Sawbones: A Marital Tour of Misguided Medicine - Sawbones: Sneezing

Episode Date: August 26, 2019

Welcome to all the owners of human bodies! You're gonna love these things, they can run, jump ... and every once in a while they uncontrollably blast snot out of your face at 100 MPH. This week on Saw...bones: Sneezing. Music: "Medicines" by The Taxpayers

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Starting point is 00:00:00 Saubones is a show about medical history, and nothing the hosts say should be taken as medical advice or opinion. It's for fun. Can't you just have fun for an hour and not try to diagnose your mystery boil? We think you've earned it. Just sit back, relax, and enjoy a moment of distraction from that weird growth. You're worth it. that weird growth. You're worth it. Alright, time is about to books. One, two, one, two, a day for our family. We came across a pharmacy with a door and that's lost it out. We were shot through the broken glass and had ourselves a look around.
Starting point is 00:00:56 Some medicines, some medicines that escalate my cop for the mouth. Wow! Hello everybody and welcome to Saw Bones, MetalTurb, Miss Gabis guy medicine. I'm your cohost Justin McAroy I'm Sydney McAroy. You know I didn't realize it Sydney a small McAroy, but we have sort of stumbled on another little bit of a combo I Guess that's true. We talked about a symptom feverish yeah combo. I guess that's true. We talked about a symptom fever. Yeah. Resign also in elevated temperature is assigned because it's an objective finding. Sorry, what? A sign is something that like the doctor finds on you that like measures, you know, you wouldn't come to the doctor and say, I'm complaining of a symptom of my blood pressure is low.
Starting point is 00:01:48 You know? Yeah. You know what I'm saying? Like a sign is something that we measure objectively and like a fever is both because the temperature you measure object, you don't come and say, I mean, but you do have symptoms like things
Starting point is 00:01:59 you feel and experience and complain about. Anyway, we're gonna talk about sneezing. We're always asking the best sobbing that we're supposed to fall asleep to. And I feel like we make a really strong compelling case to this and so far. I'm just saying, we have been asking before about signs
Starting point is 00:02:14 for symptoms that I was just reading. Have we? Yes. All right. We're gonna talk about sneezing because we've all had a cold. Yeah, it's been a rough week at the McAroy House. A lot of cold symptoms going around.
Starting point is 00:02:29 It was really weird too because it's not like we gave it to each other because we all got it within 48 hours. Which would be very odd for us to have spread it to one another and almost makes me think we all got it from the same single source. It's very weird. We did all lick that flagpole. If you'll remember, we it from the same single source. It's very we did all lick that flag pole. If you'll remember, we all lick the same flag.
Starting point is 00:02:48 I did. I I licked no flag pole, sir. But we have all been sneezing. I the other morning, Cooper was in bed with us. I'll have no lectures. She's 18 months old. She's quite large. She's on top of me. Don't worry.
Starting point is 00:03:05 She couldn't sleep because she was sick, and then I was sick, and I started sneezing, and I thought she had slept through my sneezes, and I had not woken her up until I heard a little voice say, bless you. Well, that was very polite, but now I've woken the child. Thank you to everybody who suggested this, a lot of people want to hear about sneezing. Yeah, it's a really weird thing. Sneezes are weird. It's a weird thing that our bodies can get up to sometimes.
Starting point is 00:03:33 It is weird, objectively speaking. They're weird, and I enjoy them. You enjoy, okay, I enjoy sneezing, and we'll dig into that, but. You like to sneeze. I do. Thank you to Tamra and Heather and Katrina and Anne and Jules and Katie and Ben'll dig into that. But you like to sneeze. I do. Thank you to Tamara and Heather and Katrina and Ann and Jules and Katie and Benji and Vicki. I don't know if they like to sneeze, but they want to know about them. All those
Starting point is 00:03:52 people. Do you know why you sneeze, Justin? Ah, okay. So as I understand it, and who knows, these days public schools being what they are. I understand. It's even established when it comes to medicine. You understand very little. Okay. Well, you're just blowing a bunch, like your body's like emergency. We got a bunch of nasty crap in here.
