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How Sneezing Works · Stuff You Should Know

0:04
Speaker 1: Spring is so many wonderful things, trees, budding, flowers, blooming,
0:09
Speaker 1: getting to wear straw hats. But for a lot of
0:12
Speaker 1: people it also means a miserable season of allergies, and
0:15
Speaker 1: sneezing is the poster child for allergies. Let's just admit it.
0:20
Speaker 1: So we chose our episode on sneezing so we can
0:22
Speaker 1: at least help you understand what the heck is going
0:25
Speaker 1: on with your face. Even if we can't cure you,
0:27
Speaker 1: we wish we could so seal all the doors in
0:30
Speaker 1: the windows and kick back with this episode.
0:39
Speaker 2: Welcome to Stuff You Should Know, a production of Iheartradios
0:42
Speaker 2: How Stuff Works.
0:49
Speaker 1: Hey, and welcome to the podcast. I'm Josh Clark. There's
0:52
Speaker 1: Charles w Chuck Bryan over there. Jerry is a disembodied spirit,
0:56
Speaker 1: but she's still with us, haunting us. And we are
1:00
Speaker 1: now set up for achievement, which means this is stuff you.
1:03
Speaker 3: Should know, set up for achievement. That sounds like very
1:07
Speaker 3: eighties Reagan era campaign.
1:10
Speaker 1: It does, It definitely does. Certainly not the kind of
1:13
Speaker 1: thing that would irritate you, whether it be in your
1:16
Speaker 1: nose or your brain or anywhere.
1:20
Speaker 3: Not the best segue, huh, I'm surprised you didn't try
1:24
Speaker 3: and work sternutation in there. Somehow.
1:27
Speaker 1: I love that word. Were you familiar with that word before?
1:30
Speaker 3: I don't think you know, I'm forty nine years old.
1:32
Speaker 3: I don't think i'd ever heard sneezing being called sternutation.
1:35
Speaker 1: I got oh, man, I just remembered. I'm forty four now,
1:39
Speaker 1: So you got me beat. But I'm in the same
1:42
Speaker 1: boat with you.
1:44
Speaker 3: Yeah, I never heard that, But that is what if
1:47
Speaker 3: you're a scientist. Well, if you're a scientist and you
1:49
Speaker 3: want to be a real stuff, you probably say sternutation.
1:53
Speaker 3: If you're a scientist that wants to be friends with people,
1:55
Speaker 3: you'll still probably say sneezing.
1:57
Speaker 1: And I mean, it sounds super clinical, but it's actually
2:01
Speaker 1: really old. It's from I think the first appearance of
2:03
Speaker 1: it is in a text from fifteen seventy six.
2:06
Speaker 3: It sounds old to me.
2:08
Speaker 1: It sounds clinical, but there's also a couple derivative words.
2:12
Speaker 1: Sternutative or stern utatory are things that make you sneeze,
2:17
Speaker 1: and Howard stern bubba buoe right chewy. So we're talking
2:24
Speaker 1: sneezing obviously, because we just discoursed on stern neuitation imagining
2:30
Speaker 1: an extra syllable there are and I stern mutation.
2:32
Speaker 3: That's the Josh Clark way.
2:34
Speaker 1: Why do I have to complicate? Why do I have
2:36
Speaker 1: to complimicate things?
2:39
Speaker 3: We're talking about sneezing, and sneezing is a really sort
2:47
Speaker 3: of and I hate it when people call things like
2:49
Speaker 3: this elegant, so I'm going to refrain. But it's just
2:52
Speaker 3: a very efficient system that the human body has worked
2:56
Speaker 3: out to basically allow your your nose and we'll get
3:02
Speaker 3: into all the ins and outs of how it all happens,
3:04
Speaker 3: but to allow your nose and your nasal passage and
3:07
Speaker 3: your brain to act as bouncers and just say, get
3:11
Speaker 3: out of my body. Fast.
3:13
Speaker 1: Cut off pal like real fast, you're cut off cigarette smoke,
3:17
Speaker 1: You're cut off Chanel number seven that nobody likes, you know. Sure,
3:24
Speaker 1: that's uh yeah, that's a pretty pretty good way to
3:26
Speaker 1: put it. I mean, and it's an ancient, ancient reflex too.
3:29
Speaker 1: I mean, basically, all mammals at least sneeze some more
3:33
Speaker 1: than others. I didn't realize this, but apparently iguanas sneeze
3:38
Speaker 1: the most because it's part of their digestion.
3:40
Speaker 3: Yeah, and then I don't know what it's technically called,
3:43
Speaker 3: but you know when dogs do what it's called the
3:45
Speaker 3: reverse sneeze.
3:46
Speaker 1: Yeah, Momo has that bad.
3:48
Speaker 3: It's so scary.
3:49
Speaker 1: It is, it is. And we finally got her checked
3:53
Speaker 1: out and they verified she doesn't have a collapse trachia,
3:57
Speaker 1: which is when it really is threatening. It's just something
4:00
Speaker 1: to do with her nasal passages. Yeah, she's bracky as cephalic.
4:05
Speaker 1: You ever had a dog that that has that.
4:07
Speaker 3: I mean, I've I've never had a dog that didn't
4:09
Speaker 3: do it occasionally, but Nico, I feel like goes and
4:14
Speaker 3: it's not often, but it's it's like a you know,
4:17
Speaker 3: it's like can be prolonged like for like a minute,
4:19
Speaker 3: and it just seems like are you about to die?
4:22
Speaker 1: Yeah, it's terrible, it's really bad.
4:24
Speaker 3: I think you're just supposed to leave them alone too, right,
4:25
Speaker 3: just let him do it.
4:27
Speaker 1: No, we help her out. We'll we'll rub her throat,
4:30
Speaker 1: just kind of stroke it. It seems to help, uh,
4:33
Speaker 1: And then sometimes we'll just lightly plug her nostrils to
4:36
Speaker 1: kind of give her like a hitch to it, and
4:39
Speaker 1: that that frequently cures it too sometimes though. Yeah, she
4:42
Speaker 1: just has to work it out. But she gets it
4:44
Speaker 1: every time she gets excited, and she gets excited a lot,
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Speaker 1: so it's sad for her.
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Speaker 3: Yeah, but it's really not a sneeze actually, because a
4:52
Speaker 3: sneeze is when you were you're trying to get something
4:55
Speaker 3: out of your nose, and that nose is is a
4:58
Speaker 3: pretty amazing little system. It's it's an amazing filtration system.
5:03
Speaker 3: How it's designed with those narrow nasal passages. It's not
5:07
Speaker 3: like we have these big face holes like that. They're
5:10
Speaker 3: narrow for a very good reason, and that is to
5:13
Speaker 3: create turbulence inside your nasal passages. And you know that
5:19
Speaker 3: turbulence shoves all that air that you're inhaling to the
5:22
Speaker 3: sides of your nasal passages. Yeah, the nasal mucosa and
5:27
Speaker 3: that's got tiny little hairs called cilia, and the cilia
5:31
Speaker 3: mainly is sort of like a pre door man just
5:33
Speaker 3: saying like, yeah, your ID is good, Why don't we
5:37
Speaker 3: just move you to the back of the throat and
5:39
Speaker 3: we'll flush you out that way. But if it's too much,
5:42
Speaker 3: that's when you need to call in the big bouncer
5:43
Speaker 3: to initiate that sneeze response.
5:46
Speaker 1: Yeah, sometimes it's just like no, I'm staying here, I'm
5:48
Speaker 1: not leaving. You can't kick me out. They hate the
5:51
Speaker 1: back of the throat super drunk, right, yeah, yeah, so
5:54
Speaker 1: I didn't realize that, but it makes sense that we
5:56
Speaker 1: swallow a lot of the particles that we inhale through
5:59
Speaker 1: our nose, which is great but effective or tough it up,
6:02
Speaker 1: we poop it out eventually, right yeah. But yeah, if
6:05
Speaker 1: they get if they get stuck in the nose, then
6:08
Speaker 1: they do something magical, almost as magical as soap. But
6:14
Speaker 1: when it's when they're sticking to the sides and they're
6:16
Speaker 1: they're not going anywhere, it's clear they're not going anywhere.
