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IN AN ONGOING series, Business Insider is answering readers’ why questions related to science.
This week, the site’s writers tackled the question: What is best way to sneeze?
Here’s what they found out….
It’s spring, that wonderful season of allergies. And with allergies comes sneezing.
In addition to allergies, sneezing can be caused by being too full, bright lights and even orgasms. But as common as sneezing is — other animals sneeze too — scientists know little about the phenomenon.
“A sneeze is designed to expel foreign particles and irritants from your airway, particularly your nasal cavity, and is a protective reflex,” says Dr Jonathan Moss of the Charlotte Eye, Ear, Nose & Throat Associates.
With sneezing myths running rampant on the Internet, we decided to put the following questions to the experts.
If the sneeze is supposed to clean out our noses, should we let it out our mouths too? Sure, said Moss.
“The goal is to expel the irritant from the nasal cavity,” said Moss, so it’s important to sneeze at least partly out of your nose.
However, because the nasal cavity isn’t big enough alone to handle the release of such a large volume of air, some of the sneeze pretty much has to go out your mouth. “The caveat being that if someone tries to withhold a sneeze, this volume will be lessened and the mouth could remain closed,” Moss said.
The most common mistake people make when sneezing is just that — trying to hold it in.
“Don’t!” said Moss.
The process of sneezing is a defensive reflex. The body has to expel foreign particles, such as dust or pollen, that enter our upper airway.
Because a sneeze causes high pressures in your internal airways, holding it in can be harmful. But it causes problems only in rare situations. “These complications can include hearing loss, forcing air into the eye or brain, rupture or clotting of blood vessels, or breaking a rib,” Moss said.
And keeping your eyes open when you sneeze? It IS possible.
Once the “sneeze centre of the brainstem” has been stimulated, it sends multiple muscle contraction signals to your body. One of them tells your eyes to close. “While it may not be impossible to keep from closing your eyes, it would take a conscious effort to keep them open,” Moss said.
All in all, a sneeze may be annoying, but it is good for you. “In our society, some may consider sneezing a faux pas, but what I typically tell my patients is to let it fly!”
The only problem is that these sneezes can spread germs to others around you.
While a few media outlets have done home experiments putting sneeze barriers to the test, scientists have been busy in the lab trying to figure out the best way to sneeze in order to stop the germ flow.
“Ambient air currents may also move the sneezed airflow around more slowly later, thus transporting airborne viruses beyond the immediate vicinity of the sneezer,” Dr. Julian W. Tang of the Alberta Provincial Laboratory for Public Health told Business Insider.
He’s conducted experiments — seen in the GIFs below — to find out the proper way to catch your sneeze.
From "Qualitative Real-Time Schlieren and Shadowgraph Imaging of Human Exhaled Airflows: An Aid to Aerosol Infection Control," By Julian Tang, et al
From "Qualitative Real-Time Schlieren and Shadowgraph Imaging of Human Exhaled Airflows: An Aid to Aerosol Infection Control," By Julian Tang, et al
From "Qualitative Real-Time Schlieren and Shadowgraph Imaging of Human Exhaled Airflows: An Aid to Aerosol Infection Control," By Julian Tang, et al
"Lots of tissues," Tang said, and wash your hands after.
No matter the sneeze catcher, the amount of snot stopped has "a lot of it has to do with how fast you can cover your sneeze".
The permeability of the barrier used to catch the sneeze is also important. "Lower-ply tissues [lower than four-ply] may not contain the force of the sneeze that may just blow through the tissue," he said.
When using the hand or fist, it is important to note that any gaps between fingers will spread the sneeze.
Sneezing into your sleeve has variable effectiveness, depending on sleeve length and how fast you can cover up. And the sleeve now contains your germs, which can spread to other objects it comes into contact with.
So let it fly — into a tissue, please.
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We really should, as a nation, stop worrying about what Joan Burton thinks about everything.
You mean iPhone Joan.
‘iPhone Joan’ has a certain ring to it.
Even when she’s right?
I don’t think anyone really cares about what that witch thinks.
She’s on borrowed time atm
Never normally agree with Joanie but she has a point here. Putting pressure on women to delay having children is not empowered them at all. In fact it’s really having the opposite effect . Women are basically being pressured to choose their career over child bearing and family in their twenties and thirties. It’s much harder to have atrain a viable pregnancy from frozen eggs so there is no guarantee that you would be able to get pregnant later on if you wanted to. I imagine better child care and flexible working hours to slow women to return to the work force after giving birth would probably be more useful . Help in finding the balance most women want and need is better than putting pressure on woman to delay starting family for several years.