Starting point is 00:04:14 Blow it out. I mean, that's not far off. Good. I'm glad. That's a pretty good approximation. So inside the lining of your nose, the mucus membranes that line your nose are nerve endings. And you can activate these nerve endings in a lot of different ways, right? Like think of all the different things that can make you sneeze.
Starting point is 00:04:40 So like different smells can, temperature changes, most obviously some sort of invader of virus of bacteria, something fungal, something like that, right? All sorts of allergens. There are lots of different things that can drift into your nasal passageways, activate these little nerve endings and send a signal to your brain that says clean house. Everybody out. Everybody out. Everybody out. The adults win.
Starting point is 00:05:07 Evacuate. Evacuate. So what happens when you take a sneeze is once they're activated, you take a deep breath in. You just take a sneeze. Is that a medical term? I didn't mean take a sneeze. I'm leaving it in.
Starting point is 00:05:22 It's a very fun. You take a deep breath. Okay, before you take your sneeze. Before you take your sneeze. Any long week. Sorry. You take a deep breath and all those pressures gonna build up inside your lungs.
Starting point is 00:05:37 And then all of that air that you have, you know, inhaled that you're holding in is expelled quickly through your nose. And you just blast it out. And it feels like compulsory in a way that a lot of things in our body don't, it feels like even more so than yawns. It's like once that machinery gets going, it's like, I don't know.
Starting point is 00:06:01 You can't stop it. You cannot stop it. I'm telling you, you can't stop a sneeze. Well, you can like hold it in, but you can't. Well, if you press the bridge of your nose, press the bridge of your nose, it's a stop. Once the sneeze process has actually started, you can't stop it.
Starting point is 00:06:19 You can, I know what you're talking about, you start to get that sensation, and so you press your finger to the bottom of your nose, and you can kind of like prevent the sneeze, but once the sneeze machinery is turning, it's too late. It's a narrow window though, for you to interrupt the sneeze.
Starting point is 00:06:36 Interrupt the sneeze. It, yeah. It also, at the same time that it sends the signal to like shoot air out of your nose very quickly, you, it also sends a signal to close your eyes. You always close your eyes when you sneeze. Oh cool. You probably guess that.
Starting point is 00:06:49 It seemed like that was happening. It always does happen. A sneeze comes out at around a hundred miles per hour. Dang. It's fast. That's a fast sneeze. Faster than a fast ball. You can't sneeze.
Starting point is 00:07:00 I'm going to edit in a player's name. I'm going to edit in a player's name. Mm-hmm. You can't sneeze when you're asleep. What. You can't sneeze when you're asleep. What? Can't sneeze when you're asleep. Really? You know, those nerve endings are asleep.
Starting point is 00:07:09 Interest. You do not sneeze when you're asleep. Did you think you sneezed in your sleep? No, it's just like, it's just a cool thing, that it's just a cool thing to learn. It can be triggered by things other than what I mentioned, sunshine, like a sudden bright light. Really?
Starting point is 00:07:23 Contrigger, sneezes. There's an episode of P& P about that where one of them, I think it's Ellen has to stare at the sun because it makes her sneeze and that helps her to stay awake because the night crawlers are trying to stay up all night. That triggers that. Contriger the sneeze response, exercise does and some people, the nerve endings on your face being activated, so plucking your eyebrows can trigger a sneeze sometimes. And so it can sex. Some
Starting point is 00:07:50 people, just like the autonomic nervous system, got some cross wires there and they sneeze during or maybe associated with orgasm. All these things could trigger. Trigger sneezes. That would be an thrilling 15 seconds. It's just, it's, they, and what's interesting is both, and this might be why I say I enjoy a good sneeze, both an orgasm and a sneeze releases endorphins. Really? Yes.