6:19
Speaker 1: They actually like irritate some specialized cells that are in
6:22
Speaker 1: that nasal mucosa mass cells and uh ireena fills I think,
6:29
Speaker 1: But basically they're they're there to look out for little
6:32
Speaker 1: particles that decide they don't want to leave, and when
6:34
Speaker 1: those things get irritated, they release histamines which trigger this
6:39
Speaker 1: reaction like an allergic reaction, basically where your nose is runny,
6:43
Speaker 1: and they also simultaneously start sending signals to your brain saying, hey,
6:48
Speaker 1: we we got one. We need some help.
6:51
Speaker 3: Yeah, And I know we talked about this a little
6:53
Speaker 3: bit with I know the pollen episode and I feel
6:57
Speaker 3: like we did another allergy centric one I can't remember,
7:02
Speaker 3: but the whole thing takes about a second for the
7:05
Speaker 3: single sneeze, and you know it's going to send that message,
7:08
Speaker 3: like you said, that chemical message to the sneeze center
7:11
Speaker 3: of the brain, which is in the lateral medulla. Yeah,
7:15
Speaker 3: and you know, the lateral medulla gets like everything in
7:19
Speaker 3: the brain, it gets that signal and says, you know,
7:22
Speaker 3: all I gotta do is react fast whenever the body
7:24
Speaker 3: tells me to do something, and in this case, it's
7:27
Speaker 3: to jet out whatever is in the nose as fast
7:30
Speaker 3: as possible.
7:31
Speaker 1: Right, So, and I was looking this up if you
7:33
Speaker 1: want to get super clinical, if you're the kind of
7:35
Speaker 1: person who uses words like ster mutation instead of sneezing,
7:40
Speaker 1: there's actually something called an afferent phase and an efferent phase.
7:44
Speaker 1: And an afferent phase is when you get ready to sneeze,
7:47
Speaker 1: like your your nerves have been tickled and are triggered
7:51
Speaker 1: and are itching and they're sending messages to your brain
7:55
Speaker 1: in your sneeze center. And then that the efferent phase
7:59
Speaker 1: is when your sneeze goes okay, it's go time, and
8:02
Speaker 1: that's actually pretty interesting stuff. And the way that that
8:04
Speaker 1: happens is, basically, from what I can tell, through a
8:07
Speaker 1: system of nerves olfactory nerve, ethmoidal nerve, which is a
8:13
Speaker 1: terrible word, and then your trigeminal nerve, which is basically
8:17
Speaker 1: responsible for most of the sensation in your face and
8:20
Speaker 1: your ability to bite and chew. And when these nerves
8:23
Speaker 1: spring into action, they hit that message or the sneezing
8:27
Speaker 1: center in your brain, and your sneezing center sends it
8:29
Speaker 1: back over these this kind of same switchboard of nerves
8:32
Speaker 1: in your face and all this is happening and just
8:35
Speaker 1: you know, a very short amount of time.
8:37
Speaker 3: Yeah, I mean, like I said, the whole thing takes
8:39
Speaker 3: place in less than a second. And it's got to
8:42
Speaker 3: reach you know, in order for it to reach that
8:44
Speaker 3: sneeze center, it's got to be past a certain threshold
8:48
Speaker 3: of irritation, basically, right. And once it does reach that
8:52
Speaker 3: irt irritable point, of which there's no going back. He's
8:56
Speaker 3: had too much to drink. Everybody in the bar knows it.
9:00
Speaker 3: That's when it finally sends that impulse down through the
9:04
Speaker 3: head and neck to initiate that response that involves a
9:08
Speaker 3: lot of muscle groups. You know, when you sneeze, it's
9:12
Speaker 3: a and especially with some people, it can be a
9:14
Speaker 3: pretty violent action for the body.
9:18
Speaker 1: Yeah, Like if you stop and take stock of what
9:21
Speaker 1: you're doing right, then you might find that you're hunched over.
9:25
Speaker 1: One of your legs is in the air, like, your
9:27
Speaker 1: knees kind of pulled up, your face is all scrunched up,
9:32
Speaker 1: your neck is tight. There's a lot of muscles involved.
9:36
Speaker 1: And the reason why is because you're taking in a
9:38
Speaker 1: bunch of air and then you're expelling a bunch of
9:41
Speaker 1: air with a lot of force to get that thing
9:44
Speaker 1: that won't leave out of your nose.
9:47
Speaker 3: Yeah, like you can. And I've seen professional athletes that
9:50
Speaker 3: have been sidelined from sneezing. If you've got a bat
9:54
Speaker 3: back or something like, it can really hurt. Luckily, I
9:58
Speaker 3: don't have back problems, but occasionally I have, and a
10:01
Speaker 3: sneeze can really tweak it to where you're right. That's
10:04
Speaker 3: when you know you're an old man's territory. You have
10:06
Speaker 3: a sneeze and you're like, hold on, I can't get up.
10:08
Speaker 1: Yeah, I'm gonna have to lay down this weekend.
10:11
Speaker 3: But your abdomen, your chest, your diaphragm, your vocal cords.
10:15
Speaker 3: You know, you mentioned that you take that deep inhalation,
10:18
Speaker 3: that's that like right before you go, and that builds
10:21
Speaker 3: up a lot of pressure in your chest. And that
10:23
Speaker 3: happens because your vocal cords just initially clamp shut.
10:27
Speaker 1: Right, Yeah, So you're sucking in a bunch of holding it,
10:30
Speaker 1: and so the pressure is building in your thorax and
10:34
Speaker 1: then when you release it, your vocal cord openings open
10:41
Speaker 1: up to allow the air out. But then also your
10:44
Speaker 1: diaphragm is pushing that air out really violently, so that
10:48
Speaker 1: it's going out your mouth and your nose. I saw
10:51
Speaker 1: about one hundred miles an hour is the speed that
10:53
Speaker 1: that can hit.
10:55
Speaker 3: Yeah, easily around one hundred miles an hour. That is
10:59
Speaker 3: crazy to think about. Yeah, your eyes close, But you know,
11:02
Speaker 3: we can go ahead and dispel the old myth that
11:07
Speaker 3: you can pop your eyes out if you keep your
11:09
Speaker 3: eyes open during a sneeze.
11:10
Speaker 1: Right, Yeah, not true. And apparently there are some people
11:13
Speaker 1: who do keep their eyes open when they sneeze, and
11:15
Speaker 1: they show quite clearly that your eyes don't pop out.
11:19
Speaker 3: That's just would be impossible. Plus they usually close anyway,
11:23
Speaker 3: just automatically.
11:24
Speaker 1: Yeah, it's a very small group of people who sneeze
11:26
Speaker 1: with their eyes open. Most people just it's like involuntary.
11:31
Speaker 1: It's part of the involuntary process of sneezing. I don't
11:33
Speaker 1: know if we said that or not. Sneezing is an
11:35
Speaker 1: involuntary reaction to an external stimuli in your nose.
11:39
Speaker 3: Yeah, like you can't. I mean, you can try and
11:43
Speaker 3: trigger a sneeze, and we'll talk about certain things that
11:45
Speaker 3: can trigger sneeze, but huh, you definitely can't make yourself
11:49
Speaker 3: sneeze like full stop.
11:51
Speaker 1: Yeah, no, no, I mean, yeah, there's definitely things you
11:53
Speaker 1: can do to make yourself sneeze, like you're saying, but
11:56
Speaker 1: there are things you can do to keep yourself from sneezing.
11:58
Speaker 1: Whether you want to or not is a different question,
12:00
Speaker 1: because you know, sneezing can feel pretty good if you
12:02
Speaker 1: don't throw your back out.
12:04
Speaker 3: Well, we'll talk about my sneeze pattern later. I know
12:06
Speaker 3: I've talked about it before, but okay, I find it fascinating.
12:11
Speaker 1: You you accidentally tap out, drink your ovaltine and morse
12:16
Speaker 1: code through your sneezes. Is that your thing?
