"God bless you" is only one of many traditional responses to a sneeze. Medical history researchers writing for "Evidence-Based Information" at Health Library.epnet.com, say such blessings are based on a medieval myth that a sneeze stops your heart. Modern medical researchers at the University of Arkansas for Medical Sciences, Department of Otolaryngology/Head and Neck Surgery, say a sneeze might make you feel like you missed a beat, but it will not stop your heart.
History
"Evidence-Based Information" writers say people in medieval times thought your soul could escape when you sneezed. People feared it could be replaced by a demon. That called for a quick, divine blessing. Another myth originated in the Europe-wide black plague pandemic in the middle ages. One symptom of the often fatal disease was sneezing. Every sneeze was answered by a blessing for healing because each one could signal a change in the sneezer's heart rate -- of a temporary or permanent variety.
Causes
You sneeze to protect yourself. The lining of your nose is sensitive to any irritant settling there. For some people, even bright lights stimulate the nearby nasal membranes and can cause a sneeze, says Evidence-Based Information. Irritants can range from perfumed talcum powder and pepper to dangerous chemical dusts and gasses and especially nasal inflammation by cold viruses. Nothing in the irritation part of a sneeze stops or changes your heart rate.
Anatomy
Irritation in your nose creates a neurological reflex which, once begun, is almost impossible to thwart. After a quick breath your chest muscles spasm to compress your lungs. At the same time, your upper airway closes for the fraction of a second it takes to build up pressure. That momentarily squeezes your vena cava, the vein that carries all your blood back from your body to your heart for pumping. But, according to Dr. John Messmer, writing for the Penn State College of Medicine in July, 2006, that does not stop your heart. It only adjusts your heart's timing slightly to allow a fraction of a second more filling time. At most, one single beat is slightly slowed.
Timing
A sneeze takes a thin slice of a second and a heart beat lasts almost one full second, at a normal 60 to 70 beats a minute. A sneeze lasts only part of one full heart beat. The superstitious notion that a sneeze stops or alters your heart rate significantly is not scientifically based.
Consequences
If you hold your nose to stifle a sneeze, the sudden air compression can force mucus up the Eustachian tubes that equalize air pressure between your throat and middle ear. This can force bacteria into your ear. The trapped pressure will also cause ear pain. If a patient has weak alveoli, the lung's millions of tiny, delicate oxygen-exchanging air sacks, the sudden pressure of a stifled sneeze can also rupture a lung. A case of a stifled sneeze forcing air into the heart-lung space was reported by Dr. Mark Turner in a 1998 issue of the "Journal of the Royal Society of Medicine." If you hold sneeze pressures inside for more than one heartbeat, a slight slowing may result only as long as you hold the pressure.
References
- Health Library: True or False: Your Heart Stops Beating When You Sneeze (and Other Common Beliefs About Sneezing
- University of Arkansas for Medical Sciences: Does Your Heart Stop for an Instant When You Sneeze?
- Penn State University Live: Medical Myths
- Journal of the Royal Academy of Medicine: Three Cases of Pneumomediastinum-After Labour, Sneezing and Compressed-Air diving
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