What happens if you hold in a sneeze

Today's Top Stories. And Just Like That has a release date and trailer! Meghan on the money saving trick she still uses. Your first look at Hocus Pocus 2 is here! Best Christmas decorations for LaylaBird Getty Images.

Westend61 Getty Images. We do not endorse non-Cleveland Clinic products or services. But holding them in could cause more harm than you know. As we move towards allergy season, sneezing is often a presenting symptom and can occur in rapid succession. Needless to say, a sneeze can travel over 70 miles per hour, with incredible force behind it.

Holding in a sneeze can lead to all sorts of damaging outcomes such as an eardrum ruptures and throat pharynx ruptures. Eustachian tubes are small passageways that connect the throat to the middle ear. For one, your ears can be at risk. When you hold in a sneeze, air and pressure can travel up your Eustachian tubes—small passageways linking your throat to your middle ear—and cause your eardrum to rupture. Sedaghat says. Here are 10 other reasons why your eyes are bloodshot. And before you freak out, the people most at risk of the serious injuries generally have health conditions that leave them more susceptible, like abnormal blood vessels, or have had recent sinus, vascular, or brain surgery, or a head, neck or chest injury of some kind, says Dr.

Let them rip: The function of the sneeze is to allow a release of pressure. And if you do sneeze, make sure you follow proper sneezing etiquette when it comes to spreading germs.

It's not that this method diminishes your spray of saliva and mucus, but since you don't touch a lot with your elbow, you're essentially protecting others from viral or bacterial particles in your sneeze. But the list of possible consequences is scarier than the trailer for Us. All from a sneeze, nervous friends. Just last year, you might remember, the internet lost its mind when a year-old man ruptured his throat from holding in a sneeze.

Chang explains. He tipped me off to a report from the journal Clinical Infectious Diseases that found a stifled sneeze can produce up to a whopping millimeters of mercury mm Hg of pressure. That is a dramatic difference, Dr. It can stretch and come back to normal form. Weirder still is that you, the stifler of sneezes, control where that misdirected pressure goes in your body—which could then affect what unsuspecting and undeserving body part ruptures, fractures, or breaks.

Chang says.