Is holding in a sneeze bad for your health? See what the experts say

When you sneeze, the air comes out at 160 km/h; holding it can cause damage mainly to the eardrum.

In this week’s Ask an Expert we talk about hold back sneezes. If you also have questions about health, psychology, wellness, exercise or nutrition, please write to ana.lourenco@estadao.com or send a DM to our Instagram.

Is it true that holding in sneezes can cause health problems?

Joao Andrade, Rio de Janeiro

Answered by Juliana Anauate A. Aguiar, otolaryngologist at HCor.

Sneezing is a reflex that aims to protect the respiratory tract and expel some kind of allergen or virus that has entered it. It can be an allergic sneeze, when we work with dust, in a dust mite environment, and the airways are irritated and we sneeze in an attempt to get rid of that allergen that has just been inhaled. Or when you have a cold and your airways fill up with mucus. Sneezing is an attempt to remove excess mucus.

Of course, there’s also the reflex sneeze, which is what you produce after a little irritation, whether it’s looking at the sun or sucking on burnt candy. But normally sneezing always has the purpose of eliminating something harmful to the body. Either excess mucus or an allergen: cigarettes, dust mites, dust.

So along those lines, since its goal is to protect the airways, trying to hold in a sneeze goes against the core nature of a sneeze. Therefore, keeping it may cause some harmful effects.

How does sneezing work?

Before you sneeze, take a deep breath and the air is trapped in the lungs, until the glottis and vocal cords close so that all the air accumulates there. At that moment, the person has a sudden contracture, in which the abdominal muscles and intercostal muscles push this air out. And that air comes out with an absurd force, a speed that is around 160 km/h. So if that bunch of trapped air doesn’t come out of your nose and mouth, which is the point, it goes somewhere — and most commonly it goes to the Eustachian tube.

The auditory tube is a tube that connects the nose and the ear and serves to balance pressures in the middle ear (or tympanic cavity) when you experience some decompression – such as riding an airplane, climbing a mountain, descending a chain mountainous. The person feels that the ear is clogged, then swallows or yawns, which opens the Eustachian tube: air enters and the pressures are equal, external and internal.

When this air gets in there, the eardrum can be punctured, which we call barotrauma, like when the person dives too deep without equalizing the pressure. This is quite common. Another thing that can happen is that air enters the middle ear and traumatizes the labyrinth, which can lead to acute labyrinthitis.

Other complications

In addition to the ear, holding in a sneeze can cause other complications in the body, which, although rare, can also occur, such as eye vessel rupture, retinal detachment or even stroke. But this happens in patients who have pre-existing deformities or conditions, such as an aneurysm. So the pressure of the held sneeze is so great that there’s a sudden increase in intracranial pressure — and this vessel that used to be thin-walled ruptures, causing a hemorrhage.

Holding in a sneeze is a big mistake, but many people do it, mostly out of fear of being judged by people close to them due to covid.

The correct way to sneeze is to create some sort of barrier to trap viruses. After all, when we sneeze we throw a very large amount of germs into the environment – ​​around 100,000 germs per sneeze – and this can harm others. If you have a handkerchief, great, because this way the mucus comes out with it. But if you don’t have it at the moment, protect it with your forearm. Sneezing into the hand can cause them to spread to the doorknob, chair, someone else’s hand.

Repeatedly blowing your nose and expelling mucus can also be harmful. Sure, not to the same extent as holding in a sneeze, because the force and velocity are so much greater, but it can, yes, cause some ear trauma.

Source: Terra

Ben

Ben Stock is a lifestyle journalist and author at Gossipify. He writes about topics such as health, wellness, travel, food and home decor. He provides practical advice and inspiration to improve well-being, keeps readers up to date with latest lifestyle news and trends, known for his engaging writing style, in-depth analysis and unique perspectives.