• Email Us: [email protected]
  • Contact Us: +1 718 874 1545
  • Skip to main content
  • Skip to primary sidebar

Medical Market Report

  • Home
  • All Reports
  • About Us
  • Contact Us

Is Holding In A Sneeze Dangerous?

July 1, 2024 by Deborah Bloomfield

They say to do one thing every day that scares you, but can we suggest you don’t make that holding in a sneeze? From rupturing your windpipe to puffing up your face, holding in a sneeze can be dangerous to the unlucky few.

Fortunately, that whole thing about your eyes popping out of your head remains – at time of writing – an urban legend.

Advertisement

Holding in a sneeze: torn windpipe

Hay fever season is a rough time for people with allergies. Your eyes water, your throat tickles, and you just can’t stop sneezing. Those symptoms were niggling at one man while driving who – deciding it was better to keep it in – opted for pinching his nose and closing his mouth instead of sneezing. Understandable to want to keep your eyes open while driving, but the decision brought on a very unpleasant side effect.

Shortly after keeping in the sneeze, the driver began feeling severe pain in his neck and experienced swelling. By the time he arrived at the emergency department, there was a crackling noise known as crepitus audible in his neck, and an X-ray revealed surgical emphysema – a traumatic injury that leaks air under the skin. The cause? A tear in his windpipe, and it’s thought to be the first-known report of such a tear being caused by holding in a sneeze. 

Holding in a sneeze: Hamman’s sign

Another case of crepitus post-holding in a sneeze involved a 34-year-old man holding his nose and mouth to prevent a sneeze and feeling a “popping sensation” in his neck. Soon after, swallowing became painful and he experienced a change of voice, so he sought medical advice. Doctors could hear Hamman’s sign, a crackling that can occur when the heart beats against tissue filled with air. They subsequently ordered scans that revealed the man had ruptured the back of his neck.

“Halting sneeze via blocking nostrils and mouth is a dangerous maneuver and should be avoided,” wrote the case study authors. “It may lead to numerous complications such as pneumomediastinum, perforation of the tympanic membrane, and even rupture of cerebral aneurysm.”

Holding in a sneeze: cheek fracture

Holding in a sneeze can also worsen existing injuries, such as in the case of a 38-year-old who tried to hold in a sneeze only for their right cheek to puff up. It turned out they had been walking around with an undiagnosed fracture of the right maxillary sinus, causing subcutaneous emphysema of the face.

These case studies are rare outcomes of holding in a sneeze, but they demonstrate that it can do some damage. It’s perhaps unsurprising that holding in a sneeze can be dangerous given, as The Conversation reports, they can force air out of your body at speeds of up to 56 kilometers per hour (35 miles per hour). 

Covering a sneeze? Sure. Holding one in? Don’t go there.

And while we’re on the topic of strange neck injuries, ever noticed how some brass instrument musicians have necks that bulge like a bullfrog’s?

Advertisement

All “explainer” articles are confirmed by fact checkers to be correct at time of publishing. Text, images, and links may be edited, removed, or added to at a later date to keep information current.  

The content of this article is not intended to be a substitute for professional medical advice, diagnosis, or treatment. Always seek the advice of qualified health providers with questions you may have regarding medical conditions.   

Deborah Bloomfield
Deborah Bloomfield

Related posts:

  1. Bolivian president calls for global debt relief for poor countries
  2. Five Seasons Ventures pulls in €180M fund to tackle human health and climate via FoodTech
  3. Humanity’s Journey To A Metal-Rich Asteroid Launches Today. Here’s How To Watch
  4. Ancient DNA Reveals People Caught Leprosy From Adorable Woodland Critters In Medieval England

Source Link: Is Holding In A Sneeze Dangerous?

Filed Under: News

Primary Sidebar

  • New Nightmare Fuel Unlocked: Watch The First Known Capture Of A Shrew By A False Widow Spider
  • Peculiar Glow In The Milky Way Might Be Dark Matter Signature
  • “I Was Scared To Death”: Missouri’s Great Cobra Scare Of 1953 Was Eventually Solved After 35 Years
  • Two Spacecraft To Fly Through Comet 3I/ATLAS’s Ion Tail – Will They Be Able To Catch Something?
  • Pioneering Heavy Water Detection Suggests Earth’s Water Might Be Older Than The Sun
  • PhD Students’ Groundbreaking New Technique Rescues JWST’s Highest Resolution Data
  • Popcorn-Like Parasites And Weird Worms Among 14 New Species Discovered In The World’s Oceans
  • Poem From 1181 CE Cairo Appears To Reference A Rare Galactic Supernova
  • With “Iridescent Live Colors”, Newly Discovered Beautiful Dwarfgoby Lives Up To Its Name (Mostly)
  • “Anti-Tail” And Odd 594-Kilometer Feature Found On Interstellar Object 3I/ATLAS By Keck Observatory
  • Why Do We Call It A “Hamburger” When It Doesn’t Contain Ham?
  • What Aristotle Got Wrong About The Octopus
  • The World’s Largest Island Is Shrinking And Shifting
  • Record-Breaking Marshmallow Planet – It’s A Cold, Peculiar World On A Very Slanted Orbit
  • Distinctive Rocks Might Be Remnants Of Earth Before The Collision That Made The Moon
  • Bright Northern Lights Across America Expected This Week As 3 Coronal Mass Ejections Fly Towards Earth
  • Brain Implant Enables Paralyzed Man To Feel And Use Objects Using Someone Else’s Hands
  • “This Is A Really Big Deal”: Brain Training Significantly Improves Key Neurochemical Levels In World First
  • “Wholly Unexpected”: First-Ever Fossil Paranthropus Hand Raises Questions About Earliest Tool Makers’ Identity
  • For Centuries, Nobody Knew Why Swiss Cheese Has Holes. Then, The Mystery Was Solved.
  • Business
  • Health
  • News
  • Science
  • Technology
  • +1 718 874 1545
  • +91 78878 22626
  • [email protected]
Office Address
Prudour Pvt. Ltd. 420 Lexington Avenue Suite 300 New York City, NY 10170.

Powered by Prudour Network

Copyrights © 2025 · Medical Market Report. All Rights Reserved.

Go to mobile version