12:19
Speaker 3: Very nice?
12:20
Speaker 1: Thanks?
12:20
Speaker 3: Should we take a break.
12:22
Speaker 1: Let's take a break, Chuck, and then we'll come back
12:23
Speaker 1: and talk more about sneezing.
12:30
Speaker 4: Josh and Chuck shot, well, now we're on the road,
12:43
Speaker 4: driving in your Chuck, I want to learn a thing
12:46
Speaker 4: or two from Josh.
12:48
Speaker 1: Chuck.
12:48
Speaker 4: It's stuff you should know, all right.
12:55
Speaker 1: Hey man, before we get back into it too far,
12:57
Speaker 1: I realized I didn't give a shout out to the
13:00
Speaker 1: guy who gave me the idea for this episode. Doctor
13:04
Speaker 1: Sneeze a lot, Yeah, Doctor Todd g sneeze a lot.
13:09
Speaker 3: No.
13:09
Speaker 1: One of my neighbor friends, Wesley, was like, hey man,
13:13
Speaker 1: he actually listens and he's like, hey man, have you
13:15
Speaker 1: guys ever done one on sneezing? And I'm like, sure,
13:17
Speaker 1: of course we have. He's like, oh, because if you haven't,
13:20
Speaker 1: you know, you really should. That's a great one. And
13:22
Speaker 1: I went back and looked into my astoundment. We had
13:26
Speaker 1: never done one on sneezing, Like never. I just can't
13:29
Speaker 1: believe that that wasn't like one of the first ten.
13:31
Speaker 3: You know, Yeah, that seems like it would be an
13:33
Speaker 3: early stuff you should.
13:34
Speaker 1: Know for sure, And like it kind of feels like
13:37
Speaker 1: one of those right now as we're doing it.
13:39
Speaker 3: But you know, my neighbors think I'm unemployed. It's great.
13:42
Speaker 1: Yeah, but hats off to Wes for coming up with
13:46
Speaker 1: that one.
13:47
Speaker 3: Thanks Wes. Yeah, I leave Josh alone.
13:50
Speaker 1: He's he's the one that we got the the love
13:53
Speaker 1: your Mama dot com stuff for and he's like, oh,
13:56
Speaker 1: halfway done with our room spray. We need some more
13:59
Speaker 1: because we're using it so far fast.
14:00
Speaker 3: And you're you're the pusherman.
14:02
Speaker 1: Yeah. I was like, first one's on me, the next
14:05
Speaker 1: are gonna cost you.
14:06
Speaker 3: Yeah. I don't correct my neighbors. They think I'm down
14:08
Speaker 3: on my luck. So that's all good. Yeah, opinion.
14:11
Speaker 1: No, that's definitely the way to go. He's very nosy.
14:13
Speaker 1: So he he found out I had to finally just
14:16
Speaker 1: stop lying.
14:20
Speaker 3: Oh that's good stuff.
14:21
Speaker 1: So we're back to sneezing. We're talking sneezing, and one
14:26
Speaker 1: of the things we mentioned was the sneezing center, which
14:30
Speaker 1: is this, up until not too many years ago, a
14:33
Speaker 1: theoretical part of the brain that causes us to sneeze,
14:37
Speaker 1: that coordinates this involuntary response because you're not like your
14:41
Speaker 1: brain's not consciously saying like okay, now, diaphragm expel the air.
14:45
Speaker 1: I guess is all like we said, involuntary.
14:49
Speaker 3: That every time you wanted to sneeze right expel air.
14:53
Speaker 1: So it makes sense that there would be a region
14:56
Speaker 1: that was responsible for this. And because we've already we'd
14:59
Speaker 1: already seen it, don't ask how we know where it
15:02
Speaker 1: isn't cats, but in cats it's in the medulla, and
15:05
Speaker 1: so it was hypothesized that it was in the lateral
15:08
Speaker 1: medulla in humans too. And finally, I think around two
15:13
Speaker 1: thousand and five, there's basically incontrovertible evidence that came in
15:17
Speaker 1: the form of this fisherman I believe he might have
15:19
Speaker 1: been Spanish who had this sneezing fit one day of
15:24
Speaker 1: like about twenty really violent sneezes in a few minutes,
15:27
Speaker 1: and then all of a sudden he stopped sneezing and
15:30
Speaker 1: couldn't walk right, like his gait was affected, almost like
15:34
Speaker 1: he'd had a stroke. And apparently either he caused alesion
15:39
Speaker 1: on his lateral medulla from the sneezing, or that violent
15:42
Speaker 1: sneezing was like an initial symptom of alesion, kind of
15:46
Speaker 1: like here's your last sneeze as ever, and he went
15:48
Speaker 1: to the doctor and they started testing them, and they
15:51
Speaker 1: would do things like put capsaicin in his nose, like
15:54
Speaker 1: red hot chili pepper in his nose, which makes everybody sneeze.
15:58
Speaker 1: It's like a universal stern toutry right, makes everyone sneeze,
16:06
Speaker 1: And it wouldn't make this guy sneeze. It would burn
16:08
Speaker 1: his nose and it would make his nose running, but
16:10
Speaker 1: it wouldn't make him sneeze. On the other side, it
16:12
Speaker 1: would make him sneeze the other nostril, but not the
16:15
Speaker 1: right I think. And so they found this lesion on
16:17
Speaker 1: his lateral medulla and they said, sneezing center. Welcome to
16:22
Speaker 1: our understanding.
16:24
Speaker 3: That's such a bad red hut chili Pepper's joke that
16:26
Speaker 3: I just sat on through the whole spiel.
16:28
Speaker 1: That's a very grown up of you.
16:32
Speaker 3: Should I say it?
16:33
Speaker 1: Sure? Whoever said we were grown ups?
16:36
Speaker 3: I was just thinking the doctor would do the capsation
16:40
Speaker 3: and ask him how he feels, and he'd say, well,
16:42
Speaker 3: I don't know. Sometimes I feel like I don't have
16:43
Speaker 3: a partner. That's pretty good, yeah, you know, it's better
16:49
Speaker 3: than fight like a brave. I don't know. I'm trying
16:51
Speaker 3: to think of chili pepper songs.
16:53
Speaker 1: What if the doctor came in wearing nothing but one
16:56
Speaker 1: of those reflector headbands and a sock on his Penis
17:00
Speaker 1: that coming? That was it?
17:03
Speaker 3: Oh, that'd be great that you know, you got the
17:05
Speaker 3: right doctor.
17:06
Speaker 1: Yeah, you do the party dog.
17:09
Speaker 3: So things that can make you sneeze, I know you
17:11
Speaker 3: kind of rattle off some jokes about perfume and smoke earlier. Oh,
17:15
Speaker 3: I wasn't joking, but those are all realities. The most
17:19
Speaker 3: common cause of a sneeze is and that the collective
17:24
Speaker 3: term is rhinitis r HI and I T I S.
17:29
Speaker 3: And that is just your sort of standard inflammation and
17:31
Speaker 3: swelling of your mucous membrane when you got allergies, when
17:36
Speaker 3: pollen's in the air, when you have a cold. But
17:38
Speaker 3: there are all kinds of other things that can cause
17:40
Speaker 3: a sneeze too, that are all different types of rhinitis.
17:44
Speaker 1: Yeah, speaking of rhinitis too, I ran across a term. This.
17:47
Speaker 1: The clinical term for a running nose is rhyino rhea.
17:51
Speaker 3: Gross.
17:51
Speaker 1: Yeah, isn't that crody Like? That makes it at least
17:55
Speaker 1: twelve or fifteen times worse than running nose?
17:57
Speaker 3: You know, yeah, weird.
17:59
Speaker 1: Yeah. So there's occupational rhinitis, which is basically when stuff
18:04
Speaker 1: you're working around makes you sneeze or irritate your nose,
18:08
Speaker 1: things like cleaning supplies or you know, flower I saw
18:13
Speaker 1: was a pretty common occupational rhinitis sternatatory or sternatative, depending
18:22
Speaker 1: on your preference. Cigarette smoke, if you're working a place
18:25
Speaker 1: where they let you smoke, like maybe a cigarette factory,
18:28
Speaker 1: although I heard that they don't allow smoking inside some
18:32
Speaker 1: cigarette factories now in like North Carolina. Isn't that just
18:35
Speaker 1: the end all be all?
