Men's Health

Medical Mysteries, She Wrote

Eye-Popping Information

Let's get one thing straight: "It is very unlikely our eyes will extrude or 'pop out' if we sneeze too forcefully," says Brian Smart, MD, chairman of the Asthma and Allergy Center of the DuPage Medical Group in Illinois.

Well, if the reason we close our eyes when we sneeze isn't to keep them from popping out of our heads, then why bother?

"Similar to the reflex that occurs when your knee kicks after it's hit with a medical hammer, or the way your hand pulls away from something hot when you burn it, closing your eyes when you sneeze is a powerful reflex," says Smart, who is also a spokesman for the American Academy of Allergy, Asthma and Immunology. "You can try and force yourself to keep your eyes open when you sneeze, but it's hard to do."

Another piece of folklore: We sneeze with our eyes closed to keep the stuff we sneeze out from getting in our eyes. Survey says?

"It is also unlikely that the substances we sneeze will get into our eyes, since the substances we sneeze travel some distance," says Smart. "Incidentally, the fact that we sneeze a considerable distance leads me to remind people to always cover their mouths when they sneeze. This will help slow the spread of respiratory disease, and is simply good manners."

Don't forget to say gesundheit.

Reading This Will Make You Yawn

Sometimes, even thinking about yawning will make you yawn. And when the person next to you does it, forget about it -- you'll yawn, too. With all this talk about yawning, in fact, you've probably already yawned.

"A yawn is an instinctive behavior: You don't have to learn to do it, and yawns are even present before birth," says Robert Provine, a professor of psychology and neuroscience at the University of Maryland, Baltimore County.

Is the myth that yawns are actually contagious true?

"When one person in a group yawns, over half of the people in the group will yawn within five minutes, and the rest will at least be tempted to yawn," says Provine, who has been researching yawning for more than 20 years. "What is surprising is that virtually anything having to do with yawning triggers a contagious reaction."

Provine explains that while yawning is highly contagious, so are other human behaviors, like laughter, and this reaction is actually very normal -- and ancient.

"When you see someone else yawn, you don't think to yourself, 'Well, I'll yawn, too," says Provine. "It just happens -- it's instinctive, and it's a very primal aspect of human behavior that goes back to ancient herd mentality."

Mysteries, Solved

Now that you know why yawns are contagious and why your funny bone should actually be called a painful nerve, here are other medical mysteries, unraveled: