Is It Unhealthy to Stop a Sneeze?

You can feel it coming on. An explosive sneeze is building up inside you as you sit in a quiet room full of people. You don’t want to break the silence, so you reach up and clasp your hand over your nose to hold it shut. The sneeze is silenced and no one turns to look at you. Did you do the right thing? Is it healthy to stop a sneeze?

Before addressing the issue of holding a sneeze, it’s important to understand why you sneeze in the first place. Sneezing occurs in response to an irritant in the nasal passages. When the nasal passages are irritated, it signals the brain to respond by coordinating the muscles to respond with a forceful expulsion of air to remove the irritant. The irritant that initiates the sneeze can be a variety of things from allergens, dust, mold, or chemical irritants. Of course you also sneeze when you have a cold or a viral infection. As tiny as they are, viruses can cause a great deal of nasal swelling and irritation that can trigger sneezing.

What about holding a sneeze? When you stop a sneeze, are you doing damage? Although suppressing a sneeze is unlikely to cause a stroke or a brain aneurysm, as some people believe, a sneeze is triggered for a specific purpose which is to remove an irritant from the nasal passages. When you suppress it, you remove the opportunity to eliminate the irritating substance which is not a good idea. Chances are the urge to sneeze will continue to plaque you if you don’t allow it to occur when the opportunity exists.

The other problem with trying to stop a sneeze by closing your nose and mouth is that you’re putting back pressure on your eustachian tubes, the tubes that equalize pressure between your ear and throat. There’s some thought that when you stop a sneeze by holding your nose, particularly a forceful one, that you could rupture an eardrum as well as increase your risk of developing an ear infection later on.

Obviously, it’s best for your own health that you resist the urge to stop a sneeze. Unfortunately, releasing a powerful sneeze when you have a cold isn’t healthy for those around you. A good sneeze releases thousands of airborne droplets, transmitting the virus to innocent bystanders. The best solution? Always carry a packet of tissues with you. When the urge to sneeze strikes, drape a tissue around your nose and release the sneeze with both your nose and mouth open. You’ll feel much better.