18:39
Speaker 3: You think they would allow you to do that while
18:41
Speaker 3: you're working?
18:42
Speaker 1: They used to up until very recently. Really, Oh yeah,
18:45
Speaker 1: I have the impression you could just puck one off
18:47
Speaker 1: the line and light it up.
18:48
Speaker 3: Wow. I guess if you're a smoker, that's a big perk.
18:52
Speaker 1: It is. But then now they're like, no smoking inside,
18:56
Speaker 1: which leads you to the follow up question why why
18:59
Speaker 1: would why can we make because it kills you? And
19:01
Speaker 1: they go, what very dangerous, dummy.
19:05
Speaker 3: Uh, let me see. You've also got the hormonal rhinitis,
19:08
Speaker 3: which is women might experience that when they have high
19:12
Speaker 3: estrogen levels. Maybe if you're pregnant, or you're on the pill,
19:16
Speaker 3: or you're going through puberty, you might have some sort
19:19
Speaker 3: of run on sneezing episodes.
19:21
Speaker 1: Sure, there's a drug induced drnitis. There's certain drugs that
19:25
Speaker 1: are been identified. What'd you say the hippis kind right, Yeah,
19:31
Speaker 1: mushrooms will make you sneeze. Apparently I'm guessing that I
19:35
Speaker 1: didn't see this anywhere, but this is an educated guest.
19:38
Speaker 1: Tell me if you think it sounds convincing, those drugs
19:42
Speaker 1: probably stimulate your mass cells to release histamines, and then
19:46
Speaker 1: that's just basically almost like a phantom allergen. Okay, that's
19:53
Speaker 1: what I'm going with, all right, But apparently end said's
19:56
Speaker 1: beta blockers and some anti hypertensive drugs are the ones
20:00
Speaker 1: that are known drug inducedrinis sternatories.
20:07
Speaker 3: If you are of advanced age, you might have what's
20:11
Speaker 3: called jerryatic rhinitis, which is that's when those sub mucosal
20:17
Speaker 3: glands atrophy, and that means your nose can get really
20:22
Speaker 3: irritated and you might sneeze a lot. Right.
20:26
Speaker 1: That is very sad to me if you think about it,
20:28
Speaker 1: because there's not much that can be done. I'm sure
20:33
Speaker 1: you just put like maybe basoline or something in your nose.
20:36
Speaker 1: That's got to be the cure for that. But let's
20:38
Speaker 1: just say it. Because it's like your little body's you know,
20:41
Speaker 1: running down. We should have a cure for that. Yeah,
20:45
Speaker 1: Like our medicine is not far enough along in my
20:47
Speaker 1: opinion for this to be twenty twenty. It's kind of
20:50
Speaker 1: a disappointing twenty twenty everybody, am I right?
20:55
Speaker 3: Yeah?
20:56
Speaker 1: So we've talked before, Chuck multiple times about photic sneezing,
21:01
Speaker 1: which I am a photic sneezer, and I don't remember
21:03
Speaker 1: if you are or not.
21:05
Speaker 3: I feel like I have, but I don't. It's not
21:08
Speaker 3: like roundly something that happens to me. I don't think.
21:11
Speaker 1: So, Okay, I am a photic sneezer more than I'm
21:15
Speaker 1: a native born Toledo win even maybe they're tied.
21:18
Speaker 3: So how does it get you? Like, any time you
21:21
Speaker 3: like turn on a light.
21:23
Speaker 1: Very rarely light, it's almost always sunlight, and I think
21:26
Speaker 1: it's just because the intensity of it. But yeah, like
21:29
Speaker 1: if I walk out, say, like if I go see
21:30
Speaker 1: a movie in the middle of the day because it's
21:32
Speaker 1: a slacker and I come out in that nice and
21:36
Speaker 1: I come out and it's very sunny, sure it is
21:39
Speaker 1: guaranteed three sneezes in a row?
21:42
Speaker 3: Is that every usual pattern?
21:44
Speaker 1: Yeah? Usually and I looked into that, like why do
21:47
Speaker 1: we sneeze multiple times? Apparently there's a very simple answer
21:50
Speaker 1: for it, and that's that your your brain has determined
21:53
Speaker 1: that the irritant hasn't been ejected yet. But with photo sneezing,
21:57
Speaker 1: it's it's almost like it's a mistaken identity, right.
22:01
Speaker 3: Yeah. I actually did see some other things too about
22:05
Speaker 3: the patterns, because that's always fascinated me because I always
22:07
Speaker 3: sneeze in threes. Oh yeah, okay, And I did see
22:11
Speaker 3: where some places said that just once isn't enough, so
22:15
Speaker 3: it's like a setup a get it to the front
22:17
Speaker 3: of your nose and then get out. But I also
22:20
Speaker 3: saw where it could be genetic. Yeah, like that you
22:23
Speaker 3: inherit a sneeze pattern. Oh really, and that like double
22:26
Speaker 3: sneezers beget to double sneezers.
22:29
Speaker 1: It makes sense because there are like photic sneezing is
22:32
Speaker 1: one of a couple ways that you can inherit a
22:35
Speaker 1: genetic sneezing trait, So that would make sense.
22:38
Speaker 3: Yeah, that's right, photo, I'm sorry, photic sneeze reflexes passed
22:42
Speaker 3: on by autosomal dominant inheritance. And and I love this,
22:50
Speaker 3: this acronym because this is one of those reverse engineered
22:53
Speaker 3: ones that we like so much.
22:54
Speaker 1: Do you like this one?
22:56
Speaker 3: I like this one. I hated the other one.
22:58
Speaker 1: Yeah, man with a passion.
23:00
Speaker 3: I wouldn't even I wasn't eve gonna bring that one
23:01
Speaker 3: up to be.
23:02
Speaker 1: Okay, we'll just pass it by and let everybody wonder
23:04
Speaker 1: for the rest of their lives.
23:05
Speaker 3: But autosomal dominant compelling helio ophthalmic outburst syndrome A CHU,
23:15
Speaker 3: it's a little rough.
23:17
Speaker 1: It is. I mean, there's a whole d, a whole
23:19
Speaker 1: dominant in there that's missing. But okay, fine, we'll go
23:22
Speaker 1: with that. But that's the that is a term for
23:25
Speaker 1: photic sneezing that was coined at some point by someone.
23:31
Speaker 3: That's your biggest pet peeve, right for acronyms is when
23:33
Speaker 3: they just sneak a word in there and don't use
23:35
Speaker 3: it for a letter.
23:36
Speaker 1: Yeah, it's lazy, although I mean I get where they
23:39
Speaker 1: were coming from. You don't want to be ad chew.
23:41
Speaker 1: It's like why even why even do it? But but
23:45
Speaker 1: you gotta figure it out, you know, I mean, just
23:47
Speaker 1: take dominant out, just go with autosomal, you.
23:51
Speaker 3: Know, Yeah, no, wouldn't who would know?
23:53
Speaker 1: I wouldn't have noticed. So you were saying, was that
23:59
Speaker 1: it for the patterns sneezing patterns.
24:01
Speaker 3: Yeah, I mean they're just a couple of theories, either
24:03
Speaker 3: hereditary or that it just takes that much. But I'm
24:06
Speaker 3: not sure. I just don't know if I buy that
24:08
Speaker 3: for myself, because it's always threes and it's not like
24:11
Speaker 3: I have a weak sneeze, so it takes three. I
24:15
Speaker 3: don't know. It feels ingrained somehow.
24:18
Speaker 1: Yeah, like if you only do two, you notice, and
24:21
Speaker 1: it does it feel incomplete.
24:24
Speaker 3: It does, but that almost never happens. Occasionally I'll do
24:27
Speaker 3: a forebanger, but I don't know that I ever sneeze
24:32
Speaker 3: once or twice. It's almost always three.
