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Why You Shouldn't Stifle Your Sneeze (theguardian.com)
An anonymous reader quotes a report from The Guardian: In a season where colds are rife, holding your nose and closing your mouth might seem like a considerate alternative to an explosive "Achoo!" But doctors have warned of the dangers of such a move after a man was found to have ruptured the back of his throat when attempting to stifle a sneeze. Medics say the incident, which they detail in the British Medical Journal Case Reports, came to light when a 34-year old man arrived in A&E with a change to his voice, a swollen neck, pain when swallowing and a popping sensation in his neck after he pinched his nose to contain an expulsion. The team took scans of the man's neck to investigate and discovered bubbles of air in the tissues at the back of the throat, and in the neck from the base of the skull to halfway down the man's back. That, they say, suggested a tear had occurred at the back of the throat as a result of increased pressure from the stifled sneeze, leading to air collecting in his soft tissues. The authors warn that blocking the nostrils and mouth when sneezing is dangerous, noting that while tearing of the throat tissue is rare, it could result in a ruptured eardrum or even a brain aneurysm.
Yep, this is correct. "Sneeze like Dracula". This minimizes the aerosolized viruses and the exposure onto commonly-touched surfaces (just don't cross your arms afterward). Standard CDC advice. In 20 years of being a med student and doctor, I've gotten the flu once. The modern proliferation of alcohol-soaked hand wipes and foams has helped., probably as much as the vaccine (which has been unfortunately ineffective this year).
To get hurt just sneeze normally. I pulled a damn back muscle once on a particularly large sneeze and it was nearly a pain in the ass for two weeks.
Also, the premise behind the article is bollocks. "Man dies in freak accident, everyone else should change their behaviour in case they also encounter this one-in-a-billion condition" would be a better title. There'll be vastly more people killed by germs spread by sneezes than will ever die by whatever the BMJ's 404 was talking about.
They are the ones that need "caution: hot, may cause burns" on drive-thru coffee cups?
You know that the old lady who got famous for that case was not driving, that the car wasn't moving, and that she got severe burns from the incident? Every time you parrot this hot coffee thing you're doing the dirty work of Karl Rove and his evil campaign to cap damages in civil cases.
https://www.democraticundergro...
lucm, indeed.