As the weather gets warmer and the temperature rises, spring is still chilly and the warm weather is often unstable. At this time, we must be on high alert to prevent colds. When people have a cold, they are prone to sneezing, and the usual first reaction is to tightly cover their mouth with their hand. However, this practice is very harmful to health.
Sneezing is an unconscious "reflex" that occurs when trying to expel foreign objects entering the nasal cavity. After the foreign object enters the nasal cavity, the trigeminal nerve located on the nasal mucosa sends instructions to the respiratory muscles that act on the lungs, forcefully expelling air to remove the foreign object. It is a defensive reflex action caused by stimulation of the nasal mucosa. However, in traditional folk customs, it was regarded as a sign of abnormal behavior or the development trend of certain things, and the various explanations for this are like falling into a cloud of confusion. But this is just a misinterpretation by people.
There is a small organ called the "eustachian tube" between the pharynx and the middle ear in humans, which maintains the pressure balance between the middle ear and the outside world. When people have a cold, the upper respiratory tract is filled with various pathogenic bacteria that remain in the nasal cavity. If you cover your mouth tightly when sneezing at this time, the pressure in the pharynx will increase, and bacteria are more likely to enter the middle ear through the eustachian tube, causing inflammation of the eustachian tube or suppurative otitis media and other diseases, thereby affecting hearing and also affecting the discharge of bacteria in the nasal cavity.
In addition, when people sneeze and use their hands to block the droplets, the bacteria will be transmitted to their hands. If they touch doorknobs, tables, chairs, and other objects with their hands, they will spread the bacteria to another place, spreading more sources of infection and harming health. Moreover, these bacteria can survive on the surfaces of these objects for at least 5 hours after leaving the human body.
Editor's reminder:
When sneezing, it is best to cover your mouth and nose with your elbow, which can effectively block the spread of bacteria. Do not hold back a sneeze. However, if the sneezer has a contagious disease, some measures should be taken when sneezing, because the sneeze droplets can carry a large number of bacteria or viruses. Medically speaking, the harmful distance of a sneeze is 1.5 meters, so do not sneeze at people.