24:34
Speaker 1: Yeah, And speaking of incomplete, if you actually go, if
24:38
Speaker 1: you experience the afferent phase, but the efferent phase isn't triggered,
24:43
Speaker 1: but it's enough to drive you nuts, there's things you
24:47
Speaker 1: can do. And one of those things that's recommended is
24:49
Speaker 1: to look at a bright light or look kind of
24:52
Speaker 1: don't look directly at the sun, but look toward the sun,
24:56
Speaker 1: and that should help jumpstart that efferent phase. The second
24:59
Speaker 1: part where the actual sneeze takes place.
25:02
Speaker 3: Oh okay, that makes sense.
25:04
Speaker 1: But they think what's going on is that there's a
25:06
Speaker 1: crossover between the sneeze reflex arc and the pupillary light
25:12
Speaker 1: reflex arc, which basically is one nerve becoming so stimulated
25:19
Speaker 1: that it stimulates by proxy. Yeah, the other nerve, the
25:25
Speaker 1: sneeze nerve. So you're getting so overloaded with bright light
25:28
Speaker 1: when you see that sunlight that it accidentally jumps on
25:32
Speaker 1: over to your sneeze reflex as well and makes you sneeze.
25:35
Speaker 3: It's like, are you getting all this light?
25:36
Speaker 1: Are you getting get a load of this?
25:39
Speaker 3: And I think they've landed on about between twenty three
25:43
Speaker 3: and generally of people have this photic sneeze reflex.
25:48
Speaker 1: Right, So that's I mean, that's pretty substantial. There are
25:52
Speaker 1: some other small identity groups of sneezers that are far
25:56
Speaker 1: smaller than that. Apparently there are people who there's four families,
26:03
Speaker 1: not one in four people, four families, as far as
26:07
Speaker 1: anyone knows, who have something called natiation, which is where
26:13
Speaker 1: you if they eat too much and they feel overly full,
26:16
Speaker 1: it will trigger a sneezing attack.
26:19
Speaker 3: Yeah, I would call that rare.
26:21
Speaker 1: Yeah, four families for sure, and we're just going to
26:24
Speaker 1: pass right on by right chuck.
26:27
Speaker 3: Yes, okay, that acronym getting back to the photic sneezing though,
26:31
Speaker 3: they think it also could be a holdover and an
26:35
Speaker 3: evolutionary advantage from when we were little babies. Because little
26:39
Speaker 3: babies don't have they can't blow their nose. They don't
26:42
Speaker 3: know what that even is. So the only they can't
26:46
Speaker 3: pick their nose, they can't they can't use any implement
26:50
Speaker 3: at all to clear out their nose except the sneeze.
26:53
Speaker 3: They rely on the sneeze to get that mucus out,
26:55
Speaker 3: or of course parents who will suck that stuff out
26:58
Speaker 3: through a little device yeah, which is no fun but necessary.
27:04
Speaker 1: Or you hold them on their side and you blow
27:05
Speaker 1: in their ear. It usually clears out thanenos. But I
27:09
Speaker 1: should probably just go ahead and say, yeah, don't do that.
27:12
Speaker 1: That was a joke.
27:14
Speaker 3: You can whisper sweet nothings, sure, but don't Yeah, don't
27:18
Speaker 3: do that. But babies are pretty sensitive to that photoic
27:22
Speaker 3: light reflex, and they think that may be a reason
27:25
Speaker 3: that basically we that's just sort of a holdover from
27:28
Speaker 3: when we were babies.
27:29
Speaker 1: It makes sense. It also makes sense to me that
27:31
Speaker 1: babies might have more active or kind of raw or
27:37
Speaker 1: nerve pathways, So maybe they're just more sensitive to that
27:40
Speaker 1: jump over that crossover. Maybe plucking nose hair has that
27:45
Speaker 1: ever happened to you every time? So it doesn't make
27:48
Speaker 1: me sneeze, but it makes my eyes water like I've
27:51
Speaker 1: just seen every long distance commercial from the nineties all
27:56
Speaker 1: at once.
27:57
Speaker 3: Yeah, And it's interesting because those you talked earlier about
28:00
Speaker 3: the trigeminal nerves that are all through the face. I
28:04
Speaker 3: think it's just all related. Like you pluck, you could
28:07
Speaker 3: pluck an eyebrow and it could make you sneeze and
28:10
Speaker 3: your eyes are watering, and that's part of your face. Like,
28:12
Speaker 3: it's just all sort of one big nerve bundle that's
28:17
Speaker 3: all interrelated, and it could any of those could trigger
28:19
Speaker 3: either watering of eyes or or definitely sneezing. Even if
28:23
Speaker 3: you'd like pluck a hair out of your head, that
28:25
Speaker 3: could do it.
28:26
Speaker 1: That's never happened to me. But my nose hair and
28:29
Speaker 1: my eyebrow hair, oh man, my eyes will start watering.
28:32
Speaker 1: It's not a pleasant experience, for sure.
28:34
Speaker 3: I've never plucked an eyebrow hair.
28:37
Speaker 1: Oh, every once in a while I'll get one that's
28:40
Speaker 1: a big, fat, long goat hair. It just suddenly comes
28:44
Speaker 1: up overnight.
28:45
Speaker 3: No, I've seen I've got those two.
28:47
Speaker 1: Okay, well I pluck those.
28:48
Speaker 3: I just trim those.
28:49
Speaker 1: You know, it's maybe I should trim them. That's a
28:52
Speaker 1: good idea. But have you ever noticed if you get
28:56
Speaker 1: one and there's almost invariably one on the other, like
29:00
Speaker 1: they come up in pairs. Does that happen to you?
29:03
Speaker 3: I have not noticed that. When you pull on one,
29:05
Speaker 3: does the other one get shorter? That was wonderful, that'd
29:12
Speaker 3: be great.
29:12
Speaker 1: Yeah, it's like pulling that spaghetti through your nose and
29:15
Speaker 1: out of your mouth.
29:16
Speaker 3: Don't do that either, Can you do that? No, I've
29:19
Speaker 3: never tried to do so.
29:20
Speaker 1: I've never tried either. I don't want to. There's also
29:23
Speaker 1: a group of people who sneeze when they become sexually aroused.
29:27
Speaker 3: Yeah, that's a thing apparently, or if you orgasm, like
29:31
Speaker 3: after you orgasm, it could trigger a sneezing fit.
29:33
Speaker 1: Yeah, it's apparently a bigger group than you would expect.
29:38
Speaker 1: Some researcher went around to internet chat rooms and said, hey,
29:42
Speaker 1: does anybody sneeze when they become aroused or when they
29:44
Speaker 1: have an orgasm? And she found seventeen people who sneeze
29:48
Speaker 1: from sexual ideation. And three, who sneeze from orgasm? Which
29:52
Speaker 1: is that is way more than I would expect from
29:54
Speaker 1: just going around on internet chatrooms and asking people, you know.
29:57
Speaker 3: Yeah, and also we should point out way not scientific.
30:01
Speaker 1: No, not at all, but yeah, anecdotally, it's still impressive.
30:05
Speaker 1: But I read an explanation for this. It's a terrible explanation,
30:08
Speaker 1: but it's an explanation by the Journal of the Association
30:13
Speaker 1: of Physicians of India. It's an Indian journal. Coincidentally enough.
30:19
Speaker 1: They suggest that it's because the nose contains a rectile tissue,
30:25
Speaker 1: which it does, which a rectile tissue is just tissue
30:27
Speaker 1: that can become larger and gorged by blood flow. And yes,
30:31
Speaker 1: you have a rectile tissue in your genitalia, Yes you
30:36
Speaker 1: have it in your nose, but they're not in any
30:40
Speaker 1: way related as far as anyone's ever even thought, aside
30:43
Speaker 1: from the people in this journal. And that the most
30:46
Speaker 1: bizarre thing you've ever heard.
30:47
Speaker 3: It's pretty bizarre.
30:48
Speaker 1: Like your nose is becoming aroused, is basically what they're saying.