Starting point is 00:08:20 And it's, and they relieve muscle tension. So obviously you get a lot more endorphins from one than the other. I'll let you guess. Yeah. But you do feel. It's a very satisfying thing. It is. I think sneezes are satisfying. You agree with me very strongly about that. I'm strongly dying. Dispid it. You can shoot not five feet with a sneeze. Gross, okay. That's why it's important when you sneeze. Giragula. Yes, pull up that vampire cape.
Starting point is 00:08:51 Sneez into the crook of your elbow. I know it's the worst. So if you're in short sleeves, it's like it's miserable. But it's better than your hands. So we obviously as humans have been sneezing for a very long time. This is an old autonomic response there. It's not something that we just cooked up in the 1900s. Hypocrites had a lot to say about sneezing.
Starting point is 00:09:17 They're both as to what caused it and what you could do about it. And then just a lot of general observations. I like sneezing. It's one of the things where ancient medical writers just kind of do about it. And then just a lot of general observations. I like sneezing. It's one of the things where ancient medical writers just kind of wrote about it, because it's also not a big deal most of the time, right? Right, and everybody's like demanding a solution to this. It's very rare that somebody's gonna come to your office
Starting point is 00:09:37 with a chief complaint of repeated sneezing. It's usually like, I am sneezing as part of a constellation of symptoms that I'm concerned about, or I just happen to be sneezing But that's not really the issue most people don't care It is funny when you how the The fun and satisfactory of sneezing dissipates so quickly if when you chain several sneezes in a row It just makes you feel like a ruined person. Yes. That is very true. That is very true One at a time is better.
Starting point is 00:10:05 I've sneaked. I sneaked recently at like my throat. Was it a weird, like not ready for it or something? Like something, I don't know what I did, but I really hurt my throat. Like I sneaked wrong. It injured yourself a little bit. It was very embarrassing. I like, I like strained my, like right here. I like strained these, uh, what I'm pointing at muscles. So you have to help the, the listener, uh, the upper part of your pectoral muscle. I strained them because I sneeze so bad. It was really embarrassing.
Starting point is 00:10:36 I didn't tell you. I have. Hi, Pockardies believe sneezing came from the head because the brain was overheated, uh, or perhaps, uh. Or perhaps the ventricles in your brain, the holes, the openings, the hollow areas in there were over, over full of humors. Do the holes in your brain often get over full with anything? Well, there's like cerebral spinal fluid in there. Okay. Kind of humor in an in an image. No, that is not a humor. That's a real thing, unlike the humors, which are not.
Starting point is 00:11:09 But you get too many humors, too much humor of one, too many of several, either way. And it gets hot up there. There's air. I can't really watch so many episodes of Dharma and Greg in a row. I get too much humor, and that's that season like crazy. Air gets stuck and then blown out very quickly.
Starting point is 00:11:27 Like the pressure builds up from all these hot humors in your brain. Sneezing can be a good symptom. If a person is in labor, Hippocrates believed he thought that that was a good omen. Someone is in labor and they start sneezing, you got to get that hebacharnees believed early because it's always worried to me he's going to get out of their car. Like sneezing is good if you're in labor. Okay, we're here everybody.
Starting point is 00:11:55 He noted that sneezing seems to stop hiccups. I would think so, but this momentarily. And he also just generally, kind of like I said, said, you know, sneezing tends to be in and of itself not a big deal. It's even when it's paired, most illnesses that it could be paired with, it usually indicates that it's probably not a bad illness that you have. So, like a cold or something. And, and Celsius, even echoed that belief and went further to say that he thought that
Starting point is 00:12:27 a sneeze was a good sign that healing was occurring. Okay. Which I think we're just all getting the sense that a lot of the sneezing they were associated with maybe like allergic responses are like very simple upper respiratory infections, no big deal. Plenty of the elder of course had some wild ideas about sneezing. He warned that if you sneeze immediately after having sex, it could prevent you from becoming pregnant. I don't know where the mechanics of what are happening.
