Mature woman sitting at her desk and sneezing

Do you know where a sneeze actually starts?

Jessica Peterson/Getty Images

Quiz: Check Your Sneeze Expertise

Is it safe to hold a sneeze? Know the origins of Gesundheit? Test your knowledge.

Kim Hayes,

AARP

En español

Published January 19, 2018

10 Questions

732e8119-becb-49e8-982c-52f00a39f258

Quiz: Check Your Sneeze Expertise

[ {
  "question" : "You're sitting in an important meeting or a quiet event and feel a loud sneeze building up. Is it safe to try to hold it in, or should you just let it rip?",
  "answers" : [ {
    "answer" : "Yes, pinch your nose to stop the sneeze.",
    "correctAnswer" : false
  }, {
    "answer" : "Yes, keep your mouth closed to stifle the noise. ",
    "correctAnswer" : false
  }, {
    "answer" : "No, let it rip or possibly face consequences worse than embarrassment.",
    "correctAnswer" : true
  } ],
  "multiSelect" : false,
  "explanation" : "Better to let it rip. A recent case study in \"BMJ Case Reports\" explored the unusual case of a man who ruptured the back of his throat while trying to suppress a sneeze by pinching his nose and closing his mouth. Air bubbles had seeped into his chest, and he spent a week in the hospital, needing a breathing tube and antibiotics.",
  "hint" : "",
  "hintLink" : "",
  "questionImgCaption" : "",
  "questionImgCredit" : ""
}, {
  "question" : "True or false? Sneezes would break the speed limit in most states.",
  "answers" : [ {
    "answer" : "True",
    "correctAnswer" : true
  }, {
    "answer" : "False",
    "correctAnswer" : false
  } ],
  "multiSelect" : false,
  "explanation" : "The speed of a sneeze is approximately 100 miles per hour, and a single sneeze could send 100,000 germs into the air. (So for everyone's sake, please use a tissue or your inner elbow as cover!)",
  "hint" : "",
  "hintLink" : "",
  "questionImgCaption" : "",
  "questionImgCredit" : ""
}, {
  "question" : "Where do sneezes start?",
  "answers" : [ {
    "answer" : "Your nerves.",
    "correctAnswer" : true
  }, {
    "answer" : "Your stomach.",
    "correctAnswer" : false
  }, {
    "answer" : "Your mouth.",
    "correctAnswer" : false
  } ],
  "multiSelect" : false,
  "explanation" : "\"Sneezes start in your nerves,\" Neil Kao, M.D., an allergy and asthma specialist at the Allergic Disease and Asthma Center in Greenville, S.C., tells WebMD. Signals traveling along nerves can take slightly different paths to and from the brain, resulting in different sneeze scenarios for each individual. \"It's a nerve transmission that tells your brain something is in your nose that needs to come out,\" Kao says.",
  "hint" : "",
  "hintLink" : "",
  "questionImgCaption" : "",
  "questionImgCredit" : ""
}, {
  "question" : "What is the purpose of a sneeze?",
  "answers" : [ {
    "answer" : "To relieve pressure on your brain",
    "correctAnswer" : false
  }, {
    "answer" : "To give your nose a reboot",
    "correctAnswer" : true
  }, {
    "answer" : "To annoy your coworkers",
    "correctAnswer" : false
  } ],
  "multiSelect" : false,
  "explanation" : "A 2012 study found that our noses require a biological “reboot” when overwhelmed, which is triggered by the pressure force of a sneeze. It expels “bad” particles that have been breathed through the nose and resets the environment within the passages.",
  "hint" : "",
  "hintLink" : "",
  "questionImgCaption" : "",
  "questionImgCredit" : ""
}, {
  "question" : "True or false? Your heart stops when you sneeze.",
  "answers" : [ {
    "answer" : "True",
    "correctAnswer" : false
  }, {
    "answer" : "False",
    "correctAnswer" : true
  } ],
  "multiSelect" : false,
  "explanation" : "This is a common myth, but it isn't accurate according to the New York Times. Your heart rate may slow a little bit, but the impact on your heart is minimal. In extremely rare cases, sneezing can slow the heart rate or lower blood pressure enough to cause a person to pass out. Congenital heart abnormalities and medications that affect the heart rate can also cause extreme reactions to a sneeze.",
  "hint" : "",
