Did you know the longest sneeze recorded according to Guinness Book of Record is 976 days? The record was by Donna Griffiths (UK, b. 1969) who started sneezing on 13 January 1981. She sneezed an estimated million times in the first 365 days and achieved her first sneeze-free day on 16 September 1983 — the 977th day. Website www.pureroom.com reports that a sneeze can travel up to 100 miles per hour and can release 100,000 germs into the air.
People might be wondering why people sneeze?
Experts say that sneezing is a reflex. When irritants — such as germs, dust, pollen, animal dander, or pollutants, just to name just a few infiltrate the nose lining, the brain sends out a signal to get rid of it.
Plucking your eye brows may make you sneeze. You do not sneeze in your sleep as the nerves that signal the brain you want to achoo be momentarily shut off.
Sunshine may make you sneeze. This is called the photic sneeze reflex or the sunshine sneeze.
Now what happens to your body when you sneeze?
Some people think that their heart stops when they sneeze, well this is not the case.
A sneeze begins with a tickling sensation in the nerve endings that sends a message to your brain that it needs to rid itself of something irritating the lining of your nose.
You first take a deep breath and hold it, which tightens your chest muscles.
Facts you probably don’t know about sneezing
* Their germ-ridden spray can land pretty far away. Some guess you’ll spread in a five-foot radius, others have wagered mucus lands as far as 30 feet away. At that rate, there’s practically no escaping those germs!
* It’s quite normal to sneeze in twos or threes — Those “bad” particles trapped in the nasal passages and expelled by sneezes aren’t exactly sprinting to the exit. It often takes more than one attempt to kick those irritants out, which can lead to multiple sneezes in a row.
* A sneeze is better out than in- Whether you’re in church or at a movie or in a lecture, stop trying to stuff that sneeze back in. While rare, it can lead to injuries, including broken blood vessels in the eyes, weakened blood vessels in the brain, ruptured ear drums or problems with the diaphragm.
* But you can quiet the urge to sneeze- If you only have that sneeze-on-its-way tingly feeling; there are a few tricks that seem to nip a sneeze in the bud. Try rubbing your nose, pressing on your upper lip underneath your nose or forcing a big, deep breath out your nose.