Starting point is 00:13:01 I'm trying to think of him working in a conversation just like, hey, fun fact. If you're trying to have a kid, one thing you should try to avoid is sneezing, right afterwards, because you can blow that sucker right out of there. What a wild dude Pliny was. He also said, if your head's feeling heavy, then just tickle your nose with a feather
Starting point is 00:13:24 and make you sneeze, and then the heaviness will be gone Cute sure. Yeah, be funny funny visual If you're sneezing a lot and it's bothering you Yes, and this is a nice this is a double duty this can also be used for hiccups. You're sneezing a lot It's not bothering you you're a pervert There I said it If you're sneezing a lot, it's not bothering you. You're a pervert. There I said it. I like sneezing. A lot though, that's what I'm saying.
Starting point is 00:13:48 Touch the nostrils of a mule with the lips. That means kiss a mule nose. Kiss a mule nose. That means a plenty nice charm. You put the subject in a way you use the passive tense or something. That's kissing a mule nose. He also noted that old people have a harder time with sneezing than young people. But then he said, now the afrastas said this, it wasn't me.
Starting point is 00:14:15 He was the one that was hating on old people, not me. Well, I mean, if you use the evidence of present company, for this particular old person, it has become challenging. I heard myself. That's true. You injured yourself with the sneeze. He also noted that, and this is not a human sneeze, but since we're just talking about sneezing in general, that he would prescribe, let's see, have a headache, a good cure
Starting point is 00:14:42 for a headache, according to plenty of the elder, was to touch an elephant's trunk. It sounds like a Wesley Willis lyric, but please go on. But if you can get the elephant to sneeze at the exact moment that you're touching its trunk, then what? Then the cure is more potent and you're more likely to relieve the headache. How bored were these people? I guess you could employ the feather method perhaps.
Starting point is 00:15:15 Maybe we could go back and utilize that piece of information. We tickle the elephants. I wouldn't want to... Elephants I think are beautiful beautiful majestic creatures and I'm fascinated by them, but I also would not want to try to make one sneeze because I don't want to make an elephant mad. They're very large. No, they're huge, right. And they could like, stomp on me. This is why the life expectancy back then was like eight. Hey, check that elephant. I hate these sneezes. I'm gonna go put a feather in his nose. Hold my capri-sun.
Starting point is 00:15:49 Be right back. It's fine. I really hate sneezing. Please, if you're head, well, this is for a headache that you would do this, that you would provoke an elephant's sneeze. Oh, right, got it.
Starting point is 00:16:01 My head, it's really bad. And I'm gonna go kill myself with this elephant. I know that this is not a medical advice podcast, but I will offer the advice. Please don't, like, don't mess with elephants. Just look at them from afar, gaze at them in awe, and wonder, and amazement that you get to live on the earth alongside them. But please just don't mess with their trunks.
Starting point is 00:16:24 And don't need to do any jobs. And don't need a Jimmy John. Yeah. While you're at it, listen, I love the beach club as much as you might have, but please don't eat a Jimmy John's. Google it. If that seems, yeah, if that seems that came out of nowhere, yeah. We're not anti sandwich. We're just anti Jimmy John.
Starting point is 00:16:41 We are stunchly pro sandwich. We do love sandwich. We have made it clear on this program before and we shall make it clear again. We are pro sandwich. We're big fans meet bread. Just don't have your sandwich made by a big game hunter. Yeah. Yeah. All right. Justin. Yes. I have some more wacky historical sneezing facts. But before we get into that, let's go to the Belly Department. I choose to follow you. Oh, no, no, no, no, no.
Starting point is 00:17:14 Let's go. The medicines, the medicines that I skilled at my car before the mound. You know, Sid, you were about to surprise and delight me with more sneezing fun facts. And I can't wait for the thrilling conclusion when we heroically cure sneezing. And I've never sneezed. Oh, no. Thank you, science. Oh, no.
