🚀 go-pugleaf

In article <7756@alice.UUCP> mat@alice.UUCP writes:
>	   I. Sneezes from pollen or dust come in threes.
>	   II. Sneezes from illness come in fours.

For myself, sneezes caused by sudden exposure to sunlight always come in twos.
That is the only kind of sneeze I regularly experience. I do have occasional
isolated single sneezed with no apparent cause. I never sneeze more than twice
consecutively. 
-- 
|-|-----|-|-----|-|
| |David S Cogen| |
|-|-----|-|-----|-|

In article <939@xn.LL.MIT.EDU> cogen@XN.LL.MIT.EDU (David Cogen) writes:
>For myself, sneezes caused by sudden exposure to sunlight always come in twos.

Not commenting on how my sneezes come when they do, I would be interested to
hear any suggestions why sudden exposure makes you sneeze in the first place.
Not having adequate education in physiology I can't think of any reasons for
this. Any suggestions ?

In article <11360@santra.UUCP> s30986u@kaira.UUCP (Martin Olav Helin) writes:
}In article <939@xn.LL.MIT.EDU> cogen@XN.LL.MIT.EDU (David Cogen) writes:
}}For myself, sneezes caused by sudden exposure to sunlight always come in twos.
}
}Not commenting on how my sneezes come when they do, I would be interested to
}hear any suggestions why sudden exposure makes you sneeze in the first place.

I was told it's genetic.

In article <2549@ihuxv.ATT.COM> tedk@ihuxv.ATT.COM (Kekatos)
substitutes `|' for `>' in too many places (note message id below) :-)
and comments:

>In article <11360@santra.UUCP| s30986u@kaira.UUCP (Martin Olav Helin) writes:
>|... I would be interested to hear any suggestions why sudden exposure
>|[to sunlight] makes you sneeze in the first place.

>I was told that it has something to do with "histamines". 

The claim I heard is that it is something called `photic optic reflex',
and has something to do with the optic and nasal nerves `interfering',
so that the bright light is mistakenly interpreted by the brain as
nasal irritation.

It always makes me sneeze twice too.
-- 
In-Real-Life: Chris Torek, Univ of MD Comp Sci Dept (+1 301 454 7163)
Domain:	chris@mimsy.umd.edu	Path:	uunet!mimsy!chris

>>In article <6753@ames.arpa> howard@pioneer.UUCP (Lauri Howard) writes:
>>I would be interested to
>>hear any suggestions why sudden exposure makes you sneeze in the first place.

>I was told it's genetic.

I find it a little bit hard to believe that it's genetic. That would imply
that seeing the sun is the only stimulus, which in turn starts the "sneezing-
mechanism". I relate inhereted behaviour to cases (for example) like beeing
afraid or cautious when confronting a snake, even if you have never seen one
in your life and you're too young to have learned that snakes are supposed to
be dangerous.
	Of course, I could be wrong ! Then the reaction beeing inhereted 
would be a neat explanation. If it is genetic another interesting question
arises : what possibly could be the function of this reaction ?

PS. "Lauri" sounds like a Finnish name to me - perhaps you, your parents or
your grandparents origin from Finland ? Do you understand any Finnish ?
(answer via e-mail, please)

The only times I've noticed the sneezing reaction is when I am looking up into
a bright sky, usually towards the sun.  It is pretty clear to me that there is
a genetic basis to this reaction, and that its purpose is to keep you from
looking at light so bright that it could damage your retina.  The bit about the
sneezing occurring upon sudden exposure to bright light would be related to the
fact that your pupil has not yet adjusted to the intensity change.

>The only times I've noticed the sneezing reaction is when I am looking up into
>a bright sky, usually towards the sun.  It is pretty clear to me that there is
>a genetic basis to this reaction, and that its purpose is to keep you from
>looking at light so bright that it could damage your retina.  The bit about the
>sneezing occurring upon sudden exposure to bright light would be related to the
>fact that your pupil has not yet adjusted to the intensity change.

What better way to keep you from looking than to sneeze, since it is
impossible to sneeze with your eyes open.  :^)

Actually, I seems to me, that the sneeze is probably caused by some of
the chemical tranmitter from a nerve carrying an especially strong
signal leaking over to the nerves running to the nasal cavity.  I
wouldn't expect it to take much since it doesn't seem to take much of a
signal to cause a sneeze under normal conditions.  Don't lots of the
nerves from the face come close to the nerves of the nose where they
all enter the skull at a common point?  This would explain why some
people go into sneezing fits when they experience a sharp pain on the
face, such as a bee or jellyfish sting.  A friend of mine would hiccup
whenever he touched a certain spot on his jaw.

In article <27047@yale-celray.yale.UUCP> briscoe-duke@CS.YALE.EDU (Duke Briscoe) writes:
>The only times I've noticed the sneezing reaction is when I am looking up into
>a bright sky, usually towards the sun.  It is pretty clear to me that there is
>a genetic basis to this reaction, and that its purpose is to keep you from
>looking at light so bright that it could damage your retina.  The bit about the
>sneezing occurring upon sudden exposure to bright light would be related to the
>fact that your pupil has not yet adjusted to the intensity change.

This actually has to do with the stimulation of a nerve in the eye by
the bright light.  This nerve also passes through the nasal area.  The
stimulation then causes you to sneeze.

-- 
Joan Gargano * Univ. of Calif., Davis, Computing Services * (916) 752-2591
Internet   jcgargano@ucdavis.ucdavis.edu
BITNET     jcgargano@ucdavis
UUCP       {ucbvax, lll-crg, sdcsvax}!ucdavis!jcgargano

I have been told that the reason I (almost invariably) sneeze when I go out
into the sun is because I have descended from a frog. Actually, the eye
muscles that control the iris spasm and put pressure on the top of the
sinus cavities. This stimulates the sneeze response. I had it explained
to me as analogous to the way a frog swallows - you ever notice how their
eyes sink into their skulls to help push the food down? I was told that this
is a similar mechanism.

Who knows - maybe I was lied to?