I love sneezing. Odd. I know. But it's just such a release. You're getting whatever crap that was bugging your nose out of your system, and you just feel good afterwards. Unless it's one of those series of sneezes that doesn't end quite right and you feel like you need to sneeze just once more but can't. That sucks. It's interesting too. I went onto Wikipedia (love that "non-scholarly" site) to look up how to spell "gesundheit" because I can't spell in English, much less in German, and I kinda glanced over the whole article. It talks about all the superstition and whatnot about sneezes and of course why and how a sneeze happens. It also has this old video clip from Thomas Edison's lab of a guy sneezing. Oh, Wikipedia.
Anyway, what caught my eye is this thing on the Photic Sneeze Reflex. Yeah, that's what it's called. A photic sneeze is that type of sneeze that makes you state that you are allergic to the sun, because nearly every time you step out into a sunny day, you sneeze. These kinds of sneezes are supposedly caused by a kind of nerve glitch.
But the cool thing is that, back in my high school days, some friends and I were having one of our typical pointless discussions (similar to those found on this blog; see below for details), and this one happened to be on the subject of sneezing as well. Somebody mentioned they sneeze whenever they walk outside into the sunshine, and I, and some other people there, said that it happens to us too, while others said it didn't.
Now, I had been recently studying genetics in one of my classes, and so I came up with this theory that sun allergies run in the family. And so the investigation of sun-sneezers and parent/offspring began, only to end about two or three days later due to lack of serious interest.
But now, all because of a nice relaxing sneeze, Wikipedia, and my unfailing curiosity, I stumbled upon an article all about the photic sneeze reflex, which is indeed genetic. It is an "autosomal dominant hereditary trait" and 15%-35% of the human population have ACHOO Syndrome, as it is also called.
And so now I know that my theory was correct and my sneeze nerves are all glitchy. Sweet.