Starting point is 00:17:35 It's, I thought it was interesting because again, sneezing is something that, I mean, I think it's fair to say everybody does it sometime or other in their life. And it's typically harmless Except for when Justin sneezes and injures himself So there there became all of these strange associations with sneezing like these sort of mystical kind of connections It was thought that sneezing at the table meant you might choke Other people thought that a sneeze meant that menstruation was about to begin, like that was that signaled. That is accurate. No, the
Starting point is 00:18:14 signaled an impending period. There is a biblical story of a woman who died of sunstroke and then was brought back to life by sneezing seven times times like a fit of seven sneezes and was How did you survive? a great question. I don't know And it's also interesting you see a lot of references to the concept that if you sneeze After you tell a story that it was a signal that the story was true True story that it was a signal that the story was true. True. Yes.
Starting point is 00:18:46 You would think it was going to have a tell like that. It's a better fiction if sneeze means it was a lie because it's like, it gives you away, you know what I mean? It's very interesting. Sneezing had a lot of like, sneezing was seen as an omen of a lot of different things. Like in the Odyssey, there's like an episode where Penelope is talking about her,
Starting point is 00:19:11 about Odysseus coming back and getting rid of the suitors. And then I think like her son sneezes or something, one of the kids sneezes. And it's seen as like an omen from the gods that things are gonna be okay. Like it's written as like, oh, okay, good, they snag, they sneezed, everything should be just fine. Don't worry.
Starting point is 00:19:30 But sneezing had all kinds of strange mystical and spiritual connotations. And the Greek philosophers thought that sneezing came from some place in the body that contained the spirit. So that would make sense as to why because it had this, like it was literally contained where the spirit is physically contained within the body, that of course it would have some sort of connection to a higher power or a higher
Starting point is 00:19:57 being or whatever. And so this is why sneezing was seen in almost like a holy kind of light, or a meaningful light anyway anyway something connected to the gods but like you wouldn't the Greeks wouldn't have said the same thing about like burping or farting or something, you know, it did not have these spiritual connotations What's strange is that again a lot of this was positive until the middle ages and then you start to see sneezing still have this like mystical kind of connotation, but it starts to take a negative turn. The idea that a sneeze could
Starting point is 00:20:34 be a bad omen, a sign of some impending doom. And of course, this only got stronger. A lot of this may have occurred because of the bubonic plague. And you had people who were quite sick and sneezing too, which obviously was not like the most serious thing happening to somebody with the plague, but could have also been happening. And so sneezing took on this ominous air probably for good reason, because if somebody near you is sneezing and the plague's going around and you start thinking, huh, did they have the plague? It could be pretty scary, right? And so you start to see that, from the middle ages on, a sneeze usually means, hey, back, you want to go over there? Yeah. You want to hang out somewhere else? Or I don't know anything about germs. I don't know anything about germs.
Starting point is 00:21:25 I just know that I don't like that and you should get away from me. Um, you're also blasting a bunch of gnarly stuff out of the front of your head. Like it's, it's intuitive. Well, you totally are, you've probably seen the pictures. A lot of people have seen them that they have like the, the freeze, like the stop motion pictures of somebody sneezing, where they show like all the snot and saliva and mucus and bookers and germs and everything being blown out of your nose at a hundred miles per hour, maybe as far as five feet
Starting point is 00:21:58 it way from you. I mean, it's pretty awful. Like if that doesn't inspire you to want like dip your nose into the crooked arm the next time you sneeze, I don't know what would. One quick thing is there has been this belief throughout a lot of history that I still hear voice today that your heart stops when you sneeze. Does that true?
Starting point is 00:22:21 No, your heart does not stop when you sneeze. Of course not, that does not happen. But the fear may come from the fact that when you sneeze, the pressure inside your chest changes a little bit. And whenever you have like, with breathing in or breathing out the pressure inside, surrounding like in the thoracic cavity, surrounding the heart changes.
Starting point is 00:22:46 And whenever that happens, you can have a subtle change in your heart rate. And so if there is a, like if your heart's beating along at a certain rate, and then it slows down suddenly, and there's a slightly longer pause between the next two beats, you may sense that when the next beat comes, it may feel.
