SamKat is a bona-fide sneezer. I searched out these facts:
11 Surprising Sneezing Facts
How fast does a sneeze travel? Can sex and sunshine make you sneeze? Get the strange sneezing facts.
Reviewed by
Louise Chang, MD
WebMD Archive
Larissa Stouffer of Melrose, Mass., usually sneezes not once, not twice, but
three times. She sneezes as she gets into a car if it's sunny outside, but not
when it's cloudy; her dad does the same thing. And as soon as she pops some
mint chewing gum into her mouth, out comes an achoo.
Stouffer, 30, isn't the only one with a fickle nose. Many people sneeze at
peculiar moments -- such as after exercise, plucking their eyebrows, in the
sunshine, or after sex.
Here are the reasons why they sneeze at odd times, and why all of us sneeze
in the first place.
11 Surprising Sneezing Facts
1. "Sneezes start in your nerves," says Neil Kao, MD, an allergy and
asthma specialist at the Allergic Disease and Asthma Center in Greenville,
S.C.
Continue reading below...
Everyone's nervous system is basically wired in the same way, Kao explains.
But signals traveling along nerves can take slightly different paths to and
from the brain, resulting in different sneeze scenarios from person to
person.
"It's a nerve transmission that tells your brain something is in your nose
that needs to come out," Kao tells WebMD.
2. Sneezing helps keep your body safe. "Sneezing is an important part
of the immune process, helping to keep us healthy and sniffle-free" Kao
says.
Sneezes protect your body by clearing the nose of bacteria and viruses, Kao
explains. When something enters your nose or you encounter a trigger that
sets off your "sneeze center" in your brain, located in the lower brain stem,
signals are rapidly sent to tightly close your throat, eyes, and mouth. Next,
your chest muscles vigorously contract, and then your throat muscles quickly
relax. As result, air -- along with saliva and mucus -- is forced out of your
mouth and nose. Voila, you've sneezed.
3. Sneezes are speedy. "Sneezes travel at about 100 miles per hour,"
says Patti Wood, author of Success Signals: Understanding Body Language.
She adds that a single sneeze can send 100,000 germs into the air.
4. Plucking your eyebrows may make you sneeze. Plucking may set off a
nerve in your face that supplies your nasal passages. As a result, you
sneeze.
