Akashdeep Singh | Contributor
Featured image: From the inside out, let it sneeze. | Courtesy of Sambeet D
The arrival of colder temperatures brings with it a dreadful virus—the flu—which unfortunately comes with a whole lot of coughing, wheezing, and sneezing.
Sneezing in public can often attract unwanted attention, but it’s much better to let it out than try to hold it in.
A new entry in the British Medical Journal’s Case Reports has been getting a significant amount of attention, detailing an incident where a healthy 34-year-old man ruptured his throat after attempting to prevent a sneeze by pinching his nose and keeping his mouth closed. He then experienced a popping sensation in his neck followed by swelling, intense pain, and an inability to speak properly.
After he was admitted to a hospital, a computed tomography scan revealed a buildup of pressure which, unable to be expelled normally, burst through the throat’s tissue and began leaking out. They also heard similar sounds to what the man had described, finding air bubbles in various areas, from his neck to ribcage.
Unable to eat normally, food was administered to him through a tube, in order for his damaged tissues to heal. After a week, he had made a full recovery. As he was discharged, he was advised to avoid holding in a sneeze in the future.
Although this was a rare case, doctors have warned that holding in sneezes is a dangerous action—it could lead to severe damage in one’s eardrums and/or burst blood vessels in the brain, and possibly even death.
Cervical pain, facial nerve injuries, and cracked ribs have been seen in patients who attempted to halt the force of a sneeze, which can be expelled at 100 miles per hour or more.
By trying to suppress a sneeze, the force is often sent back towards the head and body, which may result in a number of the aforementioned problems.
The symptoms seen in this case, however, are similar to the type of damage that would follow a severe trauma or gunshot wound.
“I sometimes hold in my sneezes when I’m around a lot of people, because I try not to disturb anyone or attract attention,” says Raymond Luong, a first-year Biotechnology student.
When asked if he was familiar with the recent story of the man in the United Kingdom, Luong responded that he hadn’t heard of it, but was aware that holding in a sneeze can be dangerous.
Although sneezing can lead to the spread of bacteria and disease, it’s much healthier to let it out rather than hold it in, given that one is sure to follow the basic procedures of sneezing into a tissue or arm, as well as conducting proper hand-washing methods.
