Why you should never hold back a sneeze

gloria mari

January 17, 2018 12:12 PM

This is why you should always let a sneeze be.

A fit 34 year old man from England raptured his throat after trying to hold in a sneeze.

A case study by the British Medical Journal shared the account where the man held his nose and mouth while attempting to prevent a sneeze from escaping.

"Halting sneeze via blocking nostrils and mouth is a dangerous manoeuvre and should be avoided, as it may lead to numerous complications,” the authors of the journal reported.

The man then experienced a pop in the back of his neck then a swelling in his neck. He also found it hard to swallow or talk.

He was attended to at a hospital in Leicester where doctors found air bubbles in the neck and chest. The unidentified man had to spend seven days in hospital being fed through intubation while his neck healed.

Experts say that a sneeze comes out of your mouth at 241km/h. But the Discovery Channel's Mythbusters say it's at about 64km/h. But withholding a sneeze would be akin to showing a balloon that's still being filled with air into your throat.

The best way to sneeze would be to allow you body to expel those foreign particles with an open mouth but catch them with a napkin or handkerchief. Sneezing into the general air could spread disease as sneezing releases saliva, phlegm, mucus and other particles.