  "hintLink" : "",
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}, {
  "question" : "What unusual suspect can cause a sneeze?",
  "answers" : [ {
    "answer" : "Moonlight",
    "correctAnswer" : false
  }, {
    "answer" : "Sunlight",
    "correctAnswer" : true
  }, {
    "answer" : "Candlelight",
    "correctAnswer" : false
  } ],
  "multiSelect" : false,
  "explanation" : "About 1 in 4 people sneeze with sudden exposure to bright light, usually sunlight. This reaction is called a photic sneeze reflex, Live Science reported. Scientists think that the message the brain receives to shrink the pupils in the presence of bright light may cross paths with the message the brain receives to sneeze.",
  "hint" : "",
  "hintLink" : "",
  "questionImgCaption" : "",
  "questionImgCredit" : ""
}, {
  "question" : "What is the scientific term for sneezing?",
  "answers" : [ {
    "answer" : "Sternutation",
    "correctAnswer" : true
  }, {
    "answer" : "Atopy",
    "correctAnswer" : false
  }, {
    "answer" : "Snuffleupagus",
    "correctAnswer" : false
  } ],
  "multiSelect" : false,
  "explanation" : "The act or noise of sneezing, according to the Merriam-Webster Dictionary.",
  "hint" : "",
  "hintLink" : "",
  "questionImgCaption" : "",
  "questionImgCredit" : ""
}, {
  "question" : "What is the longest sneezing spree on record?",
  "answers" : [ {
    "answer" : "152 days",
    "correctAnswer" : false
  }, {
    "answer" : "574 days",
    "correctAnswer" : false
  }, {
    "answer" : "976 days",
    "correctAnswer" : true
  } ],
  "multiSelect" : false,
  "explanation" : "This unfortunate record was set by Donna Griffiths of the United Kingdom, according to the Guinness Book of World Records. She started on Jan. 13, 1981, and sneezed an estimated million times in the first 365 days. That's a lot of \"gesundheits.\"",
  "hint" : "",
  "hintLink" : "",
  "questionImgCaption" : "",
  "questionImgCredit" : ""
}, {
  "question" : "What does \"gesundheit\" mean?",
  "answers" : [ {
    "answer" : "\"Bless you\"",
    "correctAnswer" : false
  }, {
    "answer" : "\"Health\" or \"To your health\"",
    "correctAnswer" : true
  }, {
    "answer" : "\"Stop spreading your germs on me\"",
    "correctAnswer" : false
  } ],
  "multiSelect" : false,
  "explanation" : "English speakers hearing that familiar \"achoo\" typically respond with either \"gesundheit\" or \"bless you.\" \"Gesundheit\" stems from the German language, where it literally means \"health\" and was formed by a combination of gesund (\"healthy\") and -heit (\"-hood\"), according to the Merriam-Webster Dictionary. This was seen as a way to forestall the illness that a sneeze can be a warning sign of. \"Bless you\" has a similar purpose, although with a more divine bent.",
  "hint" : "",
  "hintLink" : "",
  "questionImgCaption" : "",
  "questionImgCredit" : ""
}, {
  "question" : "True or false? Plucking your eyebrows may cause a sneeze.",
  "answers" : [ {
    "answer" : "True",
    "correctAnswer" : true
  }, {
    "answer" : "False",
    "correctAnswer" : false
  } ],
  "multiSelect" : false,
  "explanation" : "Strange but true. Nerve endings in the face can become irritated during eyebrow plucking, and then they fire an impulse that reaches the nasal nerve. \"The eyebrows and the nose are both innervated by the same branch of the trigeminal nerve, which can be stimulated by tweezing the eyebrows,\" Apple Bodemer, M.D., an assistant professor of dermatology at the University of Wisconsin, tells NPR. But there is a fix. \"Putting pressure on the eyebrow while plucking can short-circuit the response and block the sneeze,\" Bodemer says.",
  "hint" : "",
  "hintLink" : "",
  "questionImgCaption" : "",
  "questionImgCredit" : ""
} ]

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Kim Hayes is a senior producer for AARP and has written on social justice issues for numerous organizations, including the National Organization for Women, the Robert Wood Johnson Foundation and the Lawyers’ Committee for Civil Rights Under Law. She served as editor of the Native American Report newsletter.