Contributing Writer Mark Rackay
"Old Dead-Eye"
Montrose County Sheriff’s Posse, Colorado
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Gesundheit
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Animals sneeze, like this burschell zebra is doing, but people make more of a big deal out of it.
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My old man mentor, Mr. Caster, and I were sneaking up on a small herd of elk during a late season hunt, back in the years of my youth. Mr. Caster always tried to harvest a cow elk for his winter supply of meat. He did not have much money, and an elk was important to him. He only let me tag along because I harangued him for weeks on end to include me.
As we belly crawled through the leafless aspen growth, about 75 yards from the herd, I felt that all too familiar tingle in my nose. Try as I might to stifle the sneeze, I couldn’t. There must be a hundred ways to stifle a sneeze, but I could not remember a one. The sneeze came out with the resonations of a smart bomb, nearby shrubbery was completely defoliated, and all of those elk ran high heels over appetite to the next county. Needless to say, Mr. Caster was even less than enthralled with my presence.
During the COVID 19 pandemic, the quickest way to clear a room full of people, was to sneeze. Hordes of folks would evacuate the premises immediately, for fear of catching the dreaded virus, but most sneezes are not related to sickness.
A single sneeze can travel up to 100 MPH, and produce up to 40,000 droplets, covering a radius of up to 5 feet. These droplets can stay in the air for up to 10 minutes. This is why sneezing is such an effective spreader of colds and viruses.
We all sneeze, and so much so that we give it very little thought. A sneeze is an involuntary, forceful, and uncontrolled explosion of air that explodes out of your nose and mouth, always at a most inopportune time. Sneezes are caused by an irritation to the mucous membranes in your nose and throat. Sneezing is a way that irritants like dust, pollen, and dirt, and dander are removed from your body.
In most cases, sneezing is not a sign of a serious health condition. Usually, it is caused by allergies, irritants in the air like dust or pollens, trauma to the nose, breathing cold air, or an infection.
Sunlight can cause certain people to sneeze. About 1 in 4 people have a photic sneeze reflex, which causes them to sneeze when they are exposed to sunlight. I am one of them who occasionally has that problem.
Sneezing can also be caused by a sudden change in temperature. Walking outside from a warm house to a cold day outside can trigger a sneeze attack, The cold air can irritate the nasal passages and trigger the trigeminal nerve, which is responsible for the sneeze reflex. This is often referred to as nonallergic rhinitis, where temperature fluctuations are the primary trigger.
Sneezing is the closest thing some people get to an aerobic workout. It is actually a full body workout as it involves the diaphragm, chest, throat, and abdomen. It causes a slight pressure to change in your chest that can alter your blood flow and make your heart feel like it is skipping a beat.
My wife is someone who sometimes has sneezing fits. When hay fever season is here, she can sneeze a dozen times in a row. I did that once and felt like I needed a nap afterwards. Sneezing multiple times in a row is usually the body’s way of clearing irritants from your nose.
There are plenty of myths floating around about sneezing, like if you sneeze with your eyes open, they pop out. Blood pressure behind the eyes does increase slightly when you sneeze, but not near enough to cause your eyes to pop out of your head. And no, your heart does not skip a beat either when you sneeze.
Some cultures believe that sneezing sometime between noon and midnight is a sign of good luck, while other cultures think the opposite. Some people think if you turn your head to the right when you sneeze, you get good luck, and turning to the left produces bad luck.
People often say “God bless you” when you sneeze. One possible origin is that Pope Gregory the Great started doing so during the Plague of Justinian, in the hopes that people wouldn’t die after sneezing. Other believe that people might expel their souls from their body when they sneezed, and this was a way of keeping the devil from taking it. Some folks say Gesundheit, which came from German, where it means good health.
There are many purported methods to stifle a sneeze, like a finger pressed tight under your nose, pinching your nose, and uttering phrases, but they can cause serious injury.
If you block the release of the pressure by trying to hold in the sneeze it can cause a rupture of your eardrums, irritate the throat, and in severe cases, rupture blood vessels in your eyes and brain. The redirection of air back into your ears can carry bacteria or infected mucous to your middle ear, leaving you with an ear infection. Basically, if you have to sneeze, let it fly.
If you need to lessen the force of a sneeze, like when you are sneaking up on a herd of elk, you can try sneezing with your mouth open, or not plugging your nose. And it is always a good idea to cover your mouth when you sneeze to prevent the spread of germs.
Most sneezing is harmless as it is just your body getting rid of allergens and dust. You can reduce these allergens and dust with regular nasal rinses, saline nasal sprays, and blowing your nose often. Some people find relief from breathing the steam in a hot shower.
Mr. Caster tagged his winter meat cow elk later that day and all was forgiven. Although, I heard the story repeated at my expense dozens of times thereafter. And he never even said Gesundheit.
Mark Rackay
Mark Rackay is a columnist for the Montrose Daily Press, Delta County Independent, and several other newspapers, as well as a feature writer for several saltwater fishing magazines. He is an avid hunter and world class saltwater angler, who travels around the world in search of adventure and serves as a Director and Public Information Officer for the Montrose County Sheriff’s Posse.