Starting point is 00:23:07 Like, yeah. You may have an awareness of that next beat. It may seem harder or faster. Anytime you're aware of your heart beating, by the way, we call it palpitations. That's all that means it's an awareness of it, the feeling or the sound or whatever. If you are aware of it, you're having palpitations. And that can be very disconcerting when it happens. And it may be that happening enough made people think, did my heart just stop and restart? It's not. Yeah, because you might interpret it that way.
Starting point is 00:23:36 Like I really felt that next beat. Was it not beating for a second? But your heart does not stop when you sneeze. That's really that is not true. Thank goodness. Otherwise, a lot of us would, you know, die. Yeah, because you that thing's got a pump. Yeah, it's what I tell everybody. Now, with all of these different concerns with sneezing,
Starting point is 00:23:57 it was bad, was it good? Was it a good sign? What, what, what did it mean about the person sneezing or the people around you, or whatever if you sneeze? You can see where we would get into the question, why do we say bless you or anything, depending on where you live and what language you speak and what your culture is. Why do we say anything when a person sneezes? Why is there a thing?
Starting point is 00:24:18 And it stems from this like kind of religious connection to sneezing, depending on your religious tradition, sneezing is significant in one way or the other. It could mean that you're expelling bad spirits, like a sneeze was seen as... Like when I threw out all my deserono. Is that a bad spirit? Let me try again.
Starting point is 00:24:41 Like when I threw out all my fireball, that's better. There you go. Yes. I was in my thirties, I, that's better. There you go. Yes. I was in my thirties. I had to move on. It was timed. Yes.
Starting point is 00:24:49 So yes, it could be seen as like, good, you sneezed. You got all the bad magic out, right? Other religious traditions saw it as a moment where you could lose your soul. You could accidentally sneeze your soul right out of your nose. Just how? How do you keep it in? Uh, well, one thing is as soon as you sneeze, someone should bless you. And that will get your soul to stay back in your body. And it's also a way of saying like, thank God you survived that sneeze.
Starting point is 00:25:19 Sneezing was like I said, it was seen as like a risky act because some people believe that your heart stopped when you sneeze. So if you made it through the sneeze, it's like, what a blessing. You have survived that sneeze to still be here with us today and sneeze again in the future. In some cultures specifically in Indian culture, sneeze was usually a good sign. And so you could even like induce a sneeze intentionally for like good luck. Like get some pungent herbs and smell them. I like sneeze. Yeah. I can understand that.
Starting point is 00:25:51 Have you ever sniff pepper to make yourself sneeze? No, that's never I didn't know you could do that. Yeah, I'll try it. You've never done that? No, really? Never done that. No. Just me then. Just you? Okay. It's weird you had to find that out on we were recording a podcast for tens of thousands of our closest friends. As far as who was the first person to bless someone or say something to that effect after they sneezed, it probably was as I mentioned during the Middle Ages when people started to make these like negative connections to sneezing.
Starting point is 00:26:25 That's probably where we see the origins of this. And this is debated. Like, I'm not going to say here and say, I know the exact moment because this is one of those like we have several theories, but nobody's 100% certain. So we're not using a lot of our big thinkers on it. Honestly, if we're, I hope, I hope these are like some delist big thinkers that are on this question. The cultural history of the sneeze is I, in my research, a very interesting topic for one to explore in an essay or a dissertation is what I have learned.
Starting point is 00:27:02 Okay. I'll send my snark. The Romans started saying, uh, days, day, adjuvet, uh, in response to sneezing during the time of the plague. What's that mean? So help you God. Uh, and so maybe, so we believe, maybe this was the beginning of the, of the concept. Although you could also say that to anybody who was like sick, you know, like if they had the plague like
Starting point is 00:27:29 Good luck with that one. So beyond hope somebody helps you because we don't have antibiotics So we don't have a lot of plans But one one story that seems pretty pervasive is that Pope Gregory VII started the custom of saying, May God bless you. Again, in response to the plague, the alternative that people would say before that was, I hope you may rid yourself of the Basilis. What's the Basilis? Like the plague.
