Guy Holds In His Sneeze And Blows A Hole In His Throat: Does Not Mean You Shouldn't Hold In Your Sneezes
(CNN) If you are about to sneeze -- even if you are in a quiet place -- doctors would advise you to let it rip. A 34-year-old unnamed man in Britain learned that lesson the hard way and had to spend two weeks in the hospital due to his resultinginjury. That's according to a case report with the cringe-inducing title "Snap, crackle and pop: when sneezing leads to crackling in the neck." The report was published Monday in the medical journal BMJ Case Reports.
According to the report, this "previously fit" man pinched his nose and kept his mouth closed during a "forceful" sneeze. He later told doctors he immediately felt a popping sensation in his neck. He didn't notice any problems right away, but a couple of hours later he felt pain in his throat and neck. When it became swollen and his voice changed, he took himself to the hospital.
Initially, doctors saw swelling in his neck and when they examined the soft tissue they heard popping and crackling. Yang said that meant there were air bubbles getting into the man's muscles and deep into his tissue.
Scans confirmed the problem. The tests showed actual streaks of air in the retropharyngeal region and extensive surgical emphysema in the neck anterior to the trachea. In other words, by trying to hold in his sneeze, he actually blew a small hole in his throat.
Full story here.
Anybody else know you could do this? I guess if you hold in a sneeze you can burst a hole right through your throat. I’m going to go against popular opinion and say, I don’t care, hold in your sneezes. I don’t want everybody on the subway to suddenly start letting out snot particles at 100mph left and right. I don’t want people to suddenly expect to hear bless you from everybody like we’re thanking them for giving us scarlet fever.
If I HAD to stretch, I'd say that the only acceptable places on the subway to let out a full sneeze are in the corners and in between cars. So that's space for 4 in the corners and 3-6 in between cars. I'd say that's pretty generous of me. These numbers should be 0. The last thing you want in one of these cattle cars is something wet. The grossness of wetness is amplified on the subway by no less than a million percent. Someone shakes your hand in public with a moist palm, you think, "I wonder why that guy's hand is sweaty" Someone shakes your hand on the subway with a wet hand, you think, “Can't believe that guy jerked off and then shook my hand" I don't know why that's the jump one's mind makes but it just is. These subway cars are just petri dishes of everything this city has to offer: lunatics, germs, misery, everything. We don’t need your fucking sneezes adding to the pile.
Also, it’s on you to not sneeze in a way that pops your throat. Just close your esophagus and keep it in like God intended. You go plugging your nose and you’re asking to eat out of a tube through a week. The key to holding a sneeze in is you let the slightest bit of pressure out of your nostrils. You’re not going for 0% snot ejection, no that’s dangerous; you’re going for like 15-30% snot ejection, a much safer range. You just clench your throat, you let the pressure release just the slightest bit, and you pretend like nothing happened. You never plug 100%: that’s an old oil worker’s saying. It's completely your fault. You plug 100% and it's a 100% on you that bad things happen: like you blow your larynx right out of your throat, you become a martyr for sneeze enthusiasts everywhere, and the world as we knows it falls apart as germs spread rapidly and disease runs rampant. Crops fail and parents eat their children as children eats their parents: and it’s all because you plugged your nose like a fucking amateur.
