pressure from sneezing can lead to the rupture of a brain aneurysm. A blood vessel in the brain weakens and ruptures due to an instantaneous rise in blood pressure. This is a life-threatening injury that can lead to bleeding in the skull around the brain.

6. Throat damage

Doctors have discovered at least one case of a person rupturing the back of the throat as a result of sneezing. It was reported that the 34-year-old man who presented this injury was in a great deal of pain, and was barely able to speak or swallow.

He said he felt a crackling sensation in his neck, which was beginning to swell, after he tried to catch a sneeze by closing his mouth and pinching his nose at the same time. This is a serious injury that requires immediate medical attention.

7. Fractures of the ribs

Some people, often elderly people, have reported broken ribs as a result of sneezing. But holding in a sneeze can also cause a rib fracture, because it forces high-pressure air into your lungs with great force.

Can sneezing cause a heart attack?

A sneeze or sneeze will not stop your heart. It may temporarily affect your heart rate, but it should not cause your heart to stop.

Can the urge to sneeze be prevented?

Rubbing the nose, breathing forcefully through the nose, and pressing the upper lip below the nose may help relieve the urge to sneeze, but once the sneezing begins, it's best to let it out.