30:53
Speaker 1: And so you sneeze, Yeah, fantastic.
30:57
Speaker 3: There's also intractable sneezing or psychogen and that is something
31:01
Speaker 3: that's almost exclusive to young women, girls, adolescents basically going
31:08
Speaker 3: through puberty. And these are girls who may not suffer
31:12
Speaker 3: from allergies, They are not sick with a cold or anything,
31:14
Speaker 3: but can go on these big sneezing binges for days
31:17
Speaker 3: and days at a time.
31:19
Speaker 1: Yes, and apparently the world, the world, oh my goodness.
31:25
Speaker 1: The world record holder is a girl named Donna Griffiths,
31:29
Speaker 1: who was twelve when she started. She started in nineteen
31:32
Speaker 1: eighty one January of nineteen eighty one, and her sneezing
31:35
Speaker 1: fit ended nine hundred and seventy seven days later in
31:39
Speaker 1: September of nineteen eighty three.
31:41
Speaker 3: I remember hearing about this one.
31:42
Speaker 1: And as it I mean as it went on, I
31:45
Speaker 1: was way too young for this. But you know, had
31:48
Speaker 1: had I been more aware, I would have felt very
31:50
Speaker 1: bad for this girl, because as it went on she
31:53
Speaker 1: could if she sneezed once in a day, it was
31:56
Speaker 1: considered part of the record. And I think that that
31:59
Speaker 1: was kind of how it was towards the end. But
32:01
Speaker 1: that first year sounds like a bear yeah, no good.
32:05
Speaker 1: A million sneezes in the first three hundred and sixty
32:08
Speaker 1: five days, which is basically a sneeze a minute on average,
32:11
Speaker 1: and Chuck ann it's impossible to sneeze in your sleep.
32:16
Speaker 1: You cannot sneeze in your sleep. If you sneeze while
32:18
Speaker 1: you're sleeping, you wake up to sneeze. Your brain just
32:22
Speaker 1: isn't functioning correctly to sneeze while you're sleeping. So that
32:25
Speaker 1: means this girl was averaging a sneeze a minute just
32:29
Speaker 1: during waking hours, but sneeze a minute over twenty four
32:32
Speaker 1: hours compressed into say ten or twelve hours that she
32:35
Speaker 1: was awake that day.
32:36
Speaker 3: Or would she wake herself up sneezing.
32:39
Speaker 1: I don't know. If that's the case, then she had
32:42
Speaker 1: a really, really rough year because she was sneezing every
32:45
Speaker 1: minute and not getting any sleep.
32:47
Speaker 3: Yeah, I mean, it's disruptive no matter what, no one.
32:50
Speaker 3: I mean, you can't hold on a job if you're
32:52
Speaker 3: sneezing every minute.
32:53
Speaker 1: Well, luckily she was twelve, and this is after child
32:55
Speaker 1: labor laws were passed. I'm hoping she did out of
32:58
Speaker 1: cigarette factory, right, she has nimble little fingers for sorting cigarette.
33:03
Speaker 3: Perfect. Should we take another break?
33:05
Speaker 1: Yeah? I think so.
33:06
Speaker 3: All right, we'll talk about these the travel and droplets
33:09
Speaker 3: right after this great band.
33:15
Speaker 1: Josh and shot shot.
33:25
Speaker 4: Well, now we're on the road, driving in your truck.
33:29
Speaker 4: I want to learn a thing or two from Josh
33:32
Speaker 4: camp Chuck.
33:33
Speaker 3: It's stuff you should know, all right, all right, so
33:42
Speaker 3: this is pretty relevant now. And I know and I
33:45
Speaker 3: think this was put together before. I feel like we've
33:48
Speaker 3: been sitting on this one. Was this before coronavirus? No?
33:51
Speaker 1: I think it was daring?
33:52
Speaker 3: Was it during? Okay?
33:53
Speaker 1: Yeah, and this is a Dave helped us out. Dave's
33:55
Speaker 1: helped us out with this one.
33:57
Speaker 3: Yeah. So uh and I think we've all seen these
33:59
Speaker 3: videos by now with everything that's going on. But in
34:02
Speaker 3: two twenty sixteen, and a researcher from MIT named Lydia,
34:08
Speaker 3: Oh boy, goodness me Barubia, Sure, Bariba.
34:15
Speaker 1: I'm going with Rubaba. There's a couple of the oh
34:21
Speaker 1: sounds in there that follow one another. It makes it
34:23
Speaker 1: very difficult.
34:24
Speaker 3: Yeah, whenever you pack three vowels in a row, it's
34:26
Speaker 3: always sort of a dealer's choice. So she published some
34:32
Speaker 3: slow mo two thousand frame per second film images of
34:37
Speaker 3: people sneezing and what that look like. That's where we
34:41
Speaker 3: get and other people have done this too, and measured
34:44
Speaker 3: the sneeze but that's one place where we get the one
34:46
Speaker 3: hundred miles per hour.
34:47
Speaker 1: Stat oh from that study.
34:49
Speaker 3: Yeah, and other places. I mean, that's pretty common knowledge now.
34:52
Speaker 3: But up to twenty five thirty feet you can blow
34:56
Speaker 3: a sneeze. It can stay suspended in the air for
34:59
Speaker 3: a few minutes. And they likened it too if you
35:01
Speaker 3: would take a bucket of paint and just throw the
35:04
Speaker 3: paint out out of the can into the airy sort
35:08
Speaker 3: of as how a sneeze works. It's just they call
35:11
Speaker 3: it sheets of fluids, and you know, you got these big,
35:15
Speaker 3: big hunks of mucus and saliva that just sort of
35:18
Speaker 3: come out together and then break apart little by little
35:21
Speaker 3: until you get to the fine mist that sort of
35:24
Speaker 3: can hang in the air.
35:25
Speaker 1: Yeah, it starts as a clump and then turns into
35:27
Speaker 1: ropey filaments and then into increasingly smaller particles, and those
35:31
Speaker 1: really small particles that aerosolize stuff.
35:33
Speaker 3: That's the scary stuff.
35:34
Speaker 1: I saw a Bristol study that said, and this wasn't
35:37
Speaker 1: necessarily coronavirus, but that contagious germs can stay in the air,
35:41
Speaker 1: suspended in the air for weeks. Possibly that would have
35:45
Speaker 1: to be a very hearty contagious virus or bacteria.
35:48
Speaker 3: Yeah, with like an air flow, right, Yeah.
35:51
Speaker 1: To just sit there. But the twenty seven feet which
35:56
Speaker 1: is kind of common knowledge these days, in the air
35:59
Speaker 1: of coronavirus, your sneeze can project those particles up to
36:03
Speaker 1: like twenty seven feet. There's little pockets of gas and
36:07
Speaker 1: turbulence that are in a room, even a room that
36:11
Speaker 1: seems still but certainly one that has like the ac
36:14
Speaker 1: on or air flowing through it, and those little particles
36:17
Speaker 1: can hitch rides on those pockets and travel I saw
36:21
Speaker 1: two hundred times further than you expel them with just
36:25
Speaker 1: your sneeze. Yeah, so you know what prevents that, covering
36:29
Speaker 1: yourself your mouth and your nose when you sneeze, and
36:32
Speaker 1: or wearing a mask.
36:34
Speaker 3: Yeah, I mean they teach I mean, this has nothing
36:39
Speaker 3: to do with coronavirus, but it's especially important. But they
36:42
Speaker 3: teach little kids from the moment they can even understand
36:44
Speaker 3: things in preschool to always sneeze into your elbow and
36:48
Speaker 3: cough into your elbow because that's something that kids can
36:51
Speaker 3: you know, you can't always get to a tissue, right,
36:54
Speaker 3: which is what they say is sort of the best
36:56
Speaker 3: thing to do. But that elbow is pretty good, good system.
37:00
Speaker 1: I think it's really cute to see a little kid
37:03
Speaker 1: do that too.
37:03
Speaker 3: Yeah, because they're doing the right thing. It's it's uh,
37:07
Speaker 3: it is adorable, I agree.
