The World Has Changed
Jan 26th, 2009 by Alex
Last week, the world as I once knew it underwent an irrevocable change. A major paradigm shift took place right around me, from which I’ll never view things quite the same way again.
I found out that some people sneeze through their nose.
Their nose! Can you believe it? As a lifelong mouth sneezer, I found myself in an incredulous state right after I found out. How on earth does that work? I realize the concept is simple (just keep your mouth closed when you sneeze), but I’m still having trouble with it. Also, how is that that I’ve been going around my entire life and not once have I heard of someone sneezing through their nose until now? I admit I haven’t traveled the world, but I’ve met a lot of people and witnessed a lot of sneezing and never had I known or seen someone do it until last week. I’ve come to the conclusion that I must have witnessed it at some point but not realized exactly what was happening.
Sneezing can be a violent act and the notion that all of that compressed air would be forced to exit your lungs by way of two small nostrils seems dangerous, especially when compared to the relatively low-pressure alternative that is the mouth. Though I have no medical training whatsoever, I would think that all of that pressure can’t be good for the sinuses or the eyeballs. I fear that if I tried to sneeze through my nose, the results would look something like this.
Apologies to Claude for swiping his image (that he himself probably swiped).
I’m determined to find out what happens when you sneeze through the nose.
When I have to sneeze I usually sneeze in bouts of three. So the other day at the office I made an attempt to keep my mouth closed during the third sneeze. I was completely ready but at the critical moment — in the microseconds between the large Ahhhhhhhh inhalation and the Choooooo — I just couldn’t do it, my brain screaming “WHAT ON EARTH DO YOU THINK YOU’RE DOING?!?” My mouth opened involuntarily and my chance was lost.
I haven’t given up, but the opportunity hasn’t presented itself again.
The nose sneezing crowd appears to look at the mouth sneezing crowd with the same incredulity. I’m not the only one who hadn’t heard of this sternutation dichotomy, am I?
How do you sneeze? Can you conceive of sneezing any other way?
Sneezing is a very strenuous act on the body. Anything to interrupt it or restrict it is unhealthy. Sneezing through the nose would definitely be in that category.
A nosable—er, *notable* discovery. My own journey related to sneezing has gone like this: I work in an office. When someone sneezes several cubicles or rooms away, it’s just not practical to shout out “Bless you” or “Gesundheit.” So I whistle. It’s an acknowledgment. The sound carries. It works. Others have picked up on it. It’s fun to hear the various whistles periodically. I came to call it the Gazoon High Twizzle (a mondegreen for “Gesundheit Whistle”). This became a book by a friend, Mandy Green (whose name is itself a mondegreen for “mondegreen”). Now I’m the administrator of a project trying to spread the word about the book and the act of Gazoon High Twizzling. Please check it out at MandyGreenProject.com. See the Gazoon High Twizzle animated at GazoonHighTwizzle.com.
I sneeze like a cat with a while bunch of little sneezes in a row. It annoys my wife a lot.
Next you should research the phenomenon where some folks are stimulated to sneeze by sunlight (when going outside on a sunny day, for example). Those folks who don’t have this often don’t know it even exists, and those that do often assume that it happens to everybody.
DJ: Yet lots of people do it without ill effect. I don’t think most people think about it, nor have a lot of say in the matter. It’s just what we’re wired to do.
Keith: Not sure if it’ll catch on, but an interesting idea to be sure.
yellojkt: Do you expel the air through your mouth or nostrils?
jbrown: I know this one. It’s called photic sneeze reflex/response. According to Beckman, the conditions affects 17-35% of us… including me.