Holding back your sneeze can in rare cases lead to a ruptured throat, as one London man found out when he tried to hold back his sneeze and ruptured his throat.
A study of the case was published Monday in medical journal BMJ Case Reports, Time reported.
The 34-year-old patient said he tried to stop a sneeze by pinching his nose and closing his mouth, and ended up in the hospital for a week, unable to even speak. He reported difficulty swallowing and a popping feeling in his neck.
The doctors who examined the man heard “crackling” in his neck and down his ribcage, which signaled that air bubbles were in his chest. He had to have a feeding tube and antibiotics to keep infection away until the condition healed, Time reported.
It is rare for a suppressed sneeze to cause these kinds of problems, Time reported, but a few cases each year of a ruptured throat, eardrum, or sinuses do occur. Ear, nose, and throat director Anthony Aymat from London’s University Hospital Lewisham said that air leaves the lungs and mouth at 150 miles per hour when you sneeze, so trying to hold all that back could damage your body or leave you with air trapped inside.
Coughing or vomiting forcefully could also cause damage, CNN Health reported.
“The safest thing to do — although it’s not socially acceptable — is just to sneeze loud,” Aymat recommended, Time reported.
Sneezing into your inner elbow is one way to minimize the spread of germs, and using a tissue is another good option, if you wash your hands afterward, CNN Health reported.
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