37:08
Speaker 1: Yeah, but yeah. The the ideal is to to sneeze
37:12
Speaker 1: into a tissue, throw your tissue away, and wash your
37:16
Speaker 1: hands thoroughly. That's what you're supposed to do after you
37:18
Speaker 1: sneeze every time, every single time.
37:21
Speaker 3: Every single time. And I don't sneeze a lot. Emily
37:23
Speaker 3: sneezes a lot. Oh yeah, yeah, because she's got the allergies.
37:27
Speaker 1: Oh yeah, so she's.
37:29
Speaker 3: Got a lifelong, persistent tickle in her nose. It's terrible.
37:34
Speaker 1: Does she have what's it called that kind of sneezing
37:37
Speaker 1: where it's a psychogenic, intractable sneezing.
37:41
Speaker 3: Well, no, because she's not. She's not thirteen.
37:46
Speaker 1: Man.
37:46
Speaker 3: No, it's just allergy related. But lots of sneezing. Uh.
37:50
Speaker 3: When it's when it's really bad, it's it's it's pretty
37:53
Speaker 3: tough to be around, not to not tough for me,
37:55
Speaker 3: but you.
37:55
Speaker 1: Know, right right, yeah, it's really stop. So I did
38:02
Speaker 1: look up to find out where we stood as far
38:05
Speaker 1: as knowledge on sneezing and contagion outdoors goes and from
38:11
Speaker 1: what I can tell, there was some study that was
38:13
Speaker 1: done by some engineers that sprayed an aerosol can running
38:17
Speaker 1: walking and then on a bike, and the results showed
38:20
Speaker 1: that this stuff spreads really far and wide, but they
38:23
Speaker 1: didn't take into account a lot of different things, a
38:26
Speaker 1: lot of different factors, so that if you are outdoors,
38:30
Speaker 1: as long as somebody doesn't sneeze at you basically in
38:33
Speaker 1: your face or in your direction within you know, twenty
38:37
Speaker 1: or thirty feet directly towards you, you're probably not going
38:41
Speaker 1: to catch enough of a viral load of something like
38:45
Speaker 1: coronavirus to become sick from it, especially if you're not
38:49
Speaker 1: in a crowded group. If you're just walking outside and
38:51
Speaker 1: somebody else is walking, you know, fifteen feet ahead of
38:54
Speaker 1: you and they're just breathing, and they're on the other
38:56
Speaker 1: side of the street, you're probably going to be fine,
38:59
Speaker 1: just because that's stuff. It's gonna dissipate so much because
39:02
Speaker 1: of all the factors, the environmental factors that exist outdoors
39:06
Speaker 1: rather as opposed to indoors. Indoors is a totally different ballgame. Outdoors,
39:10
Speaker 1: you're much safer.
39:12
Speaker 3: Yeah, I mean I haven't. I haven't been around a
39:15
Speaker 3: human that sneezed aside from my wife in you know,
39:19
Speaker 3: four or five months. Great, like I would, even when
39:21
Speaker 3: I've gone to the store and like I'm on the
39:24
Speaker 3: lookout for that stuff. Oh yeah, and like I think
39:27
Speaker 3: we all are. But I haven't even been in a store,
39:30
Speaker 3: like on an aisle where someone's like sneezed, because I
39:32
Speaker 3: would and probably unreasonably, you know, freak out a little bit.
39:38
Speaker 1: Sure, I think you're allowed to yell at that.
39:40
Speaker 3: Person, but I haven't even seen anyone been around anyone
39:43
Speaker 3: that sneezed. Yeah, so that's been a comfort.
39:47
Speaker 1: Yeah. You me went to the store and came back
39:49
Speaker 1: and said, somebody sneezed twice, and the whole store just
39:52
Speaker 1: started looking around like where they come from.
39:53
Speaker 3: Oh yeah, it's weird. Huh.
39:55
Speaker 1: Yeah. Yeah, there's basically like a stampede or something to
39:58
Speaker 1: get away from that thing. It's it's a weird, weird
40:01
Speaker 1: time to be alive. We're all going to be very
40:03
Speaker 1: very weird even after things go back to normal. I think, yeah,
40:07
Speaker 1: you know.
40:07
Speaker 3: It's gonna I know I will be.
40:09
Speaker 1: Yeah.
40:10
Speaker 3: So should we talk a little bit about culture and
40:14
Speaker 3: you know, sort of what people say all around the world.
40:17
Speaker 3: I know here in America it's sort of customed to
40:20
Speaker 3: say God bless you or bless you and that. You know,
40:23
Speaker 3: there's some different explanations, but one of them that seems
40:27
Speaker 3: to hold water I think dates back to the Middle
40:29
Speaker 3: Ages with the Black Plague, when Pope Gregory seven basically said, hey, everyone,
40:35
Speaker 3: you know things are pretty bad. We should just we
40:38
Speaker 3: should say God bless you if someone is sneezing because
40:42
Speaker 3: they might be dying.
40:44
Speaker 1: Yeah, which is a from what I saw, a big
40:46
Speaker 1: departure from earlier Christian teachings, which taught people to just
40:51
Speaker 1: totally ignore sneezes or say God is dead, which I write,
40:56
Speaker 1: which I find very weird, like why would you teach
40:58
Speaker 1: people to ignore sneeze I didn't get that. But I
41:01
Speaker 1: found this really awesome article called Romance and Tragedy of
41:05
Speaker 1: Sneezing by doctor Wilson D. Wallace in Scientific Monthly from
41:10
Speaker 1: nineteen nineteen, and he cited that that earlier Christians were
41:14
Speaker 1: like just ignored, just pretend it didn't happen.
41:16
Speaker 3: Yeah, I'm a I'm a bless you guy. I don't
41:21
Speaker 3: do the gazoon tite or salute which is Spanish to
41:25
Speaker 3: your health, that kind of thing.
41:27
Speaker 1: Yeah, it's also a toast.
41:29
Speaker 3: Yeah I say that. I don't say that ever. Really.
41:32
Speaker 3: Sometimes I'll say it when I toast, but it's been
41:35
Speaker 3: I don't know. I don't remember what I do to
41:36
Speaker 3: it with anyone anymore. You know, I forgot to deal
41:41
Speaker 3: with people.
41:42
Speaker 1: I always will raise my glass and say it's time
41:44
Speaker 1: to get toe up from the flow up.
41:46
Speaker 3: I say, made Jupiter bless you.
41:49
Speaker 1: Right. I saw another one from the Greeks. Two. I
41:51
Speaker 1: love that one. Live zeus, preserve you.
41:56
Speaker 3: I think you and I should bring back both of those. Okay,
42:00
Speaker 3: that's fantastic.
42:01
Speaker 1: Can't you imagine everyone in Greece just like being like,
42:03
Speaker 1: don't sneeze, don't sneeze. Just everyone's all twitchy and shaky
42:06
Speaker 1: from people yelling that at them.
42:08
Speaker 3: Yeah. I mean it's weird too because it's a it's
42:11
Speaker 3: a very kind thing to do to a stranger. It's uh,
42:14
Speaker 3: this one, I guess Dave just says an academic. But
42:18
Speaker 3: they called it a micro affection, which is nice. You know.
42:21
Speaker 3: It's just a little quick, nice thing to say to
42:24
Speaker 3: a stranger. If and I'll always do it. We've we've
42:27
Speaker 3: done it during our live shows. When someone sneezes, it's
42:30
Speaker 3: and not to be funny, it gets a laugh, but
42:32
Speaker 3: it's just sort of a it's almost like an involuntary
42:35
Speaker 3: micro affection, I think for most you know, non monsters
42:40
Speaker 3: for sure.
42:40
Speaker 1: Yeah, where people just kind of have a brief connection,
42:43
Speaker 1: right yeah, and unless you know, they don't know each other.
42:45
Speaker 1: But now it's like human being. You're a human being.
42:47
Speaker 1: What is it now?
42:48
Speaker 3: Well, just bless you and get pleased, get very far
42:51
Speaker 3: away from me again.