Starting point is 00:28:02 Right. The bacteria. That's nice. I mean, it's a basilis? Like the plague. Right. The bacteria. That's nice. I mean, it's a little less elegant. Yeah. And so I think, May God bless you, was just like a better, like, all that seems a little nicer and shorter and a little less stiff, a little stodgy, perhaps. That's pleasant.
Starting point is 00:28:17 Yeah. Just say that. Again, we have no idea what to do. So put it in a higher power chance. Different languages and cultures have different words. So depending on where you are, you can people will say obviously in the US we say, bless you most commonly, gizoon type, which is German, but you can also say also I saw roast roast. Like you say, like, it's like the cheers over there, right?? Yeah like same idea. You could say salve, you could say
Starting point is 00:28:46 evil spirits be gone. I found that there was and you can look it's fascinating by the way. I read an entire Wikipedia article about just what you say in different parts of the world when someone sneezes and in some countries you don't say anything at all you wouldn't want to acknowledge you straight ahead When someone sneezes and then if you must acknowledge it You say something to them and they should apologize to you. It's fascinating if you're if I don't know Maybe it's just me, but no, I think it's a little say this show. It's them too In most places where you do say something when someone sneezes It's a variation of either bless you or God bless you or God be with you or
Starting point is 00:29:27 to health to life Something like that something about health and life and blessing and good fortune and and good things coming to you Which is still connected this idea that like something bad has or almost has happened? Right, you dodgeable. Yes, and so I mean, it all kind of calls to that. One I appreciated was a Jewish custom of, if a child sneezes, you pull their ear after they sneeze and say to health, and if they sneeze again, you pull the other ear
Starting point is 00:29:56 and say to grow and thrive. I really enjoyed that. Yeah, again, because you know, you don't want your kids to get sick. You can see where these things would have developed, like in a time when a sneeze could mean impending doom and your child sneezes, you can see where some of these kind of rituals would develop. Holding in sneezes is a common question.
Starting point is 00:30:19 I actually get this question not infrequently. Is it bad to hold in a sneeze, Justin? Yes. Do you know what could happen if you hold bad to hold a sneeze, Justin? Yes. Do you know what could happen if you hold a sneeze? No, I don't. So most of the time, nothing, right? Like, I mean, this is one of the, please do not stress about this.
Starting point is 00:30:36 Most of the time, if you hold a sneeze, absolutely nothing happens. However, there have been rare cases where bad stuff can happen from trying to hold a sneeze in. There was a case in the British medical journal of a 34 year old man who sneezed and popped a hole in his trachea. What? In his went pipe in his trachea. No way. They treated him and he survived and he was fine. But there was a case report of this. Now, is it likely that you're gonna pop a hole
Starting point is 00:31:08 in your trachea, of course not. See, I think this is what I- But did it happen this one time? See, I think this is what I did. Like, I obviously didn't pop a hole in my trachea, but like, I think I like accidentally somehow stopped it right at the end, held it in, you know what I mean? Yeah.
Starting point is 00:31:23 And I think I hurt myself as a result. There have been accounts of pulled muscles. That's what, okay. I said that before I knew about that, right? I was more joking about the idea that you could pull muscle sneezing. But, you know, but it's here. I'm sorry.
