This may sound silly, but do you know how to sneeze?
If you think I'm kidding, ask Sammy Sosa. The Chicago Cubs star recently sneezed twice, sending his back into spasms and Sosa to the disabled list with a sprained ligament.
Dr. Robert Nacerio told the Chicago Sun Times, "Sneezing is a pretty violent thing." Nacerio, who's an ear, nose and throat doctor at the University of Chicago Hospital, says holding your breath really hard and suddenly experiencing a forceful movement causes all sorts of things around the abdomen and chest to get shaken up. You can bet, if something is already stressed in your body, a sneeze can be the thing that tips the balance.
Now, a baseball player swings a bat while torqueing his body in an unnatural way and Sosa is a particularly powerful hitter, so it's not a great surprise he suffered a spasm after a powerful sneeze. But the same can happen to us regular people if we have any kind of stress on our backs or internal organs. The same goes if you have high blood pressure. Sneezing momentarily raises your blood pressure even more. The most common injuries from sneezing are burst blood vessels in the nose and eyes.
So here's what Dr. Nacerio says to do to guard against any surprises the next time you get that tingly sensation in your nose.
Open your mouth and let it out! That's it, pure and simple. Your mouth is a much larger hole than your nose, so give that force of air as much of an exit as possible. And never close off your mouth and your nose - that will really bring on trouble. So, go on, let out a big ACHOO! I bet Cubs' fans wish Sammy Sosa had.
Dr. Robert Nacerio told the Chicago Sun Times, "Sneezing is a pretty violent thing." Nacerio, who's an ear, nose and throat doctor at the University of Chicago Hospital, says holding your breath really hard and suddenly experiencing a forceful movement causes all sorts of things around the abdomen and chest to get shaken up. You can bet, if something is already stressed in your body, a sneeze can be the thing that tips the balance.
Now, a baseball player swings a bat while torqueing his body in an unnatural way and Sosa is a particularly powerful hitter, so it's not a great surprise he suffered a spasm after a powerful sneeze. But the same can happen to us regular people if we have any kind of stress on our backs or internal organs. The same goes if you have high blood pressure. Sneezing momentarily raises your blood pressure even more. The most common injuries from sneezing are burst blood vessels in the nose and eyes.
So here's what Dr. Nacerio says to do to guard against any surprises the next time you get that tingly sensation in your nose.
Open your mouth and let it out! That's it, pure and simple. Your mouth is a much larger hole than your nose, so give that force of air as much of an exit as possible. And never close off your mouth and your nose - that will really bring on trouble. So, go on, let out a big ACHOO! I bet Cubs' fans wish Sammy Sosa had.
