Thinking about sex can make you sneeze
Dec 31, 2008
<b>Grain of science</b><br>Sneezing may give a lot more away than the fact that you have a cold - it could mean you are having lurid thoughts about sex. Researchers have found evidence that in certain people, sneezing can be triggered by sexual fantasy.
Grain of science
Sneezing may give a lot more away than the fact that you have a cold - it could mean you are having lurid thoughts about sex. Researchers have found evidence that in certain people, sneezing can be triggered by sexual fantasy.
Dr Mahmood Bhutta, an ear, nose and throat specialist at the John Radcliffe Hospital in Oxford, launched the study after seeing a patient who suffered "uncontrollable" sneezing fits every time he had a sexual thought.
"We thought this unusual and performed a literature search of the topic," he wrote in the Journal of the Royal Society of Medicine.
Together with a colleague Dr Harold Maxwell, a retired consultant psychiatrist, Bhutta launched a study and found that 17 people of both sexes reported sneezing immediately they thought about sex, and three had the same experience after orgasm.
"Our findings do suggest that it is much more common than recognised," wrote Bhutta and Maxwell. “I think this reflex demonstrates evolutionary relics in the wiring of a part of the nervous system called the autonomic nervous system...the part beyond our control.â€
Sneezing usually occurs in response to nasal irritation, triggering a reflex that expels air at speeds of around 150 kilometres an hour.
The news could lead to raised eyebrows on the taxi next time a passenger sneezes after looking at you.
Sneezing may give a lot more away than the fact that you have a cold - it could mean you are having lurid thoughts about sex. Researchers have found evidence that in certain people, sneezing can be triggered by sexual fantasy.
Dr Mahmood Bhutta, an ear, nose and throat specialist at the John Radcliffe Hospital in Oxford, launched the study after seeing a patient who suffered "uncontrollable" sneezing fits every time he had a sexual thought.
"We thought this unusual and performed a literature search of the topic," he wrote in the Journal of the Royal Society of Medicine.
Together with a colleague Dr Harold Maxwell, a retired consultant psychiatrist, Bhutta launched a study and found that 17 people of both sexes reported sneezing immediately they thought about sex, and three had the same experience after orgasm.
"Our findings do suggest that it is much more common than recognised," wrote Bhutta and Maxwell. “I think this reflex demonstrates evolutionary relics in the wiring of a part of the nervous system called the autonomic nervous system...the part beyond our control.â€
Sneezing usually occurs in response to nasal irritation, triggering a reflex that expels air at speeds of around 150 kilometres an hour.
The news could lead to raised eyebrows on the taxi next time a passenger sneezes after looking at you.