Starting point is 00:31:39 I love you. I just think I just think you and I are pretty sedentary these days and we could both feel a little more active. That's all I'm saying. Agreed. There have been accounts of broken ribs, damaged vertebrae. You can damage your vocal cords. You're like, yes, the larynx has been damaged from holding in sneezes, pulled muscles,
Starting point is 00:32:04 and even popping a hole in your lung, a pneumothorax. Again, I did not find a single case that said someone died from holding in a sneeze, but I did find all of these kind of scattered case reports. I don't think it's enough that you could put like a risk on it, like what is the chance, what percent chances is that if you hold on a sneeze and any of these bad things are going to happen, but will you find these rare reports every now and then yeah. So I would say like sneeze when you got a sneeze, don't hold it in. One, I thought one interesting point, this wasn't really a case, but it was a theoretical risk was if nothing else, if you sneeze and that mucus that you're trying to sneeze out
Starting point is 00:32:43 doesn't go out, the theory was could it go back up your eustachian tube into your middle ear and cause an ear infection. I think that's a bit of a stretch, but I guess it's a theoretical risk. Either way, just like protect the people around you. Yeah, come on. Just vampire. Just vampire for us. Vampire and get the sneeze out and it feels good. You get a little rush of endorphins. you don't pull a muscle like Justin dead you don't hurt your throat um cats dogs chickens and iguanas all sneeze iguana sneeze a lot really I don't know iguanas are sneezing that one of the sneeze in his animals and um African dogs
Starting point is 00:33:19 use it to communicate and also dogs can reverse sneeze. What? What is that? It's like a sharp inhale. Whoa. Instead of the air going out really fast, it comes in really fast. That's bizarre. Yes. Dogs are weird.
Starting point is 00:33:32 Yes. I'd humans cannot do that as far as I know. It's just a dog thing. You know, I tell you what Sydney, a lot of times, sobans demystifies topics, I feel like sneezing is still as weird as it was when I walked in.
Starting point is 00:33:44 So weird thing that we still do. It's just a useful, I mean, it's useful to very quickly evacuate things from your nasal passageways. And one of the jobs of those mucus membranes and all those hairs and all that stuff that's up in your nose, the cilia that's further up, that one of the jobs is just to physically try to catch things before they can get down into your airways and your lungs. And if they're going to catch them, you've got to clean them out, right? You've got to clean out those lent traps.
Starting point is 00:34:16 And who doesn't enjoy cleaning out a good lent trap? I do. I know I do. And I enjoy sneezing. I've been citymaker, right. Just cover it up. Please. The seasons come and just cover it. I'm not going to get that shot. Thank you all so much for listening to our podcast. We hope you have enjoyed
Starting point is 00:34:36 yourself and it not been feeling as I have for the entire episode sort of latent desire to sneeze. I would love to just blaze one right now. I feel so good. You mentioned Justin get your sneeze. I would love to just blaze one right now. It feels so good. You mentioned Dustin, get your shot. I would say that flu shots, if they're not available in your area already, are going to be very shortly. I would start asking. I would start looking for those ads. Usually the pharmacies will start putting signs up about them. The health department will start putting signs up about them. You can ask your doctor about
Starting point is 00:35:03 them, but get those flu shots. It's never too early to get the seasonal flu shot. I know people already getting them. I'm getting tweets about them and I love it. If you want to share that you got your flu shot on Twitter and Tag Us or Sobones, I always love to see that and share that. Spread the good word. We are a part of the Maximum Fun Network. There's a lot of great shows on there. You can find them all at MaximumFun.org. Our theme song is provided by the Tax Pairs. Intro and Intro program is called Medicine.
Starting point is 00:35:38 It's by the Tax Pairs. They're on Bandcamp, I believe. And we will be in Atlanta and Orlando this weekend. That's right. I think I don't think they are. Yeah. The dot-au-ive Ford slash become the monster. You can or McElroy family dot com. You can or and McElroy dot family. Any of those will work and click on tours. You can you can see there. there may be a few for a land. I thought they were, I thought they were a few for a land of left. Yeah, I think so, but we'll be there.
Starting point is 00:36:08 Opening from a Ben Bam on Saturday and Sunday in Atlanta and then Orlando. Yes, so please come out and see us if you can. That is gonna do it for us, so until next time, my name is Justin McRoy. I'm Sydney McRoy. And as always, don't, Joel, hole in your head. Maximumfun.org. Comedy and Culture.
Starting point is 00:36:44 Artist Don't? Audience Supported. Maximumfun.org Comedy and Culture Artist-Oant? Audience-supported Listen, I'm a hot shot Hollywood movie producer. You haven't till I finish my glass of kombucha to pitch me your idea. Go Alright, it's called Who Shot You? A movie podcast that isn't just a bunch of straight white dudes. I'm if you wide-await the new host of the show and a certified BBN.
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