42:53
Speaker 1: Bless you over there. So there's also a very common
42:57
Speaker 1: understanding that people thought that a demon was trying to
43:01
Speaker 1: get in or your soul was trying to get out.
43:04
Speaker 1: And I kept seeing like other cultures or old ancient
43:07
Speaker 1: cultures that kind of thing. The closest one I could
43:09
Speaker 1: find that seemed like that was in Persia. Zoro Asters
43:14
Speaker 1: believed that your body was fighting off a fiend that
43:18
Speaker 1: had invaded, like an invading demon or spirit, and that
43:21
Speaker 1: a sneeze was basically your body signaling that it had
43:24
Speaker 1: been victorious in fighting this fiend and getting this fiend out,
43:28
Speaker 1: and that deserved a prayer, and that if you overheard
43:32
Speaker 1: somebody sneeze, you would say the same prayer with them.
43:34
Speaker 1: I couldn't find what prayer though.
43:36
Speaker 3: Yeah, it seems to be a good luck thing, and
43:38
Speaker 3: a lot of cultures throughout the years, according to the Talmud,
43:42
Speaker 3: it's a good omen if you sneeze when you're praying.
43:45
Speaker 3: In China and Japan, if you sneeze, it means someone's
43:49
Speaker 3: sort of like your ears are burning, someone's talking about you. Yeah,
43:52
Speaker 3: and one sneeze means they're saying nice things. Two means
43:56
Speaker 3: their spreading gossip. I don't know what they would think
43:59
Speaker 3: about me with my three. Three means you die?
44:03
Speaker 1: Right? What would three mean?
44:06
Speaker 3: I don't know. I mean, because there's only two ways
44:08
Speaker 3: people can talk about you.
44:09
Speaker 1: Right exactly. They might be saying something like Chuck has
44:12
Speaker 1: a beard. Okay, you know, it's as neutral as it gets, exactly.
44:19
Speaker 1: So there's there's folklore, and then there's what we think
44:24
Speaker 1: as true, which is a kind of folklore, but it's
44:26
Speaker 1: actually it's just folklore too. Urban legends is what we
44:30
Speaker 1: call them. R old wives tales. And we talked about
44:32
Speaker 1: one where that your your eyes will pop out of
44:35
Speaker 1: your head if you sneeze with your eyes open. We
44:37
Speaker 1: debunk that one pretty clearly. I think, don't.
44:39
Speaker 3: You can't do it.
44:41
Speaker 1: And then there's some other ones too. There's one that
44:45
Speaker 1: you me told me about that I had no idea
44:47
Speaker 1: until she said this. But apparently some people believe that
44:51
Speaker 1: you basically die for a second while you're sneezing, like
44:55
Speaker 1: your body just shuts down, including your heart, and that
44:57
Speaker 1: you're technically dead for that half second while the sneeze
45:01
Speaker 1: is going on.
45:01
Speaker 3: I've heard stops it.
45:03
Speaker 1: I had never heard that before until a couple days ago,
45:07
Speaker 1: and yeah, I looked it up and it's a thing.
45:09
Speaker 1: But no, it's that's not at all true. Like your
45:12
Speaker 1: heart rhythm might actually change and the volume of blood
45:16
Speaker 1: and your heart might decrease or increase because of the
45:19
Speaker 1: pressure of the air in your chest or the release
45:22
Speaker 1: of pressure, but the electrical activity remains the same, and
45:25
Speaker 1: that's the key to whether your heart's you know, alive
45:28
Speaker 1: or not.
45:28
Speaker 3: Yeah, yeah, your heart does not stop. No, that's like playground.
45:32
Speaker 1: Stuff, it is. I thought it was very cute. Yeah,
45:35
Speaker 1: what about sneezing after sex preventing pregnancy? Did you see
45:38
Speaker 1: this one?
45:40
Speaker 3: Well, I mean, what are you sneezing out of?
45:43
Speaker 1: Right? So I mean that like that's the idea that
45:45
Speaker 1: if you sneeze, you're expelling well there's really no other
45:49
Speaker 1: way to put its seeman, and that that would keep
45:51
Speaker 1: you from getting pregnant. Wow, it seems a little rediict. Yeah,
45:58
Speaker 1: that's another playground thing, I guess. So what playground have
46:02
Speaker 1: you been hanging out to me?
46:03
Speaker 3: Pretty advanced playground activity.
46:07
Speaker 1: You got anything else? Oh, I've got one more thing, chuck,
46:09
Speaker 1: you got anything else?
46:10
Speaker 3: I got nothing else.
46:11
Speaker 1: In twenty sixteen or eighteen, a man in Lester in
46:14
Speaker 1: the UK ruptured his throat from trying to stifle a sneeze.
46:18
Speaker 1: The pressure was so great it broke open his throat.
46:22
Speaker 3: Wow.
46:23
Speaker 1: Yeah, internally he didn't break through the skin, but his
46:25
Speaker 1: intern his throat internally was rupturing.
46:28
Speaker 3: Because that's what I pictured right, like a throat explosion.
46:31
Speaker 1: It just blew his head completely off, like that guy
46:33
Speaker 1: in Scanners. Well, I guess that's it for sneezing everybody.
46:38
Speaker 1: I hope you enjoyed it. Thanks again to Wes for
46:40
Speaker 1: the idea. And since I said that, it's time for
46:43
Speaker 1: listener mail.
46:46
Speaker 3: We call this Atlanta, Texas. Hey, guys, name's Ben Lee,
46:50
Speaker 3: local Atlanta, Georgia, and my wife and are a huge
46:53
Speaker 3: longtime fans. In your recent episode on Pirate Radio, y'all
46:56
Speaker 3: briefly brought up Radio Atlanta, which was named after Atlanta, Texas,
47:02
Speaker 3: and you joke that no one knew that town exists,
47:04
Speaker 3: even the people that live there. And that's pretty much true.
47:07
Speaker 3: My family is originally from Atlanta, Texas. It's pretty small,
47:10
Speaker 3: just about five thousand residents, so it's totally understandable. I
47:14
Speaker 3: was born in Texasarcana, Texas, not too far from there,
47:17
Speaker 3: which is basically famous for being in the Smoking in
47:20
Speaker 3: the Bandit movie.
47:21
Speaker 1: I thought that was the town that dreaded sundown too,
47:24
Speaker 1: wasn't it.
47:26
Speaker 3: I don't know about that. I definitely remember from Smoking
47:28
Speaker 3: the Bandit, okay, because they were driving that beer from
47:30
Speaker 3: Texarcana to Atlanta. Oh and Benjamin here says, I don't
47:34
Speaker 3: know why they didn't do Atlanta to Atlanta. Wasted opportunity,
47:38
Speaker 3: it really is.
47:39
Speaker 1: It sounds like Benjamin moved from Atlanta to Atlanta, though,
47:42
Speaker 1: huh maybe kind of.
47:45
Speaker 3: I mean he's in Atlanta, right. He teaches at Georgia State.
47:49
Speaker 1: That's pretty awesome. Hey, hats off to you for teaching
47:52
Speaker 1: these days, Benjamin.
47:53
Speaker 3: Yeah, he says, there's a lot of towns in Texas
47:54
Speaker 3: though name that are also Georgian names. There's in Athens, Texas,
47:58
Speaker 3: at Douglasville, a Columbus, Dallas, Georgia, and Texas. And he
48:03
Speaker 3: said there's even a Georgia, Texas.
48:06
Speaker 1: Well, that's just confusing.
48:08
Speaker 3: And he said, thanks for all the great stuff, and
48:10
Speaker 3: that is from Benjamin boden Lee.
48:13
Speaker 1: Thanks a lot, Benjamin boden Lee. That was a great email.
48:15
Speaker 1: We appreciate it. Any email references Smoking the Bandit, we're
48:19
Speaker 1: all right with yep. Well, if you want to email
48:22
Speaker 1: us about Smoking the Bandit or anything else we'd love
48:24
Speaker 1: to hear from you, you can send it to Stuff
48:27
Speaker 1: Podcasts at iHeartRadio dot com.
48:33
Speaker 2: Stuff you Should Know is a production of Iheartradios. How
48:36
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