Something Joan herself could do too while she’s in Government – allow couples to decide how to split up their parental leave. Quite often now, the mother earns more than the father, so it could be very beneficial for the dad to be at home instead.
Allowing the mother to go back to work at the time of her choosing, while still having one parent at home with the child, means that it has minimal impact on her career and its progression (though in theory there should not be any impact to begin with), and it also means that the dad can have time to bond with his child.
Dont care what JoanThe Butcher Bruton makes of anything, she is a waste of space in my opinion
Thought the Labour party were pro abortion … Baby’s do not concern them … When one their TDs spoke about the welfare of ms Y recently she never mentioned the baby … Nutters
I don’t understand why people are getting so pissed off over this. It’s just an additional perk that they provide to their employees, if a woman wishes to use this service, they can. Apple/Facebook aren’t actively encouraging their female employees to use this, I imagine it’s a much more common practice to do in places like Silicon Valley compared to here.
It’s the idea that employees may feel pressured to focus on work rather than family.
http://www.wired.com/2014/10/apple-facebook-pay-female-employees-freeze-eggs/
“But the thing to remember is that companies like Apple and Facebook are simply opening up egg freezing as a possibility. While we wait for the incremental changes to happen that makes it easier for women to make choices in the world freely, it provides more choice. It’s not for everyone. But it’s for some.”
““There’s been an explosion,” in the number of women freezing their eggs for potential insemination later, says Dr Alan Copperman, director of the Division of Reproductive Endocrinology at Mount Sinai hospital. The number of women opting for egg-freezing has risen fourfold in the last four years, he says. ”
http://time.com/3509930/company-paid-egg-freezing-will-be-the-great-equalizer/
“a 37-year-old marketing executive who worked at both Facebook and Google tells me. “I’m looking to control my career and choices around motherhood on my terms, and a company that would allow me to do so — and provide financial support for those choices — is one I’d willingly return to.””
By offering this service, it is implied that the company would prefer you wait as long as possible-late 30′s on before having children. It’s not a perk, it’s a threat.
First you would have to go through lots of meds and invasive procedures. Then an op to retrieve eggs to be frozen. Later on (when company says it’s ok?) you go for IVF. More meds and an op to implant embryo if you even get that far.
Freezing eggs is most common among women about to undergo intensive cancer treatment that might leave them unable to produce eggs in the future. Not because their boss thought it was a grand idea.
Having IVF is not fun and no guarantee you would even have a child at a later stage.
This is such a backward step for women in the workplace.
I completely agree Carly. IVF is no walk in the park…a very physically invasive procedure that, personally, we had to use as a last resort to have a child. What is rarely mentioned when talking about IVF is that the increased oestrogen injected into a woman’s body can fast forward breast cancer, if a woman is predisposed to the condition. IVF is an amazing medical development but not something to be taken lightly. Facebook etc should be looking at developing facilities & supports to working mothers, rather than ‘encouraging’/ pressuring to delay child rearing.
I can’t imagine it’s for all female employees either. I imagine most would be coporate full time staff with sufficient benefits and not just based on all female employees getting this treatment free.
Are they allowed smartphones?
I agree with Joan on something…I feel so dirty.
Hard boiled..
Yes Tim, or maybe even scrambled like her brain !!!
I hope to God they don’t freeze her eggs… They’d be manky at this stage anyway!!!
The Ultimate Postman, whatever you think of this woman or any woman that is a truly disgusting remark. Can you not express your views without indulging in overt misogynism or comments which criticise woman without reference to looks or fertility?
Sexism and ageism in one post. Wow.
Ahh dry your eyes!!!
Here’s a compromise. Could we get Apple or Facebook to freeze Joan Burton???
It’s really none of her business what I keep in my fridge.
Anyone got a Joanie phone ?
Maybe Joan could dream up a new tax for this. A frozen egg tax.
I don’t care what Joan thinks, I don’t care what anyone else thinks. Isn’t it supposed to be ‘my body, my choice’? #prochoice #noneofyourdamnbusiness
Her and her party are big fans of abortion and see where that got them in the elections
Every time Joan Burton opens her mouth the rest of us get a little stupider. Is there anyone that ISN’T sick of the woman at this point?
Why does everyone have to jump in with responses based on a very binary interpretation of that is on offer.
Nobody is saying “women must” do this if they work for these companies, nobody is saying it removes choice, it is a form of bullying etc.
Some women may decide they want to postpone having children and focus on establishing their career and for theses women this is something they may want to consider – it is a huge cost burden removed.
have your say