Ever wonder about all the variations of sneezing that there is in the world today? There are loud sneezes, quiet sneezes, long sneezes, short sneezes, wet sneezes…whoooooo. There are about as many different sneezes as there are different types of snow flakes.

My brother is a big guy, but when he starts to reel back, puts his hand to his nose, starts the sneeze chant; ahhhhhhh, ahhhhhhhh, ahhhhhhhh….. Chooooooooooo!  Only thing is that his chooooooo is more like a ch, without the, ooooooooo, at the end. In other words, it is a small and quiet sneeze. For a big man, he has a little sneeze.

There was a girl that I used to go to school with, that would honk like a goose when she sneezed. What a disruption that caused in the classroom when she would get into a sneezing fit.  Everyone would laugh so hard, that the teacher would have to ask her to go out into the hallway until she was done. That was so funny.

There are also the number of times that a person will sneeze. I always sneeze just twice. Maybe once in awhile, three times. There are people who can sneeze up to eighteen times in a row. There was a sneezing girl, reported in The New York Times, Jan. 29, 1899, that sneezed sometimes a hundred times in an hour. She sneezed for forty days until the doctors discovered a growth in her throat. After it was removed, her sneezing stopped. True story.

First, what causes sneezing? We sneeze because of an irritant or a tickling inside the nasal passages. When that happens, our brain sends a message to the area and orders a sudden and forceful burst of air expelled from the nose and mouth. Particles expelled during sneezing can leave the body at speeds of up to 100 miles per hour. (Wow, that is fast.) It is the body’s way of removing those irritating intruders from our system and keeps things clear and flowing.

Sneezing can also be triggered by a sudden exposure to a bright light, a slightly full stomach, and sudden changes in the climate or temperatures. This is something that I can relate too. How many of you are sneezing after eating? Whenever I get done eating, and I go outside to the bright sunlight, or to a room where there is exposure to some bright light, I will always sneeze.

Ever feel a sneeze coming on and it just won’t come out. (I hate when that happens) Try looking at a bright light and see if you won’t sneeze. It works every time for me.

Does your heart really stop when you sneeze? My mom used to always tell me that, and I walked around, scared to death, (literally) to sneeze. Don’t tell your kids that, because it is not true. Sometimes we may feel like our heart is going to stop, but it doesn’t.  Because of the pressure that it is creating in the chest area when we sneeze or cough, it may feel like our heart is going to stop.

Are sneezes ever life threatening? Yes, when you are driving. DON’T SNEEZE! There is a protective measure that the body does automatically when we sneeze. We, for a split second, squeeze our eyes closed when we sneeze. Who hasn’t sneezed when we are driving? The car may swerve just a tad, and we have to explain to the police officer, that just pulled us over, “no officer, I did not have anything to drink. I  just sneezed.”

Oh yes. One more thing to always remember to do when you sneeze. Never get caught sneezing without COVERING YOUR MOUTH! There are thousands and  thousands of tiny saliva droplets, or molecules, that just came from your mouth and are dispersed into the air. They may float around in the air for an hour. You can’t see them, but they are there, and you are spreading your germs to others around you. Think of others when you sneeze, and put your hand over your mouth.

